Royal we

The royal "we", or majestic plural (pluralis majestatis in Latin, literally, "the plural of majesty"), is the use of a plural pronoun to refer to a single person holding a high office, such as a sovereign (e.g., a monarch or sultan) or religious leader (e.g., the Pope or a bishop). The more general word for the use of we to refer to oneself is nosism.

Speakers employing the royal we refer to themselves using a grammatical number other than the singular (i.e., in plural or dual form). For example, the Basic Law of the Sultanate of Oman opens with "On the Issue of the Basic Law of the State We, Qaboos bin Said, Sultan of Oman...".^[1]

Western usage

It is commonly employed by a person of high office, such as a monarch, earl, or pope. It is also used in certain formal contexts by bishops and university rectors. William Longchamp is credited with its introduction to England in the late 12th century, following the practice of the Chancery of Apostolic Briefs.^[2] Its first recorded use was in 1169 when King Henry II, hard pressed by his barons over the Investiture Controversy, assumed the common theory of "divine right of kings", that the monarch acted conjointly with the deity. Hence, he used "we", meaning "God and I...".^[3]

In the public situations in which it is used, the monarch or other dignitary is typically speaking not only in his or her personal capacity but also in an official capacity as leader of a nation or institution. The habit of referring to a leader in the plural has further influenced the grammar of several languages, in which plural forms tend to be perceived as deferential and more polite than singular forms. This grammatical feature is common in languages that have the T-V distinction, including those, such as English, which used to have a T-V distinction in the past, but lost it.

Popes have used the we as part of their formal speech with certain recent exceptions. The English translations of the documents of John Paul II dispensed with this practice, using the singular "I", even though the Latin original usually continued to use the first person plural "We".^[4]

In a 1911 letter, Daniel David Palmer, founder of chiropractic, spoke of establishing it as a religion, and placed himself on a par with other founders of religions ("Christ, Mohamed, Joseph Smith, Mrs. Eddy, Martin Luther"). In the letter he refers to himself with royal third person terminology.^[5]

In 1989, Margaret Thatcher, then Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was met with disdain in the press for using the 'royal we' when announcing news that she had become a grandmother.^[6]

Non-Western usage

Several prominent epithets of the Bible describe the Jewish God in plural terms: Elohim, Adonai, and El Shaddai. Many Christian scholars, including the likes of Augustine of Hippo, have seen the use of the plural and grammatically singular verb forms as support for the doctrine of the Trinity.^[7] Judaism rejects the notion of the Trinity^[8] and argues instead that these cases are merely examples of the majestic plural.^[9] Secular scholars consider these forms to be holdovers from early Israelite/Canaanite beliefs, before the development of monolatrism/monotheism. Similarly, God in the Qur‘an employs the Arabic pronoun nahnu ("We") or its associated verb suffix in many verses.^[10]

In China and every monarchy within its cultural orbit (including Japan, Korea, and Vietnam), the majestic imperial pronoun was expressed by the character 朕 (Old Chinese: *lrəmʔ). This was in fact the former Chinese first-person singular pronoun (i.e., "I") but – following his unification of China the emperor Shi Huangdi arrogated it entirely for his personal use. All other speakers and writers were obliged to choose some appropriate epithet (such as 愚, "This Foolish One") instead of using the former pronoun. While this practice did not need to impact the non-Chinese countries as much since their variants of 朕 were generally imported loanwords, it nevertheless led to a polite avoidance of pronouns throughout East Asia.^[11] This still persists, except in China, following the May Fourth Movement and the Communist victory in its civil war. In Modern Standard Mandarin the first-person singular is 我, which was gradually adopted from a common epithet expressing "This [Worthless] Body".^[12]

The Mughal emperors and Sultans of Banu Abbas and Banu Umayyah used the majestic plural. Arabic – particularly Egyptian Arabic – continues to employ the form in diplomatic language: for instance, the proper form of address towards the President of Egypt is فخامتكم (Fakhāmatakum, "Your Excellencies").

This use is also popular among speakers of the Batangan dialect of Tagalog. Some actors and politicians, including Philippine President Benigno Aquino III, have been known to use the Tagalog exclusive form in giving interviews.

In Hindustani, Punjabi and other North Indian languages, the pluralis maiestatis is a common way for elder speakers to refer to themselves when addressing those younger than them, and also for persons of higher social rank or caste to refer to themselves when speaking to those of a perceived inferior rank or caste. In certain communities, the singular plural I (मैं) may be dispensed with altogether for self-reference, and the nosism used uniformly while speaking to a social inferior or superior.^[13]

In Telugu and in Tamil, the royal we exists and is used amongst royalty or elite persons.

Under the teaching of some Hindu Gurus, usage of the 'I' is considered as leading to Ahamkara and discouraged in favour of using the first person plural as a 'humble I' (see the author's We). Nevertheless, this leads to potential confusion, as several Indian languages have distinct inclusive and exclusive Wes, and the listeners may consider themselves included involuntarily in actions described.

See also

• Pluralis excellentiae
• Nosism
• Royal one

References