Korean honorific confusion here within MysMes 😅😅😅
I understand all of the names and add-ons the characters call us and themselves, but this was what I was confused by
...
Zen, Yoosung and Saeyoung usually add an 'i' (ee) to eachother's names when referring to eachother, and that's because it's a sign of affection or closeness
And they also are able to do that because their names end in consonants (eg something ending ah or oo or ee already couldn't just get ee stuck on the end because it wouldn't sound right...right?)
Well, I was confused because there's...Saeran.
...nobody calls him 'Saeran-ee'...?
I think they call him 'Saeran-ah' instead.
...huh...? 😅😅🤣
이 - 'ee'. This ending is not used in direct address, but when speaking about a third party, and it implies a certain level of familiarity or affection for the person in question.
아/ 야 - 'ah/yah'. The 'ah' ending follows a name that ends in a consonant, and the 'yah' ending follows a name that ends in a vowel. You use this with people you are familiar with and who are the same age-group as yourself or younger, or if you are just so superior to the other person in the hierarchy that you can speak to them this way.
V refers to Saeran specifically as Saeran-ah, since that's the most often you've probably heard that in use! That's used specifically in reference to age in this case. Saeran is one of the youngest characters. So, you're going to see people speaking to him and about him as a younger person.
Whereas the (ee) is used when you're talking in reference to someone you're close to, like a friend! In this case is Saeyoung about Yoosung or Zen, vice versa.
@ anon, I believe there are a couple of times where Saeyoung calls him Saeran-ie instead of Saeran-ah (I heard it at least once in VAE, I think when he's talking to Jumin about Saeran), tho for the most part he does stick to the latter (skimming through some calls and story modes, it's Saeran-ah when talking to him and Saeran-ie when talking about him. You learn something new every day! Thanks Kait. V and Rika do so as well). Yoosung also uses Saeran-ie (+ hyung) in RAE, even when speaking directly to him, since he's younger than Saeran.
Got curious about the others so I did a little messing around with the language settings and google (take with a BIG grain of salt and anyone who actually speaks Korean feel free to correct me), at least for the opening scene of RAE since I figured that would be the easiest to find how the rest of the RFA directly addresses Saeran. With the exception of Yoosung, they don't add an "ie" or "ah", just honorifics sometimes (Zen, for example, uses "동생/dongsaeng" which from what I found means "little sibling" the same way oppa/hyung means "older brother").
I need to share Jumin's because even if this one's a little shakey, it's hilarious (if someone wants to clear this one up please do bc I'm not 100% sure what's going on here).
So switching to the Korean text, Jumin addresses Saeran as "세란 군도" (Saeran gundo or goondo). From what I found on Google, "군도" translates to archipelago or island? BUT "군" (gun/goon) on its own is an honorific, which is used,
"Formal but accidentally condescending" sums up Jumin pretty well, and the facts that this is specifically used for unmarried men makes Saeran's honeymoon comment a minute later even funnier
