Jahslyn Barrack
Robert Clifford
Anthropology 3, IVC
A Study of Gendered Language in Japanese
Dating back to times that are nowhere near modern, the culture of the Japanese
has been one that is known for having many segregations when it comes to gender, or
more precisely, masculinity and femininity. Women are portrayed to be soft, gentle, and
sweet, while men are idealized to be bolder, more “macho”, and rougher in terms of
behavior and speech. In most cases, anything straying from these “gender norms” gains
more than a few glares from onlookers. Women, in particular, are expected to play and fit
the role of the feminine ideal. Japanese and foreigners alike are taught to use their
corresponding gender speech patterns, and if one switches from their framework of
speech that was laid out for them based on their gender, it is most certainly considered
strange.
However, these days, many more women are starting to break from the
standardized speech patterns they are supposed to use as women, and are taking their
stance by engaging in speech types of both genders. Typically seen as docile, it is a large
step for Japanese women to start going against normalities and expectations. Often times
it can be seen in Japanese that feminine language berates women to a secondary social
status, below men. With undertones of sexism still existing in the language, women have
been fueled to take their own steps to evolve the language to fit today’s modern age,
where the thought of women being equal to men is not such a scary thought.
As with all languages, Japanese is constantly growing and changing to fit more
comfortably with the rapidly modern and advancing culture of the country today. When
taking a look at the gendered linguistic portion of the language, there has been significant
changes and additions in the past century. In simpler terms, many phrases, sentence
enders, and pronouns have changed from being used by both men and women to
separated usage. Examples in which specific sentence enders were used by both genders
can be traced back to the 1813, near the end of the Edo period, or pre-Meiji, the time in
which Western influence was blooming in Japan. The Japanese spoken in 1813 is
considered a more archaic form of Japanese, and the language spoken in 1909 is
considered the beginning of “Modern Japanese”.
To look at it in a concept that can be understood in English, sentence enders can
be compared to things like “Ya know” or other small quirks that indicate connotation and
gender status in speech. There are no solid, direct translations of sentence enders in
Japanese, as they are often times just different ways to mark a question or a statement of
information. When examining the usage of a selection of the most common sentences
endings, there are big changes in the gender usage when comparing them in 1909 to 100
years past. In pre-Meiji usage, sentence enders were used by majorly both genders, with
some exceptions to usage, such as social status and class in the four-tier system that was
implemented back then. However, several were permitted from use by samurai-class
females. In contrast, there were some sentence enders that exceeded gender and class
status barriers, but these were quite few in number.
Today, modern Japanese has split nearly all of these into categories that should be
used by primarily only males or primarily only females. As a general rule of thumb, the
ones used by females are intended to sound “feminine”, meaning they are softer in tone,
and sound rather polite in comparison to male-oriented enders. One example of this is the
popular usage of “-wa” (in Japanese, わ) by females, and the usage of “-da” (in Japanese,
だ) by males. When pronouncing both of these syllables at the end of a phrase or word,
wa can be considered a much softer sound, where as da is more abrupt and hard. This
connection of softer sounds leads back to the idea of women being softer. However,
women can use “-da” as well, but in most cases, “-wa” is added after. Taking a look at the
actual usage, it can be seen in action as follows:
Male: 日本人だ
(Nihonjin da// It is a Japanese person*)
Female: 日本人だわ (Nihonjin da wa// It is a Japanese person)
*Depending on context, the translation could be “I am a Japanese” or “He/She is a Japanese”
These two phrases are exactly the same meaning, but women are expected to add
something to make it sound much softer, as that is the image they are supposed to live up
to. This is a primary example of one of the many forms of gendered language in Japanese.
In addition to the segregated use of sentence enders there are examples of
gendered language to be found in Japanese pronoun usage. While in English, there only
exists “I” which is neither masculine, nor feminine, in Japanese there are a variety of ways
to refer to oneself, each with a different degree of masculinity, femininity, and/or
politeness. Women have the choice of simply “私” (watashi) or あたし (atashi). Watashi
is generally associated with the English concept of “I”, and it is to be used by both genders
and is relatively polite. Atashi, is a more “airy” and to be used ONLY by females. However,
men have more of a variety to choose from, all with much more masculine connotations.
In addition to watashi, men can use 僕 (boku), 俺 (ore), or 自分 (jibun). All of these,
especially ore, have very “manly” or “boyish” connections to them, and for this reason a
female is not often seen using these.
However, while it may not be the social norm currently, there are a rising number
of women using “boku” as a more tomboyish self pronoun, and ever-so-rarely, “ore” for a
very prideful sense. While usages of these pronouns for a woman may turn some heads, it
is becoming more frequent, as it is often quite limited for a woman to only have half the
number of choices for self-referral as a man. Women are creating this trend as Japanese
society is changing to one in which women are becoming closer to equal in relation to
men. Breaking the traditional rules of the language is one of many ways women are
becoming more empowered through the use of speech and writing.
Aside from the smaller bits and pieces of the language and grammar, the overall
usage of a large amount of vocabulary in Japan is highly gendered. Even the meanings of
words are intended to be culturally gendered. Everyday colloquial terms have rather sexist
meanings when pulled apart and examined by their kanji (Chinese characters) and
compound words. Many phrases also follow this pattern of sexism as well. While these
terms cannot be eradicated, it is quite easy to see the gendered segregation.
For example, one may look at the terms for “bride” and “wife”. In Japanese, these
words are written as 嫁 (yome) and 奥さん (oku-san) accordingly. While these may
appear to be regular vocabulary upon first hearing or reading these words, there are many
key components of these words that display the gendered cultural connotation. For
starters, one can examine the kanji that makes up the word “yome”.
嫁
よめ
Bride
= 女
おんな
woman
+ 家
いえ
house
It does not take much more than common sense to see that this is clearly a cultural
gender-influenced word. The notion that women are meant to stay in the house is the
reason why the kanji for “yome” exists as such. While the root of the word is quite sexist,
the term yome is a very normal thing to say, and women do not get offended at its use.
Oku-san is a very similar case. Oku-san is the word for wife that is taught in schools in
Japan and abroad. At first glance or listen, it simply seems like just the word for wife.
However, the true meaning for “oku” is “inside”, so this term literally means “Mrs. Inside”,
referring to a wife being in the house as the previous example explained. While these
words and many more are colloquial terms, their roots show further gender segregation in
the language that has transcended even until modern times.
Despite all of this, women are using gendered language as a movement for not
only self-expression, but also self empowerment. While gendered language is not always
bad, in some cases it can have its negative meanings that can somewhat dehumanize
women. Other times, it can be simply considered a quirk by those who use it. Concurrently,
it is also important to understand that women do not necessarily always view gendered
language as a bad thing. There are many who are making it into something that is not as
“strict” as before, but others may like to use it to feel as if they are embracing their
femininity. In this aspect, gendered language can be seen from either perspective as
negative or positive, while it is generally seen as something that has a mixture of both
aspects.
Understanding the topic of gendered language and its role in culture and speech is
important for understand linguistics in a more broad sense. Understanding how another
language operates and its features, such as gendering, is essential in learning and
comprehending language and culture as a whole, but simply from a different viewpoint.
Gendered language is not something that is very prevalent in English compared to
Japanese, so viewing its cultural and linguistic effect is crucial to understand the topic that
is not quite as easily studied in the English language. Gendered language is important to
understand especially in this day and age because more and more, women are coming to
power and finally achieving equality in comparison to their male counterparts. Language
can be used as more than a form of communication; It is a tool that is used to sculpt
cultural change.
It is also important to understand that gendered language is a very rapidly evolving
aspect of language as a whole, be it Japanese or any other language that makes use of it.
Gendered language evolved rather quickly, as it was dramatically changed in the short
span of 100 years. This rate of change means that it will most likely consistently change
throughout time, perhaps with more dramatic affects following increased changes, like as
women using masculine speech. However, there is no way to predict what kind of changes
will occur. By examining the present trends, though, gendered language may ultimately
end up being something obsolete and outdated, as both genders may start using whatever
speech patterns they like freely. As fast as a language can create something like gendered
language, it can evolve into something different at the same speed, no matter where in
the world it is spoken.
Works Cited
Farnsley, Kathy Wolfe. "Language: Instrument of Change for Japanese Women?" Women and
Language 13.2 (1995): 1. ProQuest. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.
Takemaru, Naoko. "Japanese Women's Perceptions of Sexism in Language." Women and Language
28.1 (2005): 39-48. ProQuest. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.
Koichi. "Japanese Gendered Language - Tofugu." Tofugu. Web. 20 Apr. 2015.
<http://www.tofugu.com/guides/japanese-gendered-language/>.