April 25, 2013
Tonan no Tsubasa (27)
When Shushou says to Kiwa, "If you don't have the courage to go back for your own" (page 263), she uses the pronoun anta, an informal reduction of anata applied only to social inferiors. Everywhere else, she uses "Shitsu-san."
In Japanese, common personal pronouns are never used to address social superiors (unless to insult them), so this starkly reveals Shushou's contempt for the man. A paragraph later, she again refers to him as "Shitsu-san."
Wikipedia has a nice compendium of Japanese personal pronouns.
In Japanese, common personal pronouns are never used to address social superiors (unless to insult them), so this starkly reveals Shushou's contempt for the man. A paragraph later, she again refers to him as "Shitsu-san."
Wikipedia has a nice compendium of Japanese personal pronouns.
Labels: 12 kingdoms, honorifics, japanese, language, pronouns, social studies, tonan
Comments
You are amazing for doing this, even though I've only just begun reading this series, you're wonderful for translating them, and I'm quite grateful that you haven't stopped yet, and plan to continue all the books from what I've seen. I wish you the best of luck, and once again, thank you very much for doing such a thing, and sharing it with the world :D
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TY so much for doing this, I previously owned the first four books that came to America, and was eager for the rest of the series to come as well. However, it didn't and I never got to read it :(, SO thanks a lot for doing this, not only do you update frequently, but your translations are proficient as well.
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