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The address forms, ÇýºÔ«¶Õ, annaacci, ÇýºÔ annaa `elder brother'; (Ç)¡´Ô
akkaa, and »£½Õ tambi are essentially
kinship terms: elder brother, elder sister, younger brother,
respectively. When used with non-kin, they combine politeness and
familiarity, for example, when exaggerated politeness (õ´
-ngka), etc. would be inappropriate because of age similarities (as with
ÇýºÔ annaa and Ç¡´Ô akkaa, or when a low status
older speaker addresses a higher status younger speaker (»£½Õ
tambi). In the play öÕµÕª Ý,Schiffman 1971: Reader for
Advanced Spoken Tamil, Part I: Radio Plays. the `tea-master] Sundaram
addresses the robbers with ÇýºÔ«¶Õ for `solidarity with politeness' while
in the play Èì ¾ºÕ¡Þª, the various delivery men address ´ýº¨
Kannan with »£½Õ tambi because they are older but of lower
social status.
Vasu Renganathan
Sat Nov 2 21:16:08 EST 1996