anon · 1y
this is gonna be a long message because of the context, I'm sorry. I'm learning korean and I think it was last year that one fandom was fighting over ships and terms of endearment and one acc claiming to be korean (I'm gonna explain why the "claiming") posted some misinformation about particles to "debunk" a ship they didn't like, very childish stuff but it wasn't true at all, it was misinformation and people believed and the tweet went viral. I said "claiming" because it was a statement to prove a false point "Koreans don't use 이 in the end of names and some honorifics to be affectionate, I'm Korean believe me" and a lot of korean people were replying to them in Korean saying they were lying and that person ignored everyone, I assume because they don't actually speak Korean and probably aren't Korean too because there was more misinformation that it's not important to what I'm gonna ask you. another thing they claimed was that "hyung-ie" doesn't exist, it's not a term of endearment, and we know that "hyung-ah" is a cute way of calling your "hyung" but I do hear some people calling "hyung-ie" to be cute once in a while and not as a particle, and I know 이 particle is so hard that even Koreans write doctorate papers on its use, so I'm really conflicted because I hear people saying "hyung-ie" but it's not as common as "hyung-ah"? I have 3 examples of "hyung-ie" that I saved when I remembered this fact and that I don't see how it's the particle and not then being cute:
https://youtube.com/shorts/S-nwuaq82K0?feature=share
https://youtube.com/shorts/hI3qhKxfLn0?feature=share
https://twitter.com/smolsungies/status/1688590821069832192?t=GVobJS-PYmvArvCQFJF4Wg&s=19
I don't have any friends that are advanced in Korean to talk to and discuss about this and I'm learning by myself, so I thought I'd ask you since you also research a lot and is fluent. I'm sorry if it's a weird question or not your point in opening this ask, I just don't have anyone to discuss this and I trust your translations. thank you in advance. <3
before i start answering, i did receive your clarifying question and i'm taking it into account~ but i think you were already clear so i'll just answer this here.
the answer is not clear cut, so i will start general and narrow specific: the -ie suffix is used out of fondness sometimes, it is not always a particle. people who try to use the particle as a reason to dismiss fondness between two people are not at all people that should speak with authority on the subject in my opinion.
i think in the peniel example, it is out of affection when they call out to him using hyung-ie. it's a way of being affectionate since 'hyung-ah' is very very babyish. not that i can be sure of anything, but i read it that way too.
in the han relaying the story about lee know short, i think it's a mix of fondness and force of habit. when referring to lee know like this (talking about him when he isn't there, in the third person) you need to use the ~ie particle a lot in your sentences, so i think it was just reflexive here rather than necessarily an innate fondness thing! though obviously han is very fond of lee know.
for the last one... i'm not the best person to explain this, because i don't study language for a living and can only speak from my experiences, but the more you listen to korean and learn it, there are times where, navigating by feel and instinct, a one-syllable (or one character) word needs a second syllable for the sentence to flow smoothly or to sound nicer. "uri hyung-ie" just sounds way nicer than "uri hyung" which feels very clipped when you say it aloud? so yeah, i think that one can also be attributed to more of a flow of sentence thing than a fondness alone thing.
i hope that this explanation made sense! i also encourage you to not read too much into ~ie in general. it's used for so many reasons that it's impossible most of the time to know why it was used, so in that sense, i don't think there's that much point to analyses of who uses it when and for what reason... there's so many other things to focus on when it comes to interpreting degrees of fondness and intimacy that have nothing to do with what particles are used, and arguments that hinge entirely on this particle in any one direction just aren't going to make a lot of sense.
thank you for your question! :)
