[savq]

(Person that actually uses sumercé here.)

The article is reading way too much into it, and it forgets a very important piece of information: The origin of usted is "vuestra merced". Spanish had T-V distinction, like most romance languages, but usted superceded vos as the formal 2nd person pronoun.

sumercé is a word that had the same process, just starting from "su merced" instead, since in Colombia —like in all other latin american countries— vosotros is not used.

That's it.

[losvedir]

Interesting. Portuguese (at least Brazilian, not sure how it is in Portugal) uses você for the 2nd person pronoun (and doesn't maintain a formal/informal distinction), and você came from vossa mercê. Since that's where usted, sumercé, and você came all come from, I'm guessing it must be a Latin thing?

[kinow]

> from vossa mercê

Which in some Brazilian soap operas sounded more like "vosmece" or "vosmercê", especially when said by people with country side accent (caipiras).

[_3u10]

I hear or say vos almost every time I greet someone. I’m in Paraguay. Is Colombia a tu country?

[jurimasa]

Wrong: Spanish usted comes from the Arabic "ʔustāḏ", a honorific title meaning something like "distinguished person"

[gfaure]

This is wrong — an entire spectrum of early modern variants starting from _vuestra merced_ to _vuesasted_ to _vusted_ to _usted_ has been demonstrated in written and printed matter across the centuries. It helps that written Spanish has been particularly well documented from the Age of Discovery onwards.

[moravak1984]

> has been demonstrated in written and printed matter across the centuries.

which centuries are we talking about?

> It helps that written Spanish has been particularly well documented from the Age of Discovery onwards.

and that was how many centuries after the Arab occupation?

There are tons of Arabic-origin words in Spanish, (alcoba, aljibe, almohada, cerveza, naranja, zanahoria), so the hypothesis of "usted" sharing said origin is plausible.

Maybe you have some relevant evidence to your theory?

[gora_kh]

Paper on this subject:

https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.academia.edu/491578...

Evidence for "vuestra merced":

http://elies.rediris.es/elies22/cap7.htm

Much more in-depth treatment of "vuestra merced" etymology:

www.academia.edu/39806097/_Fue_vulgar_y_plebeyo_el_origen_de_usted_La_diacron%25C3%25ADa_del_pronombre_de_respeto_desde_la_interfaz_oral_escrito&sa=U&ved=2ahUKEwjc_-qd9tuEAxXFOjQIHWgZDMsQFnoECAYQAg&usg=AOvVaw1A_5QRn5k5EbDqDOzJ-DUy

Spanish Corpus:

https://www.corpusdelespanol.org/hist-gen/

Interesting review of dialects of Judeo-Spanish from 1894 where "su merced", "su osted", and "usted" all appear:

https://www.cervantesvirtual.com/obra-visor/la-lengua-y-la-l...