Use of "te" to address a single person

[sammy]

The use of "te" was very common in advertisements until (maybe) the sixties or so... this is from 1927 Note the lines "Joko Teillä on Fennia-Standard, maankuulu polkupyörä"...



You rarely see it in such use nowadays. But in spoken language, as others have stated, it's commonly used to show politeness. There's a related verb teititellä, and something called sinunkaupat which does not refer to "your shops"

[Upphew]

Rouva has the connotation of "old lady" to me

And neiti is for naimaton, in both senses.

[AldenG]

Rouva has the connotation of "old lady" to me

Yes, and...?

How did you think you look to a 21-year-old? I expect anyone old enough to have been their teacher in school (i.e. over 30) is old enough to be rouva. There are few shades of "grey" at that age.

[AldenG]

I wonder if she also wore high heels riding her Fennia-Standard. Because nothing says "I never have to hop off this thing in a hurry" like high heels.

[Rosamunda]

Slightly off topic but not entirely... one of my students recently told me that when she was at school learning English (she is probably about 40 yrs old) she was taught that you have to capitalise You when talking to someone "important" in English. So, I laughed and told her that the only person that important is God. But I pondered on it because the capitalised You is such a common error when Finns write in English. So common that I have been wondering if someone didn't publish a school text book in the 60s or the 70s that was actually teaching kids to do this...

[Keravalainen]

Hi!
It wasn't in English textbooks - I know for sure.
But in Finnish business correspondence it was usual to write "Te" and "Teidän" etc at that time.
- - I think this error was contaminated from there.

[Pursuivant]

Rouva has the connotation of "old lady" to me

And neiti is for naimaton, in both senses.

Onko neiti neiti, vai onko neiti naitu?

[sammy]

Hi!
It wasn't in English textbooks - I know for sure.
But in Finnish business correspondence it was usual to write "Te" and "Teidän" etc at that time.
- - I think this error was contaminated from there.

This could originally have been influenced by the German distinction between sie and Sie / ihr and Ihr... you can see this "polite" capital T also in the pogo stick ad.

I can't remember it from my schoolbooks either.

[Rob A.]

I'll remember to address you then ryökkynä
(ok, who of you is the first one to get that etymology)

Well...I can't say that I can figure it out...the ryök- part seems to have a negative connotation..."scoundrel, wretch", "robber", "garbage" etc. and the -kynä part?...an archaic word meaning "quill"...or maybe "pencil"... Hmmmmm???

But I did find this:

Ei niitä tarvitse tässä luetella! sanoi tuomari.

– ..ja pani tupakan, peilaili ja laitteli itseään kuin mikähän ryökkynä...

....from a novel/play..??..by Otto Tuomi... called Oikeudessa ..."In Court"

"These do not need to be itemized here, said the judge.
....and placed the tobacco, watched and placed himself as if that ryökkynä...."...whatever the word actually means..."wench"????...

That's the best I can do....my translation is kind of literal and I've missed the nuances.... but it's probably somewhat close....

[Edit: Well, it has suddenly "clicked"....but I had to be prompted...

Earlier during my Google searches I came across the Norwegian word, frøken in association with ryökkynä, but I didn't see the connection...Ryökkynä is just another word for, "miss", coming from the Swedish, fröken ...and obviously related to the German, Fräulein... It's a Fennicized word with the consonant cluster dropped and a Finnish ending added....it must be a rather old word.... ]

[Pursuivant]

...though I think its a far newer word than herra or kuningas... the word sounds like Savo country hicks been to town and heard Swedish. Then they come home from the market and act like tirehtööri