In Dusun, there are a few levels of politeness. If you are younger, you are definitely expected to be polite to anyone older than you (as of many Asian societies). You are also expected to be polite to outsiders, and people you seldom meet. And of course, you are also expected to be polite to strangers, unless if the stranger is rude to you. Parents are not expected to be polite to their children. This aspect sometimes causes confusion to little kids. They'd start asking "why am I expected to say 'please' and 'thank you' when my parents don't do that?" So modern parents normally put aside this aspect of culture and teach their children by example...
Politeness is mostly expressed in speech, like command or request. There are a few words that you can use to indicate politeness such as 'po', 'gia/gima', 'da', and 'ka'. For example:
Po
1. Ongoi po akan aki
go polite eat grandfather
Please go eat, grandfather.
Gia/gima (used in different dialects)
2. Onuo gia doho lo/onuo gima dogo lo
get polite I that
Please get that for me
Da
3. Kada da kotiil
don't polite be.naughty
Please don't be naughty
Ka
4. Hiti ko po ka
here you polite
Stay here first, ok?
It takes some time to master this aspect of the Dusun language. But with practice, it is ok :)
4 comments:
'kada da kotiil, monompiling oku moti ndo talaid do aa kopio mokinongou'..politeness with fierceness at the same time kangku daa?haha
haha...in the politeness continuum, there's very polite to threatening mangkali. Ini mcm threatening ni :-)Interesting kan...
Alamak! how to pronounce all that...I guess I have no talent in language...later salah pronounce then jadi lain pulak
LOL smallkucing- the pronunciation is supposed to be easier than Chinese or Korean but still a bit harder than Malay. One of these days I'll upload a Dusun song to the blog so you can hear the pronunciation...
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