There was an interesting discussion this morning on Radio Cymru about the use of pronouns in Welsh. Like in many languages, there are different forms of the second person pronoun in Welsh:
– ti [tiː] = you singular and informal
– chi [χiː] = you plural, and formal you singular and plural
– chdi [χdiː] = northern dialect variant of ti
– chwi [χwiː] = literary alternative to chi
There are also emphatic forms of these pronouns: tithau, chithau, chwithau and chdithau, though they are less commonly used.
Chi, chdi and chwi come from the Middle Welsh chwi, from the Proto-Celtic *swīs, from the Proto-Indo-European *wos (you plural) [source]. Ti comes from the Proto-Celtic *tū, from the Proto-Indo-European *túh₂ (you singular) [source].
So ti is the equivalent of tu in French, Du in German, tú in Spanish, thu in Scottish Gaelic, and so on, and chi is the equivalent of vous, Sie, Usted and sibh in those languages.
The discussion on the radio was about when people use the formal chi and when they use the informal ti – some people said they used chi only with older strangers. Others said that their parents used chi which each other, but that they used ti with their parents. Some people complained about the increasing used of ti, even with older people.
While you don’t have to worry about which you to use in English as there’s only one, you might not be sure whether to use someone’s first name, or title plus surname, or even just their surname when addressing them. I get round this by generally avoiding using people’s names, which is also handy if I can’t quite remember their names.
Is the use of informal and formal modes of address changing where you are?
Just speaking anecdotally, I can say there’s been a growing shift in pronoun use within the family from my parents’ generation of Bengali speakers to mine. Background: in Bengali, there are three levels of formality/honorificity in second person pronouns, তুই tui, তুমি tumi, and আপনি apni in increasing formality/honorificity (and their plural forms তোরা tora, তোমরা tomra, and আপনারা apnara).
My father’s brothers (all older than him) used apni with both their parents and tumi with him. My father, being the youngest, was allowed to call his mother tumi, but still used apni with his father as well as with his older brothers. He refers to me and my mother with tumi. My mother also used apni with her oldest brother (and addressed him as bhai shaheb ‘brother sir’), but tumi with everyone else, including my father and me. So, apni for their generation could still be reserved for fathers and elder brothers, even when that relation was “close”.
My sister and I use tumi with each other and our parents, and could not imagine using apni for our father or for my sister to use with me (her elder brother). We do still have a gendered use of apni in the sense that we would only use it with my mother’s eldest brother, but not any of her other brothers or sisters, and we consistently use apni for all my father’s brothers. Of course, we also use apni with anyone married into the family, e.g. spouses of my parents’ siblings.
Another shift that is probably related to the fact that my sister and I grew up in the US is that we have practically no use of the pronoun তুই tui. We are called tui by our aunts, uncles, and older cousins, but only on occasion as it has a particularly intimate quality (as it has the least formality/honorificity). The other place where it is commonly used in Bengali culture is with “social inferiors”, a term and institution I despise, but must acknowledge the existence of. I hear tui used all the time by middle class people towards rickshaw pullers, panhandlers, domestic help, etc., regardless of age, gender, or level of actual familiarity. I find it deplorable, and I refuse to refer to anyone in this category as tui, but I know its use is rampant.