Why Ai'Hia was so funny in Cutie Pie
in response to @isisanna-blog’s question which tumblr doesn’t want answered directly.
Can you explain the significance of the ‘Ai’ Hia’ in this weeks Cutie Pie please? I realised something linguistically important happened but didn’t know what!
(Okay a reminder Thai is a language that exists in registers: high, low, frozen. And that it requires the use of honorifics (particles & pronouns) between ages: polite, formal (not the same thing). So something can be said formal but not polite, both, or neither. BL relationships exist within these different registers and levels of formality. Like most languages Thai is ever evolving and flexible with very few hard and fixed rules.)
Ready?
Hia honorific & pronoun
Hia functions the same as phi but is used only by those with Chinese ancestry and is basically older brother (phi = older sibling, no gender) and is slightly more household intimate than phi (more strongly associated with actual brother/cousin/family member).
Like hyung/oppa there is no direct translation but hia is applied to older males by a younger person (any gender). It is used by the younger person to address the older male both directly, Hia Lian, and as a pronoun (you), hia, and also by the older person to refer to themself (I pronoun) when in conversation with someone younger. So grammatically it behaves like phi.
In UWMA Team calls Win hia (and leaves off the P'Win most of the time - cheeky boy), but he uses phi and P'Dean for Dean. (It’s a bit different in Between Us.) In Bad Buddy Pat’s sister uses hia with him.
It’s rare to hear hia used IRL on the actor circuit. But New uses it with Zee (Cutie Pie) on and off set, which is interesting. They have a soft but strict older/younger dynamic (Zee is almost a decade older). And Zee has been through the wringer with a pair before so there’s a lot of subtext going on here. You can watch them (and hia) in action here.
In Cutie Pie both couples use hia as both pronoun and formal address: Hia Lian & Hia Yi.
The formal address use of Hia is rare.
I've never heard it before in a BL until Cutie Pie. So hia is used for I & you, while Hia Lian is used for formality's sake and in third person referencing. This is a *tiny* bit like how mister used to function in old English, as in: Mr Lian for formal address, mister as direct address. These days, it's a little more like master in the kink circuit.
There's an inherent strictness to the formal application of Hia Lian partly because it is so unusual. It indicates a different kind of relationship than just P'Lian would in other BLs - both more intimate and more structured.
The lost Ai
Ai’+ name is technically supposed to be used between age mates but it is usually dropped in BL and on the interview circuit. It can and is applied in cases where social formality is required - meeting a stranger’s kids who are the same age or something like that.
But in BL it ALSO will be applied with a long drawn out tone when insult is required between close friends. Ae and Pond do it a lot in Love By Chance. In which case Ai’+name is a little like an affectionate “my asshole friend here.” The opposite is also true, Ai can be softened and applied for affection.
Fiat uses Ai’Leeooo with Leo all the time in Don’t Say No. It’s a kind of bratty affection coming from him. Leo, on the other hand, only uses Ai’Fiat when he is annoyed af with his boy. (Remember these two are the same age.)
Ai+name, as a result, almost always implies a downgrade (formality wise) it's used as a sarcastic contrast (rude informal) to what it once was in older versions of the language (formal).
Ai'Hia
Right, so basically, Kuea called Lian his "asshole master" or something roughly equivalent to that in this scene in Episode 5.
There's extreme contrast in this (contrast = surprise = humor). He contrasted not just an extremely formal type of address, Hia, with an informal one, Ai, but he combined two pronouns that also function as honorifics, but in a highly dishonorable way: Mister Jerkface. Which is a secondary contrast of rude vs polite. That’s double down funny.
He did all of this while ALSO dropping to low register, so all his other particles and pronouns became informal (or entirely absent). This is how you would talk to a peer/friend. I talk about Duen being the biggest linguistic brat in BL (My Engineer) - this is what he does.
It's a really bratty and insulting thing to do to anyone older, let alone the older man who is courting you. Because it’s kind of like, linguistically, pulling the older boy down to your level.
Kuea is doing this out of frustration, but it gave Lian insight into how bratty (naughty) Kuea actually could be. (Which I think we all know Lian likes and wants.) But also how, when emotional, Kuea actually *thinks* of Lian more informally, more like lovers. That Kuea would perhaps like to be more relaxed around Lian. That all along Kuea has been performing his high register "good boy" behavior in an effort to both please Lian and be more of the perfect doll he thinks Lian wants.
Kuea’s slip up into informality, but especially using Ai'Hia, was the crack in his armor that Lian has been looking for all along.
It was hope.
It was also absolutely hilarious.
(source)
