Re: Calling people...

[Arafat Medini <lumina at silverpen dot de>]

Reminds of immigrants here who also use the "tu" instead of "vous" but
in germany it is "du" instead of "Sie"...

Arafat

Am Donnerstag, den 02.12.2004, 12:04 +0100 schrieb Christian Perrier:
> > As for tu/vous, Arabs always use you which is equivalent to tu, so we
> > won't have an equivalent to 'comment allez-vous' except to plural.
> > In some cases, I think mainly for kings and the like, the plural you is
> > used in expressions like 'your honour', 'you excellency', etc..
> > Even these expressions are used as singular in most of the cases.
> > I think usage of 'vous' equivalent is discouraged by the islamic
> > culture..
> 
> Indeed, after thinking, I should have known this. As you know we have
> lot of immigrants from Maghreb countries in France and, well, we have
> some kind of historical links with Northern Africa (several would say
> "colonial links", of course). And I have always noticed that people
> originating from these countries (especially those born in
> Algeria/mMorocco/Tunisia) always use "tu" when speaking
> french....which, by the way, makes the conversation very
> friendly...:-)
> 
> 
> 
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