4 ms·
>Overall, using "du" is acceptable in 90% of social interactions. It's only when talking to people in higher positions or as a courtesy to elderly / unfamiliar
by verylittlemeat 6y ago
>Overall, using "du" is acceptable in 90% of social interactions. It's only when talking to people in higher positions or as a courtesy to elderly / unfamiliar people.
That is pretty much exactly how nigga is used.
- unethical_ban 6y agoI don't think there is a mapping to this in English. I've studied some Spanish and German - You learn about the various verb and pronoun forms based on informal and formal "you". This is a part of the core language, the spec, so to speak. In English, there is no spec for different levels of formality. There is no universally documented way to being less courteous to bosses and policemen. Saying "sup dude" or "how's it going" is part of the American standard library, not the language. And to your point directly, "nigga" is incredibly informal and casual, and would never be something anyone (much less a non-native speaker) should ever use unless they know what they are doing. And usually, they should be black, too.
- verylittlemeat 6y agoWell it just so happens I am black and I've been using the word most of my life. Nigga is just "bro" or "dude" but exclusively used among black/minority communities. I realize the word nigga is A Big Deal for white people but really in our community it is used as casually as the word "like" in any given sentence. Interestingly I have even used it with black bosses before in a joking casual way.
- frenchy 6y agoIf you're black, you're probalby speaking a particular vernacular that's at least slightly different from standard American english.
- oh_sigh 6y agoYou're ignoring the fact that a non-negligible percentage of black people don't want to be called any version of "nigga" by anybody, including other black people. The same is not even remotely true of bro or dude
- verylittlemeat 6y agoYou could say that for any informal familiar expression that makes the recipient bristle. It's so common people joke about it "don't call me dude, bro | don't call me bro, pal" etc etc
- oh_sigh 6y agoNo, you couldn't.
- verylittlemeat 6y agoAs a black person among black people? Can, have and will continue to.
- oh_sigh 6y agoOk, cool. Good luck with that
- diehunde 6y agoWhen I was learning German I read somewhere that English used to have different forms for "you" just like German. Which wouldn't be weird since the languages are closely related.
- acjacobson 6y agoYes, in English we fully adopted the formal which is "You" for both formal / informal speech. The familiar / informal was "Thou" - which is a bit weird because now we think of "Thou" as being a bit formal because it is so old-fashioned.