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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:26 pm
I needs a refresher course. emo
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:29 pm
  -chan: familiar, usually used for girls or people younger than you.
-kun: female equivalent of -chan. I've seen it used for underclassmen or lower-level colleagues.
-san: used for pretty much everyone unless they're your really close friend. Often appended to surnames, where it's sometimes the equivalent of Mr. or Ms.
-sama: more respectful than -san.
-dono: archaic, very respectful, dun think anyone uses it anymore
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:46 pm
Good education for me too.
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:53 pm
There are honorific forms of verbs and set phrases, as well, if you want to know those too.
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:54 pm
So...if your friend is a boy, and he's younger than you, you'd call him, (whatever)-kun?
And if you're talking to, say a girl older than you, you can call them either, chan, san, Sama or Dono?
And another thing...what is ko used for? question
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:56 pm
HououMinamino There are honorific forms of verbs and set phrases, as well, if you want to know those too. Yes please. 3nodding
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 1:59 pm
  If they're older than you and you don't know them very well, do NOT use -chan.
-san is usually safe, unless they're important.
Right, Houou?...
-ko is short for "child", it's used for nicknames and things. I think.
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 2:24 pm
San San (さん, San?) is the most common honorific and is a title of respect. It is used for the surnames or given names of both males and females. Although in translation san is usually rendered as a common courtesy title like “Mr.” or “Ms.”, unlike these it is never used in self-reference. Using san to refer to oneself makes one appear childish or incredibly vain.
San may also be used in combination with nouns describing the addressee or referent other than the person's name; for example, a bookseller might be addressed or referred to as honya-san ("bookstore" + san) and a butcher, as nikuya-san ("butcher shop" + san).
San is also used when talking about companies and other similar entities. For example, the offices or shop of a company called Kojima Denki might be referred to as "Kojima Denki-san" by another nearby company. This may be seen on the small maps often used in phone books and business cards in Japan, where the names of surrounding companies are written using san.
Although, strictly speaking, not an honorific title in this usage, san can also be attached to the names of animals or even food products. 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 feminine and/or childish (akin to "Mr. Rabbit" in English) and would be avoided in formal speech.
In western Japan (Kansai), particularly in the Kyoto area, Han (はん, Han?) is used instead of san.
Online, Japanese gamers often append a numeral 3 to another player's name to denote 'san', e.g. yoshimitsu3 conveys yoshimitsu-san, since the number three in Japanese is pronounced "san".
Kun Kun (君, Kun?) is an informal honorific primarily used towards males (it is still used towards females, but rarely). It is used by persons of senior status in addressing those of junior status, by males of roughly the same age and status when addressing each other, and by anyone in addressing male children. It can also be used by females when addressing a male that they are emotionally attached to. Usually it depends on the relationship between the two people. In business settings, women, particularly young women, may also be addressed as kun by older males of senior status. It is sometimes used towards male pets as well.
School teachers typically address male students using kun, while female students are addressed as san or chan. The use of kun to address male children is similar to the use of san when addressing adults. In other words, not using kun would be considered rude in most situations, but, like the rule for using san in reference to family members, kun is traditionally not used when addressing or referring to one's own child (unless kun is part of a nickname: "Akira-kun"—Akkun).
In the Diet of Japan, diet members and ministers are called kun by the chairpersons. For example, Shinzo Abe is called "Abe Shinzō-kun". The only exception was that when Takako Doi was the chairperson of the lower house: she used the san title.
Chan Chan (ちゃん, Chan?) is a diminutive suffix. It is an informal version of san used to address children and female family members. It may also be used towards animals, lovers, intimate friends, and people whom one has known since childhood. Chan continues to be used as a term of endearment, especially for girls, into adulthood. Parents will probably always call their daughters chan and their sons kun, though chan can be used towards boys just as easily. Adults may use chan as a term of endearment to women with whom they are on close terms.
Chan can be considered a feminine mode of speech in that it is used mainly by, or towards, females. Its pattern of usage is similar to using "dear" when addressing someone in English. Males would not use chan when addressing other males (other than very young children, or idiomatic cases like Shuwa-chan, described below).
"Pet names" are often made by attaching chan to a truncated stem of a name. This implies even greater intimacy than simply attaching it to the full name. So for example, a pet rabbit (usagi) might be called usa-chan rather than usagi-chan. Similarly, Chan is sometimes used to form pet names for celebrities. For example, Arnold Schwarzenegger gained the nickname Shuwa chan in Japanese. Pet-names may also use variations on chan (see "euphonic suffixes", below).
Although traditionally honorifics are not applied to oneself, some young women adopt the affectation of referring to themselves in the third person using chan, a mode of speech normally only found amongst small children. For example, a young woman named Maki might call herself Maki-chan rather than using a first person pronoun.
The Japanese media use chan when mentioning pre-elementary school children and sometimes elementary-school girls.
Senpai and kōhai Senpai and kōhai Senpai (先輩, Senpai?) is used to address senior colleagues or mentor figures, e.g. students referring to or addressing more senior students in schools, junior athletes more senior ones in a sports club, or a mentor or more experienced or senior colleague in a business environment. As with English titles such as Doctor, senpai can be used either by itself as a title, or with a person's name in place of san.
Kōhai (後輩, Kōhai?) is the reverse of this. It is used to refer to juniors (but not normally address them: kōhai are normally addressed by name +kun; addressing someone directly as kōhai would be somewhat rude).
Sensei Sensei (先生, Sensei?) is used to refer to or address teachers, practitioners of a profession such as doctors and lawyers, politicians, 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. For example, Japanese manga fans refer to manga artists using the term sensei, as in Takahashi-sensei for manga artist Rumiko Takahashi; the term is used similarly by fans of other creative professionals such as novelists, musicians, and artists.
Sensei can also be used fawningly, as evinced by adherents in addressing or talking about charismatic business, political, and religious leaders (especially unordained ones). Japanese speakers will also use the term sarcastically to ridicule overblown or fawning adulation of such leaders, and the Japanese media frequently invoke it (rendered in katakana, akin to scare quotes or italics in English) to highlight the megalomania of those who allow themselves to be sycophantically addressed with the term. A further, similar use is to address or refer to someone who acts in a self-important or self-aggrandizing manner.
As with senpai, Sensei can be used not only as a suffix but a title by itself, translating to "Professor" or "Teacher".
Sama Sama (様, Sama?) is the formal version of san. This honorific is used primarily in addressing persons much higher in rank than oneself and in commercial and business settings to address and refer to customers. It also appears in words used to address or speak of persons or objects for which the speaker wishes to show respect or deference, such as okyaku-sama (customer) or Tateishi-sama (a stone revered as a manifestation of the divine). Additionally, Japanese Christians will refer to God in prayer as Kami-sama and Jesus as Iesu-sama. -sama is regularly used by the press to mention female members of the Imperial Family (as in Masako-sama). People will also affix sama to the names of personages who have a special talent or are considered particularly attractive, though this usage can also be exaggerated, tongue-in-cheek or ironic. Examples include "Tanaka-sama" to refer to a young man named Tanaka who is considered rather handsome by his admirers and the "Leo-Sama" (or "Reo-sama") that has become the media's pet name for Leonardo DiCaprio. Further, sama can be used to express arrogance (or self-effacing irony), such as in the arrogant male pronoun ore-sama ("my esteemed self") for "I". Referring to oneself with -sama is considered to be highly egotistical.
Sama also follows the addressee's name on postal packages and letters and is frequently seen in business e-mails.
It is worth noting that the sama appearing 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-kuro sama (an expression recognizing someone's labors), though written with the same kanji, is etymologically and semantically distinct from the sama used as term of address.
In the same way that chan is a version of san, there is also chama from sama, typically used for an older person. There is also the much less used "tama", which is the most childish and is usually used by young children for older siblings (like "Onii-tama", which means "big brother"), or someone else they admire.
Shi Shi (氏, Shi?) 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.
Dono/tono Dono and tono (both written 殿) roughly mean "lord" or "master". This title is no longer used in daily conversation, though it is still used in some types of written business correspondence. It is also seen on certificates and awards, and in written correspondence in tea ceremonies. The word dono originally meant the residence of the aristocracy. It's often translated as "Lord" or "Lady" in English subtitles, though noble status is not necessarily implied; it is more akin to general terms such as "milord" or French "monseigneur". Dono is similar to sama, but the former is less formal and often carries undertones of personal affection.
Note: Dono and tono are more common in anime and manga, particularly in period works, and often come up in two forms:
submissive: Using its "lord" or "master" roots, this form of dono is often considered to show slightly less respect than sama and more than san. [1] equal: This form of dono is used by a powerful/important person to address another powerful/important person with a great deal of respect without elevating the addressee above the addresser.[2]
Ue Ue (上, Ue?) literally means "above" and, appropriately, 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, chichi-ue?) and haha-ue (母上, haha-ue?), reverent terms for one's own, or someone else's, 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, Heika?) is affixed to the end of a royal title, with a meaning similar to "Majesty" reserverd for reigning sovereigns. For example, Tennō heika (天皇陛下, Tennō heika?) means "His Majesty, the Emperor" and Joō heika (女王陛下, Joō heika?) means "Her Majesty, the Queen" (e.g. of Denmark). Heika by itself can also be used as a direct term of address, similar to "Your Majesty". Denka (殿下, Denka?) is affixed to the end of a non-sovereign royal title, with a meaning similar to "Royal Highness" or "Majesty". For example Suwēden Ōkoku, Vikutoria Kōtaishi denka (スウェーデン王国、ヴィクトリア皇太子殿下, Suwēden Ōkoku, Vikutoria Kōtaishi denka?) "Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Victoria of the Kingdom of Sweden". Kakka (閣下, Kakka?) means "Your Excellency" and is used for ambassadors and heads of state. Hime (姫, Hime?) is used as an honorific if one is addressing a princess. Hime may also be used as a direct address, akin to calling a person simply "Princess". To convey even greater respect, the honorific sama will be added to both the title and the honorific. Can be used with an "o" prefix (Ohime sama).
Shōgō Shōgō (称号, Shōgō? "title", "name", "degree") are martial arts titles developed by the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai.[3] The Kokusai Budoin,
Renshi (錬士 : れんし, Renshi?): instructor. Kyōshi (教士 : きょうし, Kyōshi?) refers to an advanced teacher. Hanshi (範士 : はんし, Hanshi?) 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, Meijin?): awarded by a special board of examiners. See also Meijin.
Other titles Kyōshi (教師 : きょうし, Kyōshi?), which in everyday Japanese can be a more modest synonym for sensei, is sometimes used to indicate an instructor. Oyakata (親方 : おやかた, Oyakata?), master, especially a sumo coach. The literal sense is of someone in loco parentis. Shihan (師範 : しはん, Shihan?), merely means chief instructor; unlike the titles above it is not related to grade. (In the Isshin-Ryu school of Karate-do, Shihan is used to refer to 5th degree black belts or higher.) Shidōin (指導員:しどういん, Shidōin?), intermediate instructor, also unrelated to grade. Shishō (師匠 : ししょう, Shishō?) is another title used for martial arts instructors. Zeki (関 : ぜき, Zeki?), literally "barrier", used for sumo wrestlers in the top two divisions (sekitori).
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 2:30 pm
Triton, you're a moving Wikipedia surprised
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 2:33 pm
Nah, I just have 6 pages on Japanese honorifics saved to my faves, as well as some books. ^^
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 2:36 pm
xp Oh well, thanks for the info anyway ^^
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 2:46 pm
Books are awesome.
Although most of mine are just rreally language dictionaries.
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Swashbuckling Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 3:08 pm
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 3:15 pm
You also missed an important one. [blank]: Used to denote intamacy, this can be very special when used by someone who has earnt the right, but highly insulting when used by someone who hasn't.
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Posted: Sat Nov 15, 2008 3:19 pm
Oh I did, thanks for reminding me Saturn! ^_^;;
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