The Japanese language uses a broad array of honorific suffixes for addressing or referring to people, for example, -san, as in Davey-san. These honorifics are gender-neutral (can be used for males and females). However, some are more used for men or women (-kun is primarily used for men, while -chan is primarily used for women) and can be attached to first names as well as surnames, for example, Peter-san, Catherine-san, Miller-san. Utilising an honorific is generally required when referring to someone, but in some cases, it can be dropped or must not be used – see usage notes below.

Contents

  • 1 Usage
  • 2 Translation
  • 3 Common honorifics
    • 3.1 San
    • 3.2 Chan
    • 3.3 Kun
    • 3.4 Sama
    • 3.5 Senpai and ko-hai
    • 3.6 Sensei
    • 3.7 Shi
  • 4 Other titles
    • 4.1 Occupation-related titles
    • 4.2 For criminals and the accused
    • 4.3 For companies
    • 4.4 Dono/tono
    • 4.5 No kimi
    • 4.6 Ue
    • 4.7 Royal and official titles
    • 4.8 Martial arts titles
      • 4.8.1 Sho-go-
      • 4.8.2 Other martial arts titles
    • 4.9 Other titles
  • 5 Euphonic suffixes and wordplay
    • 5.1 Baby talk variations
  • 6 Familial honorifics
  • 7 See also
    • 7.1 Other languages
  • 8 References
  • 9 Further reading
  • 10 External links


Usage

Honorifics are not part of the basic grammar of the Japanese language, yet proper use is essential to proficient and appropriate speech. Significantly, referring to oneself using an honorific or dropping an honorific when required is a serious faux pas, either coming across as clumsy or arrogant.

An honorific is generally used when referring to the person one is talking to (one's interlocutor) or when referring to an unrelated third party in speech. It is dropped by some superiors when referring to one's in-group and in formal writing. It is never used to refer to oneself except for dramatic effect or exceptional cases.

Dropping the honorific suffix when referring to one's interlocutor, which is known as yobisute (呼び捨て), implies a high degree of intimacy and is generally reserved for one's spouse, younger family members, social inferiors (as in a teacher addressing students in traditional arts), and very close friends. It can also be acceptable to use family names without honorifics within sports teams or among classmates, where the interlocutors have approximately the same age or seniority. Some people in the younger generation (roughly "born since 1970″) prefer to be referred to without an honorific, however, and drop honorifics as a sign of informality even with casual acquaintances.

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 – this is the uchi-soto (in-out) distinction. 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.

The use of honorifics is correlated with other forms of honorific speech in Japanese, notably, the use of the polite form (-masu, desu) versus the plain form – using the plain form with a polite honorific (-san, -sama) can be jarring, for instance.

Translation

When translating honorific suffixes to other languages, some analogous form of T–V distinction is generally used (which may involve different pronouns – tu/vous or thee/thou – or honorifics – see English honorifics), or referring to someone on a first-name basis rather than a family-name basis, or using a nickname or diminutive to indicate intimacy. For example, given a person named HASEGAWA Tarō, one may translate Hasegawa-san as "Mr. Hasegawa" and Hasegawa-kun as "Hasegawa" (slightly formal in English, perhaps appropriate in a school setting) or as "Tarō" (appropriate between friends), the informal Tarō-kun as Tarō, and the diminutive Tarō-chan as Tarry or a similar nickname. Similarly, referring to a child by a respectful term (Hasegawa-sama) as by a company referring to a client might be translated as the somewhat archaic "Master Hasegawa". However, it is not always possible to faithfully reflect the connotations of social status, seniority, or other relationships implied by suffixes.

Common honorifics

  • San

    San (さん) (sometimes pronounced han (はん) in Kansai dialect), derived from sama (see below), is the most commonplace honorific and is a title of respect typically used between equals of any age. Although the closest analogue in English is the honorifics "Mr.", "Miss", "Mrs.", or "Ms.", san is almost universally added to a person's name, in both formal and informal contexts. However, in addition to being used with people's names, it is employed in various ways.

    San is used in combination with workplace nouns so that a bookseller might be addressed or referred to as honya-san ("bookstore" + san), and a butcher as nikuya-san ("butcher shop" + san).

    San is sometimes used with company names. For example, the offices or shops of a company called Kojima Denki might be dubbed "Kojima Denki-san" by another nearby company. This may be seen on small maps often used in phone books and business cards in Japan, where the names of surrounding companies are written using 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 avoided in formal speech. Even married people often refer to their spouse with san.

    Online, Japanese gamers often append a numeral 3 to another player's name to denote san (e.g. Taro3 conveys Taro-san) since the number three, written 三(さん, san) in Japanese, is pronounced "san".

  • Chan

    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, grandparents and teenage girls. It may also be used towards cute animals, lovers, close friends, or any youthful woman. It can be used for males in some circumstances, but in general, this use is somewhat condescending or intimate.

    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 (childish because it suggests that one has not learned to distinguish between names used for self and names employed by others). 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

    Kun (君【くん】) is used by persons of senior status in addressing or referring to those of junior standing, or by anyone when addressing or referring to male children or male teenagers. It can also be used by females when addressing a male they have been emotionally attached to or have known for a long time. Although kun is generally used for boys, that is not a hard rule. For example, kun can be used to name a close personal friend or family member of either gender. Also, in business settings, young female employees may be addressed as kun by older males of senior status. Male teachers can also use it to address their female students.

    In the Diet of Japan (Legislature), chairpersons use kun when addressing diet members and ministers. An exception was when Takako Doi was the chairperson of the lower house: she used the san title.

  • Sama

    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 dramatically 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 customarily follows the addressee's name on postal packages and letters and in a business email.

    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 recognising someone's labours). Although it is written with the same kanji, it is semantically distinct from the sama used as a term of address.
  • Senpai and kōhai

    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 another group. So, at school, the students in higher grades than themselves are senpai. Students of the same or lower grade are neither senpai nor teachers. In a business environment, colleagues with more experience are sempai, but one's boss is not a sempai. Like "Doctor" in English, senpai can be used by itself as well as with a name. Due to the phonological rules of the Japanese language, although spelt senpai, the n sound turns to an m sound, thereby being pronounced sempai.

    A kōhai (後輩 【こうはい】) is a junior, the reverse of senpai, but it is not generally used as an honorific.

  • Sensei

    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 Japanese martial arts, Sensei typically refers to someone who is the head of a dojo. As with sempai, Sensei can be used not only as a suffix but also as a stand-alone title.

    Sensei can be used fawningly and sarcastically to ridicule such fawning. The Japanese media invoke it (rendered in katakana, akin to scare quotes or italics in English) to highlight the megalomania of those who can be sycophantically addressed with the term.

  • Shi

    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 expected 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 only one person is being referred to.

Other titles

  • Occupation-related titles

    Using a job title after someone's name instead of a general honour is common. 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 expected 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. Still, now an effort is made to distinguish between suspects (容疑者, yōgisha), defendants (被告, hikoku), and convicts (受刑者, jukeisha), so as not to presume guilt before anything has been proven. These titles can be used by themselves or attached to names.

    However, although "suspect" and "defendant" began as neutral descriptions, they have become derogatory over time. When Gorō Inagaki was arrested for a traffic accident in 2001, some media referred him with the newly made title menbā (メンバー), originating from the English word member, to avoid the use of yōgisha (容疑者, suspect). But in addition to being criticised as an unnatural term, this title also became derogatory almost instantly.

  • For companies

    There are several words for "our company" and "your company." "Our company" can be expressed with the humble heisha (弊社, "clumsy/poor company") or the neutral jisha (自社, "our own company"), and "your company" can be expressed with the honorific kisha (貴社, "noble company", used in writing) or onsha (御社, "honourable company", used in speech). Additionally, the neutral tōsha (当社, "this company") can refer to either the speaker's or the listener's company. All of these titles are used by themselves, not attached to names.

    When mentioning a company's name, it is considered essential to include its status depending on whether it is incorporated (株式会社, Kabushiki Kaisha) or yūgen gaisha). These are often abbreviated as 株 and 有 respectively.

  • Dono/tono

    Tono (殿 【との】), pronounced dono (どの) when attached to a name, roughly means "lord" or "master". It does not equate to noble status; instead, it is a term akin to "milord" or French "monseigneur" and lies in between san and sama in the level of respect. This title is not commonly used in daily conversation. However, it is still used in some types of written business correspondence, on certificates and awards and in written correspondence in tea ceremonies. It is/was also used to indicate that the person referred to has the same (high) rank as the referrer yet commands respect from the speaker.

    When used in conversation in the present day, it is often used as a joke expressing an exaggeration of age. This is also commonly used in anime/manga, mainly by foreigners, older adults, and people of low standing, especially in shounen anime/manga.

  • No kimi

    No kimi (の君) is another suffix coming from Japanese history. It was used to denominate Lords and Ladies in the Court, especially during the Heian period. The most famous example is Prince Hikaru Genji, a protagonist of The Tale of Genji who was called "Hikaru no Kimi "(光の君). Nowadays, this suffix can be used as a metaphor for someone who behaves like a prince or princess from ancient times, but it is scarce. Its primary usage remains in historical dramas.

    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

    Ue (上) means "above" and denotes a high level of respect. While its use is no longer widespread, 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". 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, "Her Royal Highness, Crown Princess Victoria of the Kingdom of Sweden"). 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 of Japan, ambassadors and other high-rank officials such as the Secretary-General of the United Nations. It, too, can be used by itself or attached to a specific title.
  • Daitōryō (大統領) means "President" and is used for any national president. It is most commonly attached to a name, such as the 44th President of the United States, Obama-Daitōryō (オバマ大統領, "President Obama").

Martial arts titles

Martial artists often address their teachers as Sensei . Junior and senior students are organised via a senpai/kōhai system. Also, in some karate systems, 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 organisation.

Shōgō

Shōgō (称号, "title", "name", "degree") are martial arts titles developed by the Dai Nippon Butoku Kai, the Kokusai Budoin and the International Martial Arts Federation Europe.
  • 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". Many different arts use this title for the top few instructors of that style, and it is sometimes translated as "Grand Master".
  • Meijin (名人): awarded by a special board of examiners.

Other martial arts titles

  • Kensei (剣聖, sword's saint) is an honorary title given to a warrior of legendary skill in swordsmanship.
  • Kyōshi (教師: きょうし), 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), master, especially a sumo coach. The literal sense is of someone in loco parentis.
  • 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", is used for sumo wrestlers in the top two divisions (sekitori).

Other titles

  • Hōshi (法師: ほうし), a 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.

Euphonic suffixes and wordplay

Some Japanese people may use contrived suffixes instead of normal honorifics in informal speech. This is essentially a form of wordplay, with suffixes chosen for their sound or friendly or scornful connotations. Although the range of such suffixes that might be coined is limitless, some have gained such widespread usage that the boundary between established honorifics and wordplay has become slightly blurred. Examples of such suffixes include variations on chan (see below), bee (scornful), and rin (friendly). Note that, unlike a proper honorific, the use of such suffixes is governed mainly by how they sound in conjunction with a particular name and on the effect the speaker is trying to achieve.

Baby talk variations

Some honorifics have baby talk versions—mispronunciations stereotypically associated with small children and, hence, cuteness. The baby-talk version of sama is chama (ちゃま), for example, and in fact, chan was a baby-talk version of san that eventually became regarded as an ordinary honorific.

There are even baby talk versions of baby talk versions. Chan can be changed to tan (たん), and less commonly, chama (ちゃま) to tama (たま). These are popularly used in the names of more anthropomorphisms, in which a cute female or less commonly male character represents an object, concept, or popular consumer product. Well-known examples include the OS-tan operating system anthropomorphisms and the charcoal mascot Binchō-tan.

Familial honorifics

Words for family members have two different forms in Japanese. When referring to one's 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". Honorific forms are used when addressing one's family members or addressing or referring to someone else's family members. Using the suffix -san, as is most common, "mother" becomes okā-san (お母さん) and "older brother" becomes onī-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): uncle, or also "middle-aged gentleman".
  • Ojī-san (お祖父さん/御爺さん/お爺さん/御祖父さん): grandpa, or also "male senior-citizen".
  • Okā-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): aunt, or also "middle-aged lady".
  • Obā-san (お祖母さん/御祖母さん/御婆さん/お婆さん): grandma, or also "female senior-citizen".
  • Onī-san (お兄さん): big brother, or also "a young gentleman". The descriptive noun is ani (兄).
  • Onē-san (お姉さん): big sister, or also "a young lady". The descriptive noun is ane .

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.
  • Nī-chan (兄ちゃん) or Nī-san (兄さん): when a young sibling addresses their own "big brother".
  • Nē-chan (姉ちゃん) or Nē-san (姉さん): when a young sibling addresses their own "big sister".
  • Kā-san (母さん): when a man addresses his own "wife" (the "mother" of their children).
  • Bā-chan (祖母ちゃん): when the grandchildren address their "grandma".


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