8 Oct 2007, 3:39am
lingual
by marites
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us and not u

in tagalog there’s a difference between the pronouns tayo and kami: naglalakad tayo versus naglalakad kami. in english those sentences read identically: we are walking. tayo, though, is the inclusive we — i, him, her, you, we’re all walking; kami is exlusive — we are walking, but you [sneer], i’m sorry to say, are not. okay, that last part is embellished. it’s what i imagine a catty pinay would say, or an extra mean kuya.

i just wonder what spurred the creation of this separate pronoun, that we would need to build in exclusivity, or think twice about collectivity.