No clue! There is the same "ladies first" attitude here that exists back in the States, so it might have to do with gallantry, or respecting your mother, or something. But that's just a wild guess that's almost certainly wrong. Notably, Lei the formal address is capitalized, whereas lei meaning "she" isn't (unless it's at the start of a sentence). Lei is certainly an interesting counterpart to "mankind" or "any man" for a universal address.
I have heard tell that "voi" (plural you) used to be the formal term, and it only shifted to Lei a few generations back, but I might have misunderstood the timeline on that. (I'm not entirely sure how to interpret "recently" in a region where I regularly encounter pre-Roman artifacts.) I have run into people still using the voi form of formality in a very old very small town in the south.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2016-02-01 10:16 pm (UTC)I have heard tell that "voi" (plural you) used to be the formal term, and it only shifted to Lei a few generations back, but I might have misunderstood the timeline on that. (I'm not entirely sure how to interpret "recently" in a region where I regularly encounter pre-Roman artifacts.) I have run into people still using the voi form of formality in a very old very small town in the south.