Language and Culture, are they inseparable?

[basica]

I think we're moving towards a unified culture despite the language barriers. Due to the influence of American media a lot of us are taking on American culture, and to some extent even their social norms. Halloween and Thanksgiving were never a thing here in Australia when I was a kid not all that long ago, but now they're starting to become more commonplace. Even Black Friday is beginning to be a thing here. I think the only thing that'll prevent this convergence is something disastrous happening to the internet.

[Tillumadoguenirurm]

I don't know of anyone using formal "ni" in Swedish or "De" in Danish any more. The same goes for Icelandic "þér".

As far as I know you are still presumed to be "Des" (i.e. using the formal "De") with the Danish queen and at least some members of her family, but you are "dus" (i.e. use the informal "du") with everybody else, including the ministers and clergy and old people (unless they prove their age by protesting). At least she doesn't expect you to prostrate and say "deres majestæt" (although I'm sure some elderly people still do precisely that until they are told to stop).

But are you saying that people are still as formal with each other in Denmark now as they used to be? We've pretty much stopped using De and etc. in Norway too, but people have also stopped being that formal with each other (in my experience). To me that makes language and culture connected, but I don't know which one changed first.

[Iversen]

A culture has to favour informality to accept the loss of a distinction like the one between "De" and "du". Societies that drop it, but still cling to emphasizing status, will have to invent other ways of expressing respect. However among the languages I know (mostly Indoeuropean ones) most retain the 2. person singular for intimate relationships and for speech to or between children and youngsters, but they use some variation on the 3. person singular (like "vuestra merced" --> Usted" in Spanish) or they use a plural form to express respect. English is special in having basically dropped the informal form, and the Scandinavian languages for basically having dropped the formal one.

As the temporal aspect: In the case of Denmark I think the language evolved alongside the change in mentality, but at different speed in different age groups. The big change in the use of the two forms happened well before the 50's, but since I was a kid until way into the 60s I'm not quite sure how adults interacted between themselves at that time. I do however know that it was rare, but still possible to hear "De" already in the late 60s. And "De" was the normal form in the media. It could however also be used to keep people at a distance, which shows that it was developing some negative connotations.