Posted by: rethink July 6, 2012
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By design, our Nepali language is discriminatory. One can make many different excuses on how it is a cultural thing but when you look at the separation and the different forms of 'you', it is pretty evident that the language itself is discriminatory.
तँ, तिमि, तपाईं, हजुर
Right from the start of addressing, a speaker has to discriminate for or against the person who is spoken to. Just because someone is not dressed well, just because someone seems to be from a lesser caste, just because someone looks unassuming, they can get discriminated against by the use of तँ.
On the other hand, royalties started the use of superlative pronouns for themselves as in हजुर , गरिबक्स्यो, etc. giving rise to चाप्लुसी and ass kissing language instead of using mere तपाईं to denote respect.
In some ways, the use of तँ and तिमि may be fine for people who know each other well enough, but the use of तपाईं and हजुर brings in a huge separation of class and in my opinion brings in a huge disparity and self imposed importance on the ruling class.
I know some of you may have grown up using the superlatives of hajur and garibaksyo, and I am not trying to offend you. I am simply observing the redundancy and the room for social disparity because of such usage. For people who use the hajur language, I am confused if they ever use तपाईं. What if someone starts to use तपाईं, do you change from हजुर to तपाईं? I am not trying to ridicule your language just trying to understand the intricacies.
तँ, तिमि, तपाईं, हजुर
Right from the start of addressing, a speaker has to discriminate for or against the person who is spoken to. Just because someone is not dressed well, just because someone seems to be from a lesser caste, just because someone looks unassuming, they can get discriminated against by the use of तँ.
On the other hand, royalties started the use of superlative pronouns for themselves as in हजुर , गरिबक्स्यो, etc. giving rise to चाप्लुसी and ass kissing language instead of using mere तपाईं to denote respect.
In some ways, the use of तँ and तिमि may be fine for people who know each other well enough, but the use of तपाईं and हजुर brings in a huge separation of class and in my opinion brings in a huge disparity and self imposed importance on the ruling class.
I know some of you may have grown up using the superlatives of hajur and garibaksyo, and I am not trying to offend you. I am simply observing the redundancy and the room for social disparity because of such usage. For people who use the hajur language, I am confused if they ever use तपाईं. What if someone starts to use तपाईं, do you change from हजुर to तपाईं? I am not trying to ridicule your language just trying to understand the intricacies.