Post by shimakaze on Apr 2, 2011 10:50:03 GMT -5
Tokuno honorifics
The Tokuno language uses a broad array of honorific suffixes for addressing or referring to people, for example -san, as in Daniel-san. These honorifics are gender-neutral (can be used for males and females), and can be attached to first names as well as surnames, for example, Peter-san, Jessica-san, Smith-san.
Dropping the honorific suffix, referred to as yobisute (呼び捨て?), implies a high degree of intimacy and is reserved for one's spouse, younger family members, and very close friends. Within sports teams or among classmates, where the interlocutors approximately have the same age or seniority, it can also be acceptable to use family names without honorifics. When referring to a third person, honorifics are used except when referring to one's family members while talking to a non-family-member, or when referring to a member of one's company while talking to a customer or someone from another company. Honorifics are not used to refer to oneself, except to be arrogant (ore-sama), to be cute (-chan), or sometimes when talking to small children, to teach them how to address the speaker.
Although honorifics are not part of the essential grammar of the Tokuno language, they reflect the hierarchical nature of Tokuno society, so they become an important subject to learn in order to speak fluently with native speakers.
It is sometimes easy to translate the honorific suffix to other languages, for example, "Mr. Hasegawa" for Hasegawa-san. However, this is not always possible, as suffixes may indicate an implicit difference in social status, seniority, or other relationship between the interlocutors and this makes it difficult to find a simple translation. In these cases, a name with a suffix may simply drop the suffix: Saotome-kun becomes simply "Saotome".
Common honorifics
San (さん?), sometimes pronounced han (はん?) in Kansai dialect, is the most common honorific and is a title of respect similar to the English words "Mr.", "Miss", "Mrs.", or "Ms." However, in addition to being used with people's names, it is also employed in a variety of other ways.
San is used in combination with workplace nouns, so a bookseller might be addressed or referred to as honya-san ("bookstore" + san), and a butcher as nikuya-san ("butcher shop" + san).
San can also be attached to the names of animals or even inanimate objects. For example, a pet rabbit might be called usagi-san, and fish used for cooking can be referred to as sakana-san. Both uses would be considered childish (akin to "Mr. Rabbit" in English) and would be avoided in formal speech. Even married people often refer to their spouse with san.
Chan (ちゃん?) is a diminutive suffix; it expresses that the speaker finds a person endearing. Thus, using chan with a superior's name would be condescending and rude. In general, chan is used for babies, young children, and teenage girls. It may also be used towards cute animals, lovers, close friends, or any youthful woman.
Although traditionally honorifics are not applied to oneself, some young women adopt the childish affectation of referring to themselves in the third person using chan. For example, a young woman named Kanako might call herself Kanako-chan rather than using a first person pronoun. Also, the very common female name suffix -ko (〜子) may be dropped, as in Kana-chan.
Kun (君【くん】?) is used by persons of senior status in addressing or referring to those of junior status, or by anyone when addressing or referring to male children or male teenagers. It can also be used by females when addressing a male that they are emotionally attached to or have known for a long period of time. Although kun is generally used for boys, that is not a hard rule. For example, in business settings, young female employees may also be addressed as kun by older males of senior status. It can also be used by male teachers addressing their female students.
Sama (様 【さま】?) is a markedly more respectful version of san. It is used mainly to refer to people much higher in rank than oneself, toward one's customers, and sometimes toward people one greatly admires. When used to refer to oneself, sama expresses extreme arrogance (or self-effacing irony), as with ore-sama (俺様?, "my esteemed self").
Sama also appears in such set phrases as o-machidō sama ("sorry to keep you waiting"), o-tsukare sama (an expression of empathy for people who have been working long and hard), and go-kurō sama (an expression recognizing someone's labors), but although this is written with the same kanji, it is semantically distinct from the sama used as a term of address.
Senpai (先輩 【せんぱい】?) is used to address or refer to one's senior colleagues in a school, company, sports club, or other group. So at school, the students in higher grades than oneself are senpai. Students of the same or lower grade are not senpai, nor are teachers. In a business environment, colleagues with more experience are senpai, but one's boss is not a senpai. Like "Doctor" in English, senpai can be used by itself as well as with a name.
A kōhai (後輩 【こうはい】?) is a junior, the reverse of senpai, but it is not normally used as an honorific.
Sensei (先生 【せんせい】?) (literally meaning "former-born") is used to refer to or address teachers, doctors, politicians, lawyers, and other authority figures. It is used to show respect to someone who has achieved a certain level of mastery in an art form or some other skill, and is also applied to novelists, poets, painters, and other artists, including manga artists. In Tokuno martial arts, sensei typically refers to someone who is the head of a dojo. As with senpai, sensei can be used not only as a suffix, but also as a stand-alone title.
Shi (氏 【し】?) is used in formal writing, and sometimes in very formal speech, for referring to a person who is unfamiliar to the speaker, typically a person known through publications whom the speaker has never actually met. For example, the shi title is common in the speech of newsreaders. It is preferred in legal documents, academic journals, and certain other formal written styles. Once a person's name has been used with shi, the person can be referred to with shi alone, without the name, as long as there is only one person being referred to.
Other titles and Occupation-related titles
It is common to use a job title after someone's name, instead of using a general honorific. For example, an athlete (選手, senshu?) named Ichiro might be referred to as "Ichiro-senshu" rather than "Ichiro-san", and a master carpenter (棟梁, tōryō?) named Suzuki might be referred to as "Suzuki-tōryō" rather than "Suzuki-san".
In a business setting, it is common to refer to people using their rank, especially for positions of authority, such as department chief (部長, buchō?) or company president (社長, shachō?). Within one's own company or when speaking of another company, title + san is used, so a president is Shachō-san. When speaking of one's own company to a customer or another company, the title is used by itself or attached to a name, so a department chief named Suzuki is referred to as Buchō or Suzuki-buchō.
For criminals and the accused Convicted and suspected criminals were once referred to without any title.
Dono/Tono (殿 【との】?), pronounced dono (どの?) when attached to a name, roughly means "lord" or "master". It does not equate noble status; rather it is a term akin to "milord" or French "Monseigneur," and lies above san and sama in level of respect. This title is not commonly used in daily conversation, but it is still used in some types of written business correspondence, as well as on certificates and awards, and in written correspondence in tea ceremonies.
No kimi (の君?) is another suffix coming from Tokuno history. It was used to denominate Lords and Ladies in the Court, especially during the Heian period.
This suffix also appears when addressing lovers in letters from a man to a woman, as in, "Murasaki No kimi" or "My beloved Ms. Murasaki".
Ue (上?) literally means "above", and denotes a high level of respect. While its use is no longer very common, it is still seen in constructions like chichi-ue (父上?) and haha-ue (母上?), reverent terms for "father" and "mother" respectively. Receipts that do not require specification of the payer's name are often filled in with ue-sama.
Royal and official titles
Heika (陛下?) is used for sovereign royalty, similar to "Majesty" in English. For example, Tennō Heika (天皇陛下?) means "His Majesty the Emperor" and Kōgō Heika (皇后陛下?) means Her Majesty the Empress. Kokuō Heika (国王陛下?) is His Majesty the King and Joō Heika (女王陛下?) is Her Majesty the Queen. Heika by itself can also be used as a direct term of address, equivalent to "Your Majesty".
Denka (殿下?) is used for non-sovereign royalty, similar to "Royal Highness". Denka can be used by itself, like "Your Royal Highness."
Hidenka (妃殿下?) is for addressing the consort of the prince, and is used the same way as the other royal titles.
Kakka (閣下?) means "Your Excellency" and is used for heads of state (except for those addressed by Heika or Denka), ministers including the Prime Minister, ambassadors and other high-rank officials. It too can be used by itself or attached to a specific title.
Martial arts titles
Martial artists often address their teachers as sensei. Junior and senior students are organized via a senpai/kōhai system. Also in some systems of karate, O´Sensei is the title of the head of the style.
Various titles are also employed to refer to senior instructors. Which titles are used depends on the particular licensing organization.
Shōgō (称号?, "title", "name", "degree") are martial arts titles
Renshi (錬士 : れんし?): instructor.
Kyōshi (教士 : きょうし?) refers to an advanced teacher.
Hanshi (範士 : はんし?) refers to a senior expert considered a "teacher of teachers". This title is used by many different arts for the top few instructors of that style, and is sometimes translated "Grand Master".
Meijin (名人?): awarded by a special board of examiners.
Other martial arts titles
Kensei (剣聖?, sword's saint) an honorary title given to a warrior of legendary skill in swordsmanship.
Kyōshi (教師 : きょうし?), which in everyday Tokuno can be a more modest synonym for sensei, is sometimes used to indicate an instructor.
Oyakata (親方 : おやかた?), master, especially a sumo coach.
Shihan (師範 : しはん?), merely means chief instructor; unlike the titles above it is not related to grade.
Shidōin (指導員:しどういん?), intermediate instructor, also unrelated to grade.
Shishō (師匠 : ししょう?) is another title used for martial arts instructors.
Zeki (関 : ぜき?), literally "barrier", used for sumo wrestlers in the top two divisions (sekitori).
Other title
shōshi (法師: ほうし?), Buddhist monk
shinpu (神父: しんぷ?), Catholic priest (lit. Godfather).
A Catholic priest (shisai (司祭: しさい?) (lit. minister of worship) receives this title.
Familial honorifics Words for family members have two different forms in Tokuno. When referring to one's own family members while speaking to a non-family-member, neutral, descriptive nouns are used, such as haha (母) for "mother" and ani (兄) for "older brother". When addressing one's own family members or addressing or referring to someone else's family members, honorific forms are used. Using the suffix -san, as is most common, "mother" becomes okaa-san (お母さん) and "older brother" becomes onii-san (お兄さん). The honorifics -chan and -sama may also be used instead of -san, to express a higher level of closeness or reverence, respectively.
The general rule is that a younger family member (e.g., a young brother) addresses an older family member (e.g., a big brother) using an honorific form, while the older family member calls the younger one only by name.
The honorific forms are:
Otō-san (お父さん): father. The descriptive noun is chichi (父?).
Oji-san (叔父さん／小父さん／伯父さん 【おじさん】): uncle, or also "middle-aged gentleman".
Ojii-san (お祖父さん／御爺さん／お爺さん／御祖父さん 【おじいさん】): grandpa, or also "male senior-citizen".
Okaa-san (お母さん): mother. The descriptive noun is haha (母?).
Oba-san (伯母さん／小母さん／叔母さん 【おばさん】): aunt, or also "middle-aged lady".
Obaa-san (お祖母さん／御祖母さん／御婆さん／お婆さん 【おばあさん】): grandma, or also "female senior-citizen".
Onii-san (お兄さん): big brother, or also "a young gentleman". The descriptive noun is ani (兄?).
Onee-san (お姉さん): big sister, or also "a young lady". The descriptive noun is ane (姉?).
The initial o- (お) in these nouns is itself an honorific prefix. In more casual situations the speaker may omit this prefix but will keep the suffix.
Nii-chan (兄ちゃん): when a young sibling addresses his or her own "big brother".
Kaa-san (母さん): when a man addresses his own "wife" (the "mother" of their children).
Baa-san (祖母さん): when the grandchildren address their "grandma".
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