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Is Korean the only language with "complete" levels of politeness/formality?
There's at least three major forms of speaking in Korean based on social hierarchy and familiarity:
-ㅂ니다
-아/어/여요
-아/어/여
Do you know of any other language that does this? I know some languages use honorific words, but they don't speak comprehensively in an elevated or humble or casual forms as in Korean. Does any other language conjugate verbs according to politeness levels?
For example, here are some honorific phrases, but the entire language style is not changed, I think, when speaking further.
English: Hi Sam! Hello Mr. Johnson.
German: Wie geht's du? Wie geht es Ihnen?
Spanish: Como estas? Como esta Usted?
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التعليقات · 2
2
It is said that Javanese(not Japanese) has 3 levels
1. Ngoko is informal speech, used between friends and close relatives. It is also used by persons of higher status to persons of lower status, such as elders to younger people or bosses to subordinates.
2. Madya is the intermediary form between ngoko and krama. An example of the context where one would use madya is an interaction between strangers on the street, where one wants to be neither too formal nor too informal.
3. Krama is the polite and formal style. It is used between persons of the same status who do not wish to be informal. It is also the official style for public speeches, announcements, etc. It is also used by persons of lower status to persons of higher status, such as youngsters to elder people or subordinates to bosses.
Also, there are three levels of politeness in Japanese
1. 普通体 futsūtai : informal
2. 敬体 keitai : polite
3. 敬語 keigo : formal
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I think Japanese has a pretty distinct structure of formality too, so it's not just Korean.
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