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Japanese Honorifics: Difference between revisions
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;''-sensei''
: Literally means "one who has come before". Usually heard in English referring to martial arts masters. Applied to doctors, teachers and masters of any profession or art. It is also standard for professional writers who are classed as teachers. In short, the rule of thumb runs thus: doctors, teachers, lawyers, writers and scientists who got their doctorates are called "sensei" automatically, with the others it's debatable. In recent years this has become an all-purpose suck-up word, and is now more often used sarcastically or ironically than as a genuinely respectful term. This has brought complaints of [[Dude, Where's My Respect?]] from real masters and artists.
;''-shishou''
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As noted above, ''-dono'' comes from the word ''tono'', meaning "lord". Several other terms for social rank seem to be used as honorifics as well, most notably ''-oujo'' and ''-hime'', both of which mean "princess". ''[[Ojou|"-ojou" or "-ojousama"]]'' is regularly used for girls from very well-to-do families.
Using no honorific at all (called ''yobisute'') is also an honorific -- it's a "null honorific", and it means the speaker is addressing the person to whom he is speaking in an intimate and familiar manner usually restricted to family, spouses or one's closest friends. Usually, this is only done when [[First
{{examples
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== Anime and Manga ==
* "''[[Sempai
* ''[[Revolutionary Girl Utena]]'' has power and hierarchy in relationships as a major theme, so it's no surprise that honorifics are used in all sorts of interesting ways to reveal this. (The dub tries its best to get the idea across, but can't always manage.) There's ''lots'' of examples, but one of the major ones is Anthy's habit of using ''-sama'' for the current winner of the duels. At the beginning of the show, she always addresses Saionji as Saionji-''sama'' (translated here as "Master Saionji"). Then, after Utena defeats him, Anthy emotionally devastates him with one sentence:
{{quote| '''Anthy:''' "Take it easy, Saionji." ([[Beat|beat]]) "''Sempai''."}}
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* In the dub for one of the sequels to ''[[El-Hazard: The Magnificent World (Anime)|El-Hazard: The Magnificent World]]'', Nanami runs around a castle calling for "Makoto-chan".
* Haruhi always uses -senpai when talking to Tamaki, who is in the year above her, in ''[[Ouran High School Host Club (Manga)|Ouran High School Host Club]]''. When she does the same thing during summer vacation, he shouts at her "I'm not your senpai! I'm just an acquaintance."
* In ''[[Suzumiya Haruhi]]'', Haruhi refers to Koizumi as "Koizumi-kun" but Kyon just as [[Hey, You|"Kyon"]], implying more familiarity with the later. The uber-polite Koizumi addresses all the girls as "-san" which translates as "miss" in the English dubs ("Suzumiya-san" becomes "Miss Suzumiya.") Kyon also addresses the girls as "-san" except Haruhi, with whom he is on [[First
* In ''[[Ranma ½ (Manga)|Ranma ½]]'', teenagers Ranma and Ukyo have pet names for each other using the truncated name + ''-chan'' structure ("Ranchan" and "Ucchan", the latter doubling as a pun on her Kansai dialect). These date back to their initial friendship at age six. At least one background character, upon hearing their use, commented that this was "little kid stuff". These are carried over largely without explanation in the English dub, though Ukyo's habitual "Ran-chan" is often translated as "Ranma-honey" instead. Likewise, Soun and Genma always refer to each other as "Saotome-kun" and "Tendo-kun", reflecting their status as old friends and fellow students of Happousai. In their case it's supposed to sound more adolescent than juvenile.
** Ranma repeatedly refuses to acknowledge the ultra-rich buffoon Tatewaki Kuno's insistence that Ranma show him the respect due an upperclassman by addressing him as "[[Sempai-Kohai|sempai]]". The dub translates this mostly literally as demanding to be called "Upperclassman Kuno."
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* In ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'', Yahiko is once teased by a couple of [[Delinquents]] calling him "Yahiko-chan"; the Latin American dub leaves the "chan", implying he hates being called like that. In a side story, he [[Berserk Button|gets quite annoyed when a girl calls him that]], but ruefully accepts the title after failing to protect the girl from some thugs. Kanryuu becomes enraged when [[The Dragon|Aoshi]] refers to him without honorifics.
** In Yahiko's case, when the manga was translated for Brazilian audiences, it was shown by having him called "Yahikozinho". The suffix "-zinho" turns his name into "Little Yahiko". In the anime, he was called "Garoto (Boy) Yahiko". He hates being considered a child and/or small.
** There's also the titular protagonist's consistent use of "Kaoru-dono" to show that he genuinely respects [[Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids|her idealism]].
*** He also refers to Misao, as well as Toki and Shigure from [[The Movie]], as "-dono". Again, likely to show his respect to their thoughts and beliefs.
*** In Kenshin's case it's for the most part simply a normal way of old-school samurai speech. Kenshin as a rule speaks ''very'' politely and old-fashioned, so him using the "-dono" honorific is only to be expected, even if it hasn't yet fallen out of use even among the general population. Note that Kenshin technically isn't a samurai, but back in the Bakumatsu times anyone who can afford two swords ''was'' it...
* In ''[[Tenchi Muyo! (Anime)|Tenchi Muyo: Ryo-Ohki]]'', after discovering Tenchi's royal ancestry, Princess Ayeka almost invariably calls him "Tenchi-sama". In the dub this is translated as "Lord", matching the more archaic usage. (She also speaks in an [[Keigo|archaic, formal Japanese]] which is rendered in English by the device of a British accent.)
** Washu (who is 20,000 years old and the galaxy's greatest scientific genius) [[Insistent Terminology|insists on being called "Washu-chan"]] ("Little Washu" in the dubbed version) by everyone (except Ryoko, who she insists should call her "Mom" instead), ''especially'' ultra-formal Ayeka. She generally refers to Tenchi as "Tenchi-dono", indicating her age.
** Ryoko, being extremely informal and not at all interested in other people's concepts of what's polite, doesn't use honorifics. Tenchi, on the other hand, uses standard honorifics for everyone ''except'' Ryoko, who he addresses by name only.
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** [[Memetic Mutation|Hima-sensei-san-chan-nii-sama-papa-troll...]]
* ''[[Change 123]]'' offers three interesting examples of the use of honorifics:
** For Motoko's three [[Split Personality|Split Personalities]], three different honorifics are (usually) used: Hibiki-kun (due to Hibiki being a [[Bokukko]]), Fujiko-san (sometimes Fujiko-[[Onee
** Since Mikiri-chan is such a [[Cheerful Child]], she uses the "-chan" honorific with all people, regardless of the appropriateness.
** The [[Insufferable Genius|insufferable teen genius]] Kannami uses the "-kun" honorific with all the high-schoolers, even girls.
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** There's also Shigure bargining with Haru to let Yuki live with him, what Shigure wants is for Haru to call him Sensei, he is a writer after all (but no one respects him enough to call him sensei he says). Hatori also gets referred to as sensei occasionally (normally not by the rest of the zodiac though). Kazuma too until Kyo decides he's shishou which is the honorific most people call him now, the older ones tend to use sensei or dono though.
*** Kazuma is also called 'Shihan' by his young martial arts charges (except Kyo). The translator's note says that Shihan = Shishou.
* In ''[[Inuyasha]]'', Kagome initially calls Sango "Sango-san" during their first conversation, but Sango suggests that she just call her "Sango." Afterward, the two use "-chan" on each other. Miroku uses "-dono" for pretty much every woman he meets [[First
* In ''[[Nagasarete Airantou]]'', Kagami (a 27-year old woman with a very girly mind) insists the teenage Ikuto call her Kagami-chan, actually attacking him when he refers to her as Kagami-san. This is to contrast her with her far more mature eleven-year-old daughter.
** This is actually common in Japan with young women thanks to [[Kawaii|kawaii culture]] and the [[Not Allowed to Grow Up|pressure for women to act young and innocent]].
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*** And when he first names Lagann, he uses "Lagann-sama".
** Then there's Andine's habit of addressing the protagonists with "[[Humans Are Bastards|ningen-domo]]"<ref>ningen = human</ref>. She also calls Nia [[Department of Redundancy Department|hime-sama]].
*** Nia herself addresses Lordgenome as [["Well Done, Son" Guy|otousama]].
*** "Hime" is actually more a normal word then a honorific, and so is itself able to take honorifics. It's indeed almost always used as "hime-sama".
** In the epilogue, {{spoiler|Simon}} calls the boy ''bozu'' who in turn calls him ''ojiisan''. He's not offended by it since he's in his forties at the time.
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* Yuri Tokikago of ''[[Mawaru Penguindrum]]'' refers to her own fiancé as "Tabuki-kun" rather than his first name, even when no one else is around. It might at first seem like an extension of her [[Ojou]] persona, but late in the series {{spoiler|it turns out to have been foreshadowing of the fact that their relationship is fake, and Tabuki is [[The Beard]] to her}}. She also refers to Ringo as "Ringo-chan", likely due to Ringo's extreme youth {{spoiler|and because she sees her as a borderline [[Replacement Goldfish]] for Momoka, Ringo's dead sister and Yuri's first love [[The Mourning After|whom she's still mourning for]].}}
** Ringo refers to the Takakura boys by name and attaching "-kun", since they're on the same age bracket; she also calls their sister "Himari-chan", since Himari is younger than her. On the other hand, Shouma and Kanba call her "Oginome-san" (likely to be polite {{spoiler|and to keep some distance from her, like they do with almost everyone else}}) and Himari refers to her as "Ringo-chan".
* [[Captain Tsubasa]] gives rather interesting spins on the trope, depending heavily on who is talking. On one hand we have [[Nice Guy]] Tsubasa, male [[Yamato Nadeshiko]] Misaki and [[Princely Young Man]] Misugi, who are rather soft-spoken and refer to their fellow sport boys as "-kun". On the other side of the spectre there's low-class [[Self
* Hanamichi Sakuragi from [[Slam Dunk]] uses honorifics (more exactly, "-san") almost exclusively towards women -- complete with rather polite speech pattern, indicating his [[Gentle Giant]] side. In regards to his gangster friends, Sakuragi resorts to ''yobisute'' aka referring to them without any pronouns, which exemplifies their [[True Companions]] bond. And towards all other dudes... well, he's [[The Nicknamer]], but some of these nicknames ''do'' include honorifics (male [[Yamato Nadeshiko]] Kogure is "Megane-kun" and [[Heterosexual Life Partners|heterosexual life partner]] Miyagi is "Ryou-chin", both ''very'' affectionate by Sakuragi's standards, while OTOH [[Deadpan Snarker]] ex-[[Delinquent]] Mitsui is "Micchin" specifically to piss Mitsui off.) And if Sakuragi ''absolutely'' has to use the dude's real name, he'll go for ''yobisute''.
* Satoko Houjou from [[Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni]] frequently uses the nickname "nii-nii" (derived from O-niisan) when referring to her older brother, {{spoiler|or Keiichii in some arcs}}. This carries over to the English dub without any explanation other than it's extremely cute and endearing.
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[[Category:Useful Notes]]
[[Category:Useful Notes/Japan]]
[[Category:Japanese Honorifics]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]
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