Re: Japanese name-suffixes (was Re: Moi, le Kou)

From: "Yoon Ha Lee"

(re: -dono)

> Kenshin is set in the Meiji Restoration, and it's only used when
addressing
> the female characters, but that may be coincidence.
Dunno. The Chinese character used is "dian4", a word for "palace".
"Dian4xia4" was used at certain points in Chinese history as "Your Highness"
or "Your Majesty", which may well be where the Japanese usage originated
from. I looked it up in a different Japanese dictionary, and it still cites
it as merely a respectful form of address. I certainly didn't hear it
bandied about in the streets.

> <G>  There's an anime called _Utena_, I think, that features a pink-haired
> girl at some bizarre private school who goes around in boys' clothes and
> uses "boku" for herself.  (The series, from what I've seen of it, is
> incredibly bizarre.)
It seems there was a discussion on this list about two years back about
"boku", and a list member who was still in the field in Japan said, if I
remember correctly, that she often heard high school girls using "boku" and
other masculine forms. My female colleagues in Japan would occasionally
adopt male speech patterns in faux gruff voices for humorous effect, and I
suspect that may be what's going on. Since I'm not an animé aficionado
(despite one of my student's most ardent efforts), I don't know if "Utena"
goes for the laughs.

Kou