from Hacker News

Colombia's Special Word for "You"

by elijahparker on 3/2/24, 11:34 PM with 33 comments

  • by savq on 3/3/24, 2:17 AM

    (Person that actually uses sumercé here.)

    The article is reading way too much into it, and it forgets a very important piece of information: The origin of usted is "vuestra merced". Spanish had T-V distinction, like most romance languages, but usted superceded vos as the formal 2nd person pronoun.

    sumercé is a word that had the same process, just starting from "su merced" instead, since in Colombia —like in all other latin american countries— vosotros is not used.

    That's it.

  • by Gualdrapo on 3/3/24, 12:32 AM

    Not all of Colombia uses that word - it's more of a thing of an specific region. My parents were born there, but as they were brought to Bogotá in an early age, they barely use it. Though I use it more than them as I feel it conveys more sincerity than the "official" ones (tú, usted).

    Weirdly enough, some colombians seem to despise this word or look down on us who use it.

  • by narag on 3/3/24, 2:01 AM

    So I'll add another fading oddity from my own hometown in the south of Spain. We use ustedes (short of very archaic "vuestras mercedes" BTW) instead of vosotros.

    That would seem not so odd, being ustedes the plural form of formal "you" usted, if not because ustedes should match "they" in verbal forms, while in fact it match plural "you". So no "ustedes saben" but "ustedes sabéis".

    Even usted/ustedes is fading away, TV is so powerful. But I still hear that when back there for holidays.

  • by guessmyname on 3/3/24, 1:28 AM

    AFAIK, only old people say that, and only in the region of Cundinamarca (Bogotá).

    That is a very-very small number of people to write such an article, haha.

  • by daquisu on 3/3/24, 12:56 AM

  • by subpixel on 3/3/24, 2:09 AM

    I sent this to my Colombian in-laws and it has started an argument between them about whether it actually means “your mercy” at all.

  • by woliveirajr on 3/3/24, 2:36 AM

    In Brazil: vossa merce -> vosmecê -> você (you).

  • by 4gotunameagain on 3/3/24, 6:32 AM

    > We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

    > Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

    Should be illegal