Calling people...

[Christian Perrier <bubulle at debian dot org>]

> Thanks a lot Nadim!
> Elzubeir, I would rather prefer you try it first and make sure it works 


This small exchange triggers me one question.

I have noticed that most of you use "Elzubeir" for "Mohammed Elzubeir"
while they use other's people first name (like for Nadim Shaikli above).

What is the common use among arabic-speaking people, or in
arabic-speaking countries, in such matters?

Am I in the situation of sounding too familiar with someone if calling
him/her by his/her first name rather than his/her family name?

In general, the free software world inherited uses from the so-called
western countries and especially USA, on these matters, with people
mostly calling themselves by using their surname.

In the business world, this seem to highly depend on cultures : US
people are very likely to use first names quickly, while the French
most often of "Mister <family name>".

However, depending on the culture, this may be less natural and I was
just wondering...I'm also quite curious of all such things, I must admit.

I have a similar question about the use of 2nd person when speaking to
someone : English always uses "you" which hides a "problem" several
other languages have:

-in French, when one is familiar with someone else, we use 2nd person
singular : "comment was-tu?" for "how do you do?"....and with
"unknown" or "respected" people, we use the plural form "comment
allez-vous?".

German has the same things : "Wie geht es dir?"/"Wie geht es Ihnen".

Same for Spanish, Italian and so on.

In free software development, we most of the time use "tu" and german
people use "du" and so on.

As you probably know, the English 2nd singular is used only in very
special situations (mostly in religion when addressing God and when
God talks to men : "Thou shall not kill").

How is all this handled in Arabic?