Politeness levels in Japanese

Unlike most western languages, Japanese has an extensive grammatical system to express politeness and formality. Broadly speaking, there are three main politeness levels in spoken Japanese: the plain form (kudaketa), the simple polite form (teinei) and the advanced polite form (keigo). Since most relationships are not equal in Japanese society, one person typically has a higher position. This position is determined by a variety of factors including job, age, experience, or even psychological state (e.g., a person asking a favor tends to do so politely). The person in the lower position is expected to use a polite form of speech, whereas the other might use a more plain form. Strangers will also speak to each other politely. Japanese children rarely use polite speech until their teens, at which point they are expected to begin speaking in a more adult manner. The plain form in Japanese is recognized by the shorter, so-called dictionary (jisho) form of verbs, and the da form of the copula. In the teinei level, verbs end with the helping verb -masu, and the copula desu is used. The advanced polite form, keigo, actually consists of two kinds of politeness: honorific language (sonkeigo) and humble (kenj go) language. Whereas teineigo is an inflectional system, keigo often employs many special (often irregular) honorific and humble verb forms. The difference between honorific and humble speech is particularly pronounced in the Japanese language. Humble language is used to talk about oneself or one's own group (company, family) whilst honorific language is mostly used when describing the interlocutor and his group. For example, the -san suffix ("Mr.", "Mrs." or "Ms.") is an example of honorific language. It should not be used to talk about oneself. Nor should it be employed when talking about someone from one's own company to an external person, since the company is the speaker's "group". Most nouns in the Japanese language may be made honorific by the addition of o- or go-; as a prefix. o- is generally used for words of native Japanese origin, whereas go- is affixed to words of Chinese derivation. In some cases, the prefix has become a fixed part of the word and is included even in non-honorific speech, such as gohan, or rice. Such a construction usually indicates deference to either the item's owner or to the object itself. For example, the word tomodachi ("friend"), would become o-tomodachi when referring to the friend of someone of higher status. On the other hand, a female speaker may sometimes refer to mizu (water) as o-mizu merely to show her cultural refinement, compared to more abrupt male speech patterns. Many researchers report that since the 1990s, the use of polite forms has become rarer, particularly among the young, who employ politeness to indicate a lack of familiarity. That is, they use polite forms for new acquaintances, but as a relationship becomes more intimate, they speak more frankly. This often occurs regardless of age, social class, or gender.

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Personal pronouns in Japanese

Written by Maciamo Contrarily to European languages, Japanese has many different pronouns for each person (I, you, he/she, we...). "I" and "you" have an especially wide range of translation with various nuances, politeness level and gender. Learning is particularily useful to read mangas. I know the following ones (I am sure there are more, among old fashioned ones).

I" and "We"

Watakushi : Most polite and formal version Watashi : most common. Used more by women than men. Atashi : Mostly used by young females. Sounds cute. Atai : Slang version of "Atashi" Washi : Mostly used by older men to younger or lower rank people. Uchi : Used mostly by women. A neutral version also refers to "us" (family, company, etc.) as opposed to "them" or "you". Jibun : Neutral. Refers to the "self", so can be use for "I" or "you". means "my" or "your" and means "myself" or "youself". Boku : Common for younger men (sometimes women). Sounds more refine than "ore". Ore (also in dialect) : Used by virile or older men. Not as polite as "watashi". Oresama : Arrogant and rude version of "Ore" Orera (also in dialect) : Plural of "Ore" Onore : Used by men. Sounds arrogant and impolite. Also means "self" or "you" (see "Jibun"). Sessha : Used by men (formerly samurai). Humble and polite. Ware : Quite formal and polite, but old-fashioned (except plural "wareware", used in a humble way to talk about one's company). Wa(ga): Literary for "watashi". Still used in the meaning of "my" or "our" (eg : = my/our country). Kochitomo : Slang for "we" or "ourselves", sometimes also "I" and "myself". Wate : Kansai dialect for "Watashi". Chin : Used by emperors or kings. Daikou : Literary. Used by men when speaking in an haughty way. Soregasi : Ancient form of "Watakushi". Warawa : Ancient form of "Watakushi".

"You"
Anata/ : Most usual and polite form. Anta : Informal version of "anata". Kimi : Used by men to talk to younger women or children, or to intimate people. Omae : Used by older or less refined people. Less polite than "anata" and sometimes almost rude. Temee : A bit rude and aggressive.

 Kisama : Usually rude and including bad feelings. Jibun : Neutral. Refers to the "self", so can be use for "I" or "you". means "my" or "your" and means "myself" or "youself". Onore : Used in a disdainful way. Onushi (onoshi) : Polite and humble. Used by samurai to talk to people of equal or lower rank. Literally means "master". Nanji (namuchi, nare) : Literary. Used with intimate people or lower rank people. Onmi : Literary honorific form meaning "your body". Sochi, Sokotomo, Sonohou, Sonota, Konota : dated variant of "Anata", all meaning something like "hey there !"

"He/she/they"
Kare/kanojo/ : Most usual and neutral form of "he/she" Koitsu, soitsu, aitsu : means "this/that guy" Yatsu : rude, involve bad feelings Just add "ra" after any of them to form the plural. The plural can be form by adding "-ra" or "-tachi" at the end (ex : watashitachi, anatatachi, temeira, karera, aitsura...) or by doubling the word (wareware).

Japanese family names

Written by Maciamo on 8 September 2005 Before the Meiji Restoration, most Japanese people did not have a family name. Only the nobles, samurai and some merchants and artisans did. At the time, the vast majority of the population were peasants. The new Meiji government made it compulsory for everyone to choose a surname, using only authorised kanji (Chinese characters). Nowadays, there aren't so many Japanese family names because the number of kanji that legal limitation on the use of kanji. It is the same for given names, but even more for surnames as the kanji used are almost exclusively geographic features and adjectives. What is more, two adjectives (e.g. + ) cannot be combined, so the total of family names possible is further limited to combination between the "geographic feature" group and the "adjective" group, or 2 geographic features together (though it doesn't work with all). Here are the most common geographic features (including plants and man-made locations) used in surnames, with their usual pronuciation and meaning : (kawa) : river (hashi) : bridge (i) : well (ta, da) : rice paddy (hara, bara, wara) : plain (no) : field (shiba) : lawn (fuji) : wisteria

(matsu) : pine tree (sugi) : Japanese cedar (take) : bamboo (ki) : tree (hayashi) : woods, copse (mori) : forest (saka) : slope (oka) : hill (yama) : mountain (ike) : pond (numa) : swamp, lake (zawa) : swamp, marsh (saki) : promontory (ishi) : stone (iwa) : rock (tani) : valley (hama) : beach (shima) : island (mura) : village (sato) : small village (to) : gate (miya) : palace (kami) : god

The following are a less common in surnames : (do, tsuchi) : earth (sakura) : cherry tree (kiku) : chrysanthemum (tera) : temple (kan, kami) : deity (hori) : moat, canal (e) : inlet, bay (taki) : waterfall (izumi) : spring

As for adjectives, the most common are probably these ones : (taka) : high (oo) : big (ko) : small (naka) : middle (ue, kami) : above (shita, shimo) : under (tomi) : rich (hoso) : narrow (hiro) : broad (naga) : long (naga) : eternal

(maru) : round (kuro) : black (shira, shiro) : white (ao) : green, blue (yoshi) : good (fuku) : lucky

Note that some nouns are used like adjectives, as they characterize a geographic location : (moto) : origin (guchi) : mouth, entry (kuma) : bear (ina) : rice-plant (saka) : alcohol (kane) : money

Interestingly, some of the most common names are some kind of exceptions : For example, all the names that use the "ON reading" : : Saitou : Satou : Itou : Mutou : Katou : Gotou

The "-tou" suffix always means "wisteria", but the prefix doesn't really mean anything. I heard that these are descendants or partisans of the Fujiwara () clan, and that the prefix was used to differentiate the various branches, maybe by regional location based on the old feudal domain names. E.g. (Musashi) in West Tokyo, for either (Iyo = Ehime prefecture) or Iga, in Kansai). Other names use kanji found almost exclusively in those names : : Watanabe => across the area (?) : Suzuki => bell tree (strange name) : Saga => Probably from the region's name. : Miyake => three houses

20 most common Japanese family names

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. ()Sat ()Suzuki ()Takahashi ()Tanaka ()Watanabe ()It ()Yamamoto ()Nakamura

9. ()Kobayashi 10. ()Sait 11. ()Kat 12. ()Yoshida 13. ()Yamada 14. ()Sasaki 15. ()Yamaguchi 16. ()Matsumoto 17. ()Inoue 18. ()Kimura 19. ()Hayashi 20. ()Shimizu