formal 2nd person pronoun (Spanish)

Like many languages (but unlike Greek or Hebrew or English), Spanish uses a formal vs. informal 2nd person pronoun (a familiar vs. a respectful “you”). Spanish Bibles all use only the informal 2nd person pronoun (tú), with the exception of Dios Habla Hoy (DHH) (third edition: 1996) which also uses the formal pronoun (usted). In the referenced verses, the formal form is used.

Sources and for more information: P. Ellingworth in The Bible Translator 2002, p. 143ff. and R. Ross in The Bible Translator 1993, p. 217ff.

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brothers

“Brothers” has to be translated into Naro as “younger brothers and older brothers” (Tsáá qõea xu hẽé / naka tsáá kíí). All brothers are included this way, also because of the kind of plural that has been used.

This also must be more clearly defined in Yucateco as older or younger (“suku´un” or “Iits´in”), but here there are both older and younger brothers. Yucateco does have a more general word for close relative, family member.

While in Chinese there is also a differentiation between younger and older brother (“didi 弟弟” vs. “gege 哥哥”), the term “dixiong 弟兄” or “xiongdi 兄弟,” while originally also meaning “younger brother,” is also used as the unspecific plural form for “brothers” in these cases.

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