Japanese honorifics
From Conservapedia
Japanese honorifics refers to the suffix that Japanese people append to others' names when addressing them.
How you call people and by what suffix is determined by their relationship relative to you. Your group membership defines you, particularly your family. Thus, in contrast to Western norms, they are introduced (even by themselves) first by their family name (surname) and then by their given (Christian) name. More often than not, unless you are having a conversation with a family member, or a close friend, who has been given permission to call the person by their given name, people will address each other by their surnames.
Put simply, the more distant the other party is from you, the more polite the conversation will be, even if you are peers.
Examples of Honorifics
The most common honorifics are:
- -san: This is generally translated as "Mr." or "Mrs." and is a close enough approximation. It is used to denote respect for an elder, or somebody in a senior position to you. A rule of thumb is that you cannot go wrong by calling somebody "surname-san," although that is quite formal, respectful and distancing. In some cases, for example, work colleagues who you respect but are on the same level as yourself you can refer to them by "given name-san," which denotes respect, but is less distancing. However, you never apply the term to yourself, when making an introduction.
- -san is also commonly used to denote respect when addressing older family members. Thus mother and father become "okasan" and "otosan" respectively. Likewise, an elder sibling can be called "oniisan" in the case of a brother, or "oneesan" for an elder sister.
- -sama: Is an extremely formal version of -san. Its most frequent use is in the business world, when addressing somebody of much higher rank or position, or when talking to customers (okyaku-sama). In addition, it is used to show reverence and deference and Japanese Christians refer to God as "Kami-sama" and Jesus as "Iesu-sama."
- -kun: This is an informal honorific, normally applied to males between the ages of 10 and 25, both by their elders and their peers. It is also often applied to young women, when being addressed by an elder or senior, where the use of both "san" and "chan" would be inappropriate.
- -chan: This is mostly applied to small children of both genders, as it gives the impression that something is "diminutive" and "cute." It is also used as a term of endearment for young women and in contrast to "san" a woman might introduce herself as "given name-chan." A common exception to this occurs with grandparents. Given that the longer you've known somebody, the more familiar you can be with them, the most extreme example is the calling your grandparents "-chan" because you knew them when you learned to speak. In this case, it's "obaachan" (grandmother) or "ojiichan" (grandfather). Normally it would be extreme taboo to talk to someone several decades older than you with the "chan" suffix. In this case, it indicates a loving familiarity.
- -senpai: "Senpai" is used to address somebody who is senior to you in an educational institution (an upperclassman), sporting team, or club, or somebody whom the speaker sees as a mentor. It can be used either as a suffix after the name, as a title, by simply addressing the person as "Sempai."
- kouhei: This is the opposite to senpai and refers to somebody junior to yourself at school, university or on a team. However, in this case, it is only used to refer to their status and it would be rude to address somebody simply as "Kouhei." A junior would be referred to as "name-kun"; for example, "This is Yamazaki-kun, he is my kouhei."
- -sensei: Although most people know this is used to address a teacher, it can be applied to any practitioner of a profession, such as a doctor or lawyer. It denotes respect for somebody who has mastered a specific skill. As with "senpai" it can be used either as a suffix, or a title.
- -tan: "Name-tan" is what you get when you have a small child trying to pronounce "chan" and failing. It's essentially baby-talk. Accordingly, stuffed animals and chibi mascots are often called "name-tan." Probably the most generic example of this, is what a teddy bear is called in Japan: "kuma-tan."
Practical Examples
The best example of how this naming soup works in practice can be found in the series of light novels, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya (Suzumiya Haruhi no Yūutsu). This gives a great example of how form of address depends on respect and familiarity, especially how the two boys in the club (Kyon and Koizumi) address to the girls. In keeping with Japanese names, the characters are named in order of surname first, then given name.
Kyon invariably calls Suzumiya Haruhi, "Haruhi." Not even "Haruhi-chan." This indicates that he really doesn't respect her at all, and doesn't think of her as "cute" and it is really rather insulting.
By comparison, Koizumi calls her "Suzumiya-san," which is a respectful, distant politeness not normally accorded to high-school girls of one's own age or year. He does the same to Nagato Yuki, calling her "Nagato-san" which is a similarly odd honorific to apply to a fellow classmate. Kyon on the other hand, calls her "Nagato," which is friendly, but respectfully distant.
Kyon calls Asahina Mikuru (the only upperclassman in the club) "Asahina-san," both because of her position as an upperclassman and because he has a crush on her. Conversely, Koizumi often calls her "Mikuru-chan," as does Haruhi, which indicates a closeness and familiarity that they should not be having with her, and which, in Koizumi's case, offends Kyon to no end.
