I read through the mailings of name suffixes and saw some ommitions. I
had the following message saved from a Japanese mailing list, and am
forwarding it to the list. It's a more comprehensive discussion on the
topic.
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---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 19 Dec 1996 16:43:20 -0500 (EST)
From: Kevin Alan Martin <martink@umich.edu>
To: japantalk@umich.edu
Subject: Re: -kun, -san? -MI- (fwd)
I thought this was interesting and informative too. Happy Hollidays!
Kevin
Well, here's a copy of a post by Theresa Martin I pulled off r.a.a. from
a long while ago... it's the most descriptive piece on the subject I've
seen yet.
Incidentally, though, more endings than -san and -kun get used; Goadi
refers to Kozue as "Kozue-chan", for instance, which is quite indicative
of how he sees her.
Aaron Teske
Mithramuse+@cmu.edu
mlast@macross.ersys.edmonton.ab.ca (Mike Lastucka) writes:
Just wondering if someone out there could help me out with a few things.
Basically, I was wondering : What are the most common name suffixes, such
as -kun, -san, and what are their meanings? Thanks yall.
Warning: This article may be hazardous to your signal/noise ratio.
The most common honorifics are:
-sama Very respectful ending. Not normally used with someone's
names. Used to people of superior status, like your boss,
or to your guests as a host. Envelopes should be addressed
with "-sama". A shopkeeper might call a customer
"o-kyaku-sama" (Respected Mr. Customer).
-san Usual term of respect. It can stand for Mr. and Ms., and
is attached to either first or last names, and names of
occupations like "o-mawari-san" (police officer). You use
it for strangers and people you don't know well, but are
more or less the same social status. When in doubt, use
"-san".
Warning: Never use "-san" with your own name or your
family members' names. Also, it shouldn't be used to refer
to famous people, since a small degree of intimacy is
implied.
High school girls are usually called "-san".
-kun Used by a socially superior male to a socially inferior
male. Familiarly used among male students and boys who
grew up together. Recently, some teachers call girl
students and some bosses call office ladies with "-kun",
but it's still considered a masculine suffix.
High school boys are called "-kun". Girls go from "-chan"
to "-san" in high school, but boys go through a period of
"-kun" in between.
- Calling someone by a family name alone is being very
familiar (or rough). Calling someone by given name
alone is less rough, but more familiar. Using no
honorific when one is expected can be an expression of
contempt.
-chan Intimate form of address, suggesting smallness and cuteness.
Families that are close use it, and "-chan" is often used
to, and by, very young children. Used with given names,
abbreviations of given names, and nicknames, but not family
names. Children who grow up together (like Madoka and
Hikaru), may keep using "-chan" into adulthood. Note: to
call a social superior "-chan" without reason is very
insulting.
Old-fashioned honorifics like "-dono", used by a samurai when referring
to a daimyo, sometimes arise in anime.
Job titles are used very frequently to refer to people in Japan. Most
can take the place of honorifics, as in "Tofu-sensei".
sensei A respectful term meaning "teacher", also used with
physicians. Frequently used to refer to experts in a
field or people in any respected occupation. Lawyers,
master chefs, fashion designers, and even some manga
artists are called "sensei" (some conservative people worry
about "sensei"-inflation). Sometimes used like an honorific
with a name or title, as in "kouchou-sensei" (Mr. Principal,
Sir).
hakase A respectful term for someone with a doctoral degree,
other than medical doctors.
sempai A term meaning "senior" in a group or organization. In
school, students (especially girls) refer to students a year
above them as "sempai", but this refers to a special social
relationship.
A "sempai" serves as a mentor to their "kouhai". The sempai
kindly teaches and protects the kouhai, who acts as a
subordinate and obeys the sempai unconditionally (especially
in companies or sports teams). (Contrary to what you may
have seen in Rising Sun, sempai do not address their juniors
as "kouhai", but by name or just "you".)
Company employees normally refer to their superiors by job title. Most
of these titles end in "-chou" (head, chief). A few common ones:
shachou company president
kaichou president of an association
kachou section chief
jichou assistant chief
Occupation names are also often used with honorifics, especially with
strangers. For example:
o-mawari-san police officer
untenshu-san driver
kangohu-san nurse (female)
o-hime-sama princess
moderu-san fashion model
sakana-ya-san fish store owner
Family terms occur very frequently, because children call strangers
using family member terms, depending on what type of relative they
consider the person old enough to be.
One may sometimes identify a person by taking the listener's point of
view, as when a man refers to himself as "father" when talking to his
children.
Referring to Addressing
yours someone's yours (*) someone's
grandfather sohu ojii-san ojii-san ojii-san
grandmother sobo obaa-san obaa-san obaa-san
uncle oji oji-san oji-san oji-san
aunt oba oba-san oba-san oba-san
elder brother ani onii-san (o)nii-san [Name]-san
elder sister ane onee-san (o)nee-san [Name]-san
A common scene in anime: a child addresses a young woman as "oba-san",
and the woman gets upset and corrects the child "oNEE-san". Young women
dread the day when children start calling them "oba-san".
father chichi otou-san (o)tou-san/papa otou-san
mother haha okaa-san (o)kaa-san/mama okaa-san
younger brother otouto otouto-san [Name] [Name]-san
younger sister imouto imouto-san [Name] [Name]-san
daughter musume ojou-san [Name] [Name]-san
son musuko musuko-san [Name] [Name]-san
wife tsuma/kanai oku-san omae/[Name] oku-san
husband shujin goshujin(-sama) anata
goshujin(-sama)
[Surname]-san
Some ways of saying "you":
otaku very polite
sochira very polite
anata polite, common (*)
kimi informal masculine pronoun, common (*)
omae very informal or rough (*)
anta very informal or rough contraction
temae very rough (Note: can also mean "I")
onore very rough (Note: can also mean "I")
kisama very rough
Some ways of saying "I":
watakushi very polite, can be snobbish
kochira very polite
watashi polite, common (*)
atakushi polite feminine contraction, can be snobbish
kotchi polite
washi informal masculine contraction, used by old men
atashi informal feminine contraction
boku informal masculine pronoun, common, used by boys/young men
(*)
uchi informal feminine
ore very informal or rough
I've marked with a * the ones that come up most frequently. Learning
them will make watching unsubtitled anime more pleasant, but there's no
need to memorize them, all at once.
You may notice that the very rough words for "you" are often
translated as curses. These are pronouns that insultingly imply
the speaker's superiority. They come up often as fighting words.
Disclaimer: I'm not a native speaker. I may misunderstand, or my books
may be incorrect. Crossposted to soc.culture.japan so that
any mistakes may be corrected.