Thursday, September 13, 2018

politeness - Why doesn't the English language have distinct words to use when talking to elders?

In many of the languages that I've studied there are separate distinctions in the words to use when talking to elders and when talking to someone of your age or younger.



For e.g. in Hindi, if I wanted to ask you to do something, I would say:



To an elder:




kya Aap ye karoge ?





To someone my age or younger :




kya Tu ye karega ?




If I try to translate this to English, it merely comes to "Will you do it?". There is no consideration for elders or so I think. The closest I can think is when I try to say it comically, like that Indian guy from any of the sitcoms (think Apu from The Simpsons), " I respectfully ask you to do it ". So why is it so ??







Note: The original title of the question was "Why is the English language so rude?"

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