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Example 59-67
mama, ala de ti lango ape?!
mama,
mother
ala
2pl
de
continue
ti
of
lango
sleep
ape?!
neg
Mother, haven't you fallen asleep yet?!
Comment:
Something like this is the correct meaning although
lo de ti lango
means 'he/she is still sleeping'.
Ala
is also used for both second and third persons singular (‘you’ and ‘he’ or ‘she’) in a respectful or deferential manner.
Type:
naturalistic spoken
Source:
Samarin corpus 1994
Language:
Sango
by
William J. Samarin
cite
Datapoints:
Politeness distinctions in second-person pronouns: Binary pronominal politeness distinction
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