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I've been reading some old text recently and I find that everybody seems to
use plain forms even in polite contexts (like proclamations from the Emperor).
When did the modern ます and です come from? I hear です is a new word coming from
the Meiji era standardizations as a compromise between だ, であります, and でございます,
but I'm not sure whether that is reliable. When did ます appear?

Also, I hear all 敬語 ultimately came from 関西弁. Does ます come there too? The 丁寧語
in the Kansai region seems to use 連用形 + まんねん though.
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2013-08-29T16:03:14.213
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2013-08-31T18:57:10.313
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question
etymology politeness history
When and where did 丁寧語 emerge?
If you mean "phrasing things politely toward listener(s) of higher rank than
the speaker", then it probably has always been a part of the language/culture.
I don't think there is any one specific grammatical structure, though (e.g.,
です, ます, でございます, etc.).

The word 丁寧 apparently comes from [a metal instrument used by the Chinese
military a long, long time ago](http://gogen-allguide.com/te/teinei.html).
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2013-08-30T02:33:27.207
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2013-08-30T02:33:27.207
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answer
Frellesvig [ _A history of the Japanese language_ ] does not say very much
about polite language, but here are some relevant bits:

> Politeness is a prominent feature of cNJ [= contemporary modern Japanese]
> where polite style is expressed by the auxiliary _-(i)mas-_ or the polite
> copula _des-_ , but as with exaltation, there are NJ [= modern Japanese]
> dialects which do not have polite style. The grammatical expression of
> polite style is a relatively late addition to the language: OJ [= Old
> Japanese] did not have it at all, and while there are incipient uses in EMJ
> [= early Middle Japanese], it was not thoroughly established until early LMJ
> [= late Middle Japanese]. [...]
>
> [...], in early LMJ, _paber-_ was in this function replaced by _sauraw-_ ,
> which in addition to being used as a suppletive polite equivalent of _ar-_
> came to be used as an auxiliary verb, that is, attaching to the infinitive
> of verbs to express polite style, e.g. _mi-saurawabaya_ ‘see-POL.OPT; if
> only I could see’, which is an early example from the _Heike monogatari_
> (early thirteenth century). This development made possible the expression of
> polite style with all predicate types and established politeness as a
> grammatical category in the language. _Sauraw-_ comes from early EMJ
> _saburap-_ which is said to be a changed from of OJ _samorap-_ ‘serve, be in
> attendance’, also reflected in the word _samurai_.
>
> During LMJ _-sauraw-_ was used as the general polite marker; it changed to
> _-sɔɔraw-_ by regular sound change, but also gave a number of other more
> reduced shapes with irregular inflected forms, such as _sɔɔ-_ which was both
> used on its own as the nonpast form and as a stem for attaching other
> morphemes: _sɔɔta_ past, _sɔɔnu_ negative. This divorced its polite-style
> marking function from its use as a lexical verb. Thus, _sɔɔrɔɔ_ and its
> different variants might best be understood as an auxiliary, rather than as
> an auxiliary verb, but it should be noted that they continued to function as
> polite variants of _ar-_ in all its functions, including combining with the
> copula gerund _de_ to form polite copula forms, e.g. _de sɔɔrɔɔ_ or _de
> sɔɔ_. The cNJ polite copula _des-_ is by some scholars thought to descent
> from _de sɔɔ_. [...]
>
> Finally, in the second half of LMJ, _-(i)sɔɔrɔɔ_ was replaced as the general
> marker of polite style by the auxiliary _-(i)marase-_ , which is the source
> of the present-day polite style auxiliary _-(i)mas-_ , e.g. from _Esopo_ :
> _i-marasuru_ exist-POL.NONPST ‘is’, _osie-marasyoozu_ teach-POL.INT ‘(I)
> will teach’. As opposed to the other polite style verbs and auxiliaries
> mentioned above, _-(i)marase-_ does not originate in a suppletive respectful
> or humble existential verb. Its OJ source is the humble verb _mawir-_
> ‘come.HUM, go.HUM’ (which itself is reconstructible as *maw + ir- ‘humble
> prefix + enter’), through lexicalization of the causative _mawira-se-_ to a
> suppletive humble verb _mairase-_ , which came to be used as a humble
> auxiliary verb _-mairase-_ , which in turn in late LMJ was further reduced
> phonologically and became an auxiliary _-(i)marase-_ which shifted from
> humble to polite, eventually being reduced even further to its present-day
> shape _-(i)mas-_ ; this is thought to have taken place early in NJ, but
> there are examples from LMJ which suggest that it may have happened already
> in late LMJ and that the two shapes _-(i)marase-_ and _-(i)mase-_ coexisted
> for some time during LMJ, but that the latter was only sporadically
> reflected in writing.
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2013-08-31T18:57:10.313
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2013-08-31T18:57:10.313
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answer