Lesson 8: Being polite, and everyday phrases§
- upe hello ("good"), upe leso good morning, upe isi goodbye ("go well")
- lota thanks, sepi sorry
- mm "I heard you", huh? "say again"
nun makes anything polite. It goes right after the particle, as in so nun, tin nun and yo nun, or first in a plain statement or greeting, as in nun upe leso. A full request looks like so nun neke to osa. "Could you please give me water?" For more politeness, add more: nun nun.
There's no polite form of "you". me is "you" to anyone, boss or child, and respect comes from lanno, titles and nun. In an emergency (yo yo) nobody expects nun.
To call someone, put their name or title first, with a comma, to get their attention, or put it last to soften what you say: en mara, tin obu. / tin obu, en mara. "Mara, come."
Titles go before the name with no comma, and they work when you're talking about someone too: no tofo en mara "Teacher Mara", no tofo en mara sin oyi "Teacher Mara said".
lanno is the polite title for anyone, like Mr or Ms, or sir or madam: lanno en olusegun, or just lanno, … when you address someone. It can also go before a role or kin word to add respect: lanno faba pi wede "Uncle" or "Aunt" (father's sibling). When it's clear who you mean, it works alone when you talk about someone: lanno sin oyi "the honoured one said" (for a boss, say). lanno shows respect for the person named, and it never means "you".
There's no "Mara, my teacher," construction. To describe someone, put a title before the name (no tofo en mara), use a man clause, or say it in a new sentence.
A tone word can go at the end of a sentence, after a comma. a is "you know", buni is a friendly "okay?" that isn't a real question, donon is "it turned out", and min checks, like "…, right?": so pen isi, buni. "Let's go, okay?" If two come together, min goes last. For "wasn't it?" when you half remember something, you can say kon ka wan sin oyi bu, min. "She said it, didn't she?" (kon ka "maybe", lesson 13)
Being polite never means hinting. English softens a warning into "might want to check the stove". Here you say yo nun (warning, politely) and then the problem: yo nun osa le obu. fon nun pen wupi isi. "(Warning, politely) the water is coming. (Advice, politely) we need to go."