#nepali

Nepali, Chinese and Japanese are all spoken in cultures where politeness matters a lot, and something similar happened in them that shows this, but in the opposite ways. The Nepali word हजुर (hajur) (from Hindustani हुज़ूर /حضور (huzūr), “sir,” originally from Arabic via Persian) means different things in different contexts. It retains the original meaning, although it can mean both “sir” and “ma'am.” Moreover, it is also a polite way to say “yes” or “you.” The Japanese word 僕 (boku), meaning “servant,” is used informally by males (mostly boys) as a first-person pronoun (“I”). In Chinese too, 僕 (pú, the simplified form being 仆) means “servant” (僕人 / 仆人, púrén), and can be a polite or literary way for males to refer to themselves. So, in Nepali, a word for “sir/ma'am” also means “you,” and in Chinese and Japanese, a word for “servant” also means “I.”