Description:

The term 'sy' is the most basic polite address term in Common. It was not part of the original Old Common language. The society Old Common was created for was highly egalitarian and informal and did not generally use such form, so the relatively rich vocabulary of formality and polite address Common has today was developed since the early period by actual speakers, and mostly in the modern period, as New World Order society became more formal and stratified and less overtly egalitarian.

Sy is thought to come from the English word 'sir', although 'señor' and even '-san' from Spanish or Japanese have been suggested. It is attested from the middle period onward. Despite the suspected origin in a term of polite address for a man, 'sy' can also gloss as 'ma'am', and is an appropriate polite address for any adult man or woman, as long as they don't outrank you significantly.

It use 'sy', use it as the head term in the phrase applying to the person in question, or as a modifying term to a person's name. For example, to politely say 'look over there':

Ju sy te spocu zeul.

In this case, 'sy' is being used as the head term for 'ju', 'you (ERGATIVE)', and serves to make the direct address polite.

In possessive constructions using the adposition idiom, 'sy' is a common stand in for 'you', such as:

A sy pikki se an sinku.
Your cat is cute.

Sy does not have any common use as a verb.