Class 45, Malayalam Script Edition. Business and formal Malayalam — the working vocabulary in five blocks, in script. MALAYALAM'S FOUR-STEP LADDER FOR "YOU" നീ (nee) — familiar. Used downward or with intimates. As a learner, avoid it. നിങ്ങൾ (ningal) — respectful. Your safe everyday form. താങ്കൾ (thaankal) — formal and elevated. Writing, speeches, careful professional speech. അങ്ങ് (angu) — the highest. Elders of standing, persons of great respect, formal correspondence. WHERE THAT SITS IN THE WORLD Pronoun ladders are among the best-studied things in sociolinguistics. French has two, tu and vous. German has two, du and Sie. Spanish has two. Russian has two. Brown and Gilman's famous paper on the pronouns of power and solidarity showed these systems everywhere encode two things at once — relative status AND relative closeness. Whether you move up or down the ladder tells the listener both how much you respect them and how near you consider yourself. Malayalam has four levels where Europe has two. Japanese and Javanese have more elaborate systems still. **And English has one.** English collapsed thou and you into a single word about four hundred years ago and has been improvising with names, titles and tone of voice ever since. So a Malayali choosing a pronoun is doing a piece of social calculation that English simply does not require. Which is why you should stay HIGH on the ladder: you cannot do the calculation yet, and being slightly too respectful costs nothing. THE COURTESY VOCABULARY ബഹുമാനപ്പെട്ട (bahumaanappetta) respected · ദയവായി (dayavaayi) kindly — recognise it on signs, do not use it in conversation · ക്ഷമിക്കണം (kshamikkanam) I beg your pardon · അനുവാദം (anuvaadam) permission · സഹകരണം (sahakaranam) cooperation · അഭ്യർത്ഥന (abhyarthana) an earnest request, stronger than ordinary asking. And the closings: നന്ദിയോടെ (nandiyode) with thanks · വിശ്വസ്തതയോടെ (vishwasthathayode) yours faithfully · സാദരം (saadaram) respectfully. Taught by Dr. Reshmi R Nair.