Cautious_Ad8025 t1_itjugc5 wrote on October 24, 2022 at 4:18 AM

Reply to comment by Emily_Ge in The way people speak in The Count of Monte Cristo. Can someone explain? by foxdna

So you everyone just uses the informal and it’s cool, but you personally find this very offensive?

mongreldogchild t1_itklxkw wrote on October 24, 2022 at 10:24 AM

Not really a crazy take. I have had three friends who are Spanish speakers, for instance, who found formal language directed at them disrespectful because it's like "I don't know you". There's a certain "distance" that can be read as disrespect or insult, there.

I'm not sure, because I don't speak the languages the other replier knows about, but the "distance" they are talking about could be that the informal version has a dehumanizing context like calling someone else "it" instead of "they/he/she". Languages evolve, so as these languages evolve there's going to be a wide range of discourse on it.