Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns
Nouns and pronouns · one world map for each value
WALS codes 207 languages for this feature. The most frequent value, “Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction”, covers 136 of them (66%); the least frequent, “Pronouns avoided for politeness”, covers 7.
That value is most frequent in South America (94% of the 17 languages coded there) and least frequent in Eurasia (30% of 70).
All 10 Afro-Asiatic languages coded have “Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction”.
Austronesian is the most divided, its largest group reaching only 12 of 21.
Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction136 languages · 66%
Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction49 languages · 24%
Second person pronouns encode multiple politeness distinctions15 languages · 7%
Pronouns avoided for politeness7 languages · 3%
One map per value; each dot is a language WALS codes with that value.
By macro-area
| Value | Africa | Eurasia | Papunesia | Australia | North America | South America |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction | 34 | 21 | 27 | 12 | 26 | 16 |
| Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction | 6 | 32 | 7 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Second person pronouns encode multiple politeness distinctions | 0 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Pronouns avoided for politeness | 0 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| All values | 40 | 70 | 38 | 12 | 30 | 17 |
Inside the largest families
| Family | Coded | Most frequent value | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| Indo-European | 36 | Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction | 64% |
| Austronesian | 21 | Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction | 57% |
| Niger-Congo | 15 | Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction | 73% |
| Afro-Asiatic | 10 | Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction | 100% |
| Sino-Tibetan | 8 | Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction | 62% |
Languages to explore
The most fully coded languages with each value.
- Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction: English, Lezgian, Amele, Evenki, Hausa, Malagasy
- Second person pronouns encode a binary politeness distinction: French, Russian, Finnish, Spanish, Turkish, Mandarin
- Second person pronouns encode multiple politeness distinctions: Hungarian, Tagalog, Kannada, Hindi, Tukang Besi, Nahuatl (Tetelcingo)
- Pronouns avoided for politeness: Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Thai, Burmese