• Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyz
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    8 hours ago

    Problem with honorifics is that you’d need to borrow the whole system, not just one or two suffixes. Otherwise it wouldn’t make sense, as those suffixes are only meaningful in contrast with each other.

    You could theoretically borrow “San” and use it in the same position as Mr./Ms. But following this logic might as well go just with “M.”, as another comment mentioned — at least when writing it’s enough, and when speaking in person you can simply ask.

    (Some might even say “use my name, no honorific”. I’ve seen plenty people in Portuguese doing it, but for religious reasons.)

    • sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      7 hours ago

      I totally follow what you mean, but part of me wants to reiterate bastardize.

      The English language has certainly taken words from other languages and just… bent them totally beyond their original meaning/usage, to the point of breaking.

      But another part of me simultaneously cringes at just, doing that intentionally.

      sigh

      • Lvxferre [he/him]@mander.xyz
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        4 hours ago

        I get what you mean by “bastardisation”. In this case it would be like in my 2nd paragraph: borrow “san” and shoehorn it into the same honorific system English “mister” and “miss” already use, disregarding the one used by Japanese.

        But another part of me simultaneously cringes at just, doing that intentionally.

        Ah, daijobu. A bit of weebness is omoshiroi.