"Yours" in Sincerey Yours

[coco]

I was wondering a meaning of "Yours" used in the complimentary close of a letter.
I know it is used like a set phrase, "Sincerely yours".

I assume it is a respectful expression for an addressee of it.

Does it indicate "I am yours" or " I am your belongings"?
Do Queen, King, Pope or President write "Sincerely Yours" in their official letters?

Thanks in advance.

[chikara]

I was wondering a meaning of "Yours" used in the complimentary close of a letter.
I know it is used like a set phrase, "Sincerely yours".

I assume it is a respectful expression for an addressee of it.

Does it indicate "I am yours" or " I am your belongings"?

I would say that this idiom indicates "I am your ....." more than "I am yours".

Formal letters often end with "Sincerely yours" or "Yours sincerely" and my understanding is that this has evolved from the (mostly) antiquated formal letter endings such as "Your sincere friend", "Your humble servant", "Your loving son/daughter", "Your faithful friend" (-> yours faithfully) etc.

.... Do Queen, King, Pope or President write "Sincerely Yours" in their official letters? ....

I don't know as they don't write to me

Seriously though coco-san, I don't know.

[becki_kanou]

.... Do Queen, King, Pope or President write "Sincerely Yours" in their official letters? ....

I don't know as they don't write to me

Seriously though coco-san, I don't know.

Darn it, chikara! I was going to make the same joke and you beat me to it!

[chikara]

Darn it, chikara! I was going to make the same joke and you beat me to it!

A friend of mine whose wedding I attended received a blessing from the Pope but I didn't get a close look at it. She is now divorced.

My wife's family threatened her grandfather that they would get him a letter from the Queen when he turned 100. Being a staunch republican of Irish stock it got him wound up. He didn't get a letter from the Queen and he almost made 103.

Coco-san, looking at the image on this page it seems that the Queen just signs her name.

[Yudan Taiteki]

I was wondering a meaning of "Yours" used in the complimentary close of a letter.
I know it is used like a set phrase, "Sincerely yours".

Does it indicate "I am yours" or " I am your belongings"?

英語のネーティヴも知らないだろうけど、おそらく、「私はあなたの使用人」みたいなニュアンスがあるかもしれません。古い手紙で"your humble servant"も使ったそうだけど関係があるかどうかは分かりません。

ところで、「敬具」はどういう意味ですか。:)

[coco]

Formal letters often end with "Sincerely yours" or "Yours sincerely" and my understanding is that this has evolved from the (mostly) antiquated formal letter endings such as "Your sincere friend", "Your humble servant", "Your loving son/daughter", "Your faithful friend" (-> yours faithfully) etc.

Chikara-san, thank you for your explanation. It is very helpful and interesting.
So even a divorced ex-husband, who had tried to kill his wife once, could use "Yours" in a letter to his ex-wife, as "I am your hateful ex-husband."

"Yours" seems to be very useful!

He didn't get a letter from the Queen and he almost made 103.

Your wife and your children will live as long as he. ( hope you will, too)

looking at the image on this page it seems that the Queen just signs her name.

Thanks for the link, too.

英語のネーティヴも知らないだろうけど、おそらく、「私はあなたの使用人」みたいなニュアンスがあるかもしれません。古い手紙で"your humble servant"も使ったそうだけど関係があるかどうかは分かりません。

お答えありがとうございます。
「あなたの僕（しもべ）」的な解釈が一番分かりやすいので、高位の方々が使用するかどうか気になりました。You が宗教的なものを指す可能性もあると思いましたが、「I am your X 」 だと汎用性が高そうですね。
Thank you for your reply.
"Your humble servant" is an understandable interpretation for Japanese people.
Therefore I was wondernig whether or not higher positioned people use it.
I thought "You" ( in yours) could have addressed something related with religious being. 　

ところで、「敬具」はどういう意味ですか。:)

敬具は「謹んで申し上げる」の意とされますが、「具」は伴うの意味のようです。
「敬いを伴って申し上げました」でしょうか。
I think 敬具 is used as "I wrote it with my respect".
私も皇族や総理大臣から手紙をもらったことはありません が、敬具は使われないように思います。

[chikara]

... Your wife and your children will live as long as he. ( hope you will, too) ....

どうもありがとうございます

[coco]

My friend's grandmother lived until 100.
The municipality issued a celebration letter (issued at 敬老の日, Sep 15th) with a prime minister's name．Few weeks after 敬老の日, an officer brought it and a small memorial gift　to their house.

Friend's mother politely and carefully refused to receive them because Grandma had passed away. She told that the funeral had been completed just two days before the officer came.
But the officer said "At least, grandma lived at 敬老の日", he insisted that he had to give the letter and the gift to the family.　

[clay]

Very interesting. Wikipedia's entry on valedictions echoes the 'servant' meaning:

English language valedictions typically contain the word yours, a contraction of your servant; old valedictions were usually some voluminous statement, a complete sentence of the form

I beg to remain, Sir, your most humble and obedient servant,

O.G.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valediction

[coco]

I beg to remain, Sir, your most humble and obedient servant,

O.G.

Clayさん、リンクをありがとうございました。

質問ばかりで恐縮ですが、「O.G.」というのは何でしょうか。　

[clay]

I have no idea what O.G. could stand for. I've spent the last twenty minutes searching. Thinking it could be Latin, I searched common Latin abbreviations. The closest was 'omnes gentes' (all the peoples), but I'm sure that isn't it.

http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/og

Anyone know?

[becki_kanou]

I have no idea what O.G. could stand for. I've spent the last twenty minutes searching. Thinking it could be Latin, I searched common Latin abbreviations. The closest was 'omnes gentes' (all the peoples), but I'm sure that isn't it.

http://acronyms.thefreedictionary.com/og

Anyone know?

It stands for Original Gangsta, of course.

But seriously, my impression reading the article was that it was just a set of randomly chosen initials.
Oliver Goodman, or what have you.

[Feba]

Yeah, if you look at an earlier version of the article it uses "A.B.". They're definitely placeholder initials, although changing them to "O.G." was probably vandalism of some sort that nobody ever cared to notice. Article should probably use John Doe for clarity, in any case.

[coco]

Clayさん、ベッキーさん、Febaさん、
どうもありがとうございました。
おかげ様ですっきりしました。

[Gundaetiapo]

I was wondering a meaning of "Yours" used in the complimentary close of a letter.
I know it is used like a set phrase, "Sincerely yours".

I assume it is a respectful expression for an addressee of it.

Does it indicate "I am yours" or " I am your belongings"?
Do Queen, King, Pope or President write "Sincerely Yours" in their official letters?

Thanks in advance.

Compare with yours truly.