伝達（でんたつ）4 [T4]: First-Person Pronoun

伝達始 [transmission start]

Before starting with anything, it would probably be most appropriate to mention that the Japanese language is rival to no other in its uniqueness.

In the Japanese language, one can express him/herself in various ways. There are even a majority of quick, everyday phrases and sentences that do not even require a subject noun/pronoun...all that is needed is a verb! In English, this would probably be unthinkable in everyday conversation. In communicating themselves, the Japanese have a choice of three: use their own name to refer as the subject, pick from a basket of Japanese first-person pronouns (which is to be discussed here), or use no pronoun at all. Choice is always a good thing when you want variety and interesting experience!

In that basket of various Japanese pronouns, each one is unique in its usage. Hence, classified in their use in formal/casual situations, whether they are extensively polite in nature or severely rude, the character of the person speaking it (such as historical background, social status, or Japanese geographical locality), or even how the speaker is related to the persons being spoken to.

With the use of anime, film, and some other things, here is Comrade Yuri's findings on this intriguing phenomenon.


A1 - わたし is perhaps what I would call the all-around, all-purpose Japanese first-person pronoun. It can be used for most situations, both formal and informal, and is probably unisex in its usage. It has a more formal variant - わたくし, which can still be considered unisex. According to the joint linguistics research of MGU (Moscow State University) and UMASS (University of Massachusetts Amherst), わたし has recently been observed to be tending to be a "neutral female" pronoun in common usage in modern Japanese.

A2 - While the previous sets have been described as "unisex" (with the debatable recent finding on わたし), there is a set that has been typified for male usage. The first one I would point out is おれ. This pronoun is most definitely male and certainly informal in usage. It is probably the most masculine of pronouns, bearing a possible connotation that you are a man of strength, action, and pride. It can somehow make the male speaker feel "tough" or "dominating". According once more to the MGU/UMASS documentary mentioned, the use of おれ somehow makes the speaker appear "superior" while at the same time making his audience inferior and weak. With this sense, it has been thought of as also, a quite rude pronoun to use.

- Video excerpt from anime, 美鳥の日々(Midori no Hibi - Midori Days). The male lead character, Sawamura Seiji is a tough-gangster-type highschool student, known for beating up people. He uses おれ.

A3 - Another pronoun that is considered masculine is ぼく. The manner it is used is similar to おれ, where it is meant only to be used informally and along with your familiar friends. The only difference would be that it does not carry anything that would make your audience inferior. It is not essentially rude, but not essentially exclusively male either. There are exceptions, where in certain contexts, female Japanese use ぼく.

- Kanon (カノン)'s Ayu Tsukimiya uses ぼく. Any real-life Japanese female that uses ぼく usually ends up being considered either childish or tomboyish. Hence, in this anime, Ayu's childishness becomes evident not just in her stupidity, but her speech as well.

- Tough, smart, and uncompromising, the titular character of キノの旅(Kino no Tabi - Kino's Journey), Kino, is a gunslinger traveler. Her actual gender is revealed later in the anime, hence, it was not only easy to confuse her for a boy due to her appearance, but also due to her use of ぼく, which reveals her immensely tomboyish personality. [this excerpt only has subtitles in Spanish, sorry to those who wished to understand what Kino was asking the operator, but she is primarily asking about why this land has not much people working the machines in the room]

In this sense, ぼく's usage is contextually flexible. Certain popular Japanese songs sung by female J-pop/J-rock singers also use ぼく not simply because of the fact that the songwriter may have been male, but for the purpose of bringing a certain appeal to the singer and the song.

A4 - Further into the exploration of gender-specific first person pronouns, we have the female tier. あたし is known as the "girly" feminine pronoun. Most Japanese females can get by with simply using わたし, but あたし brings forth that the speaker is really being girly. In this assertion of feminism, the female speaker would appear more "cute" if not, attractive to audiences. Professional Japanese Geisha (芸者) have been known to use this to emphasize the femininity their nature of work entails. Its usage is usually restricted either to among females or those people the female speaker is familiar with. Male usage of あたし is almost unheard of (it must be VERY awkward), but here is an exception...

- in 02:47, the character on the right is Chen-san (played by Tonoyama Taiji) is one of the leaders of the Chinese Triad's cells in postwar Japan. His character speaks Mandarin and a variant of Fukien Chinese in the 1961 film by Shohei Imamura, 豚と軍艦 (Buta to Gunkan - Pigs and Battleships). However, when he speaks in Japanese, he refers to himself as あたし. The estranged usage of this pronoun brings about the fact that Chen is a not only non-Japanese, but he is a man of strange personality. This trailer also features the extensive male usage of おれ with members of the Japanese Mafia, the Yakuza やくざ, which are a focal point of this classic film. The Yakuza are known to be extensively rude to Japanese who are not Yakuza, feeling that they are of a superior rank to these citizens being weaker.

A4 - next in the female tier is あたい , which is simply a slang, highly-informal variant of あたし. Its usage is usually more exclusively among females, and a girl who uses it supposedly "increases in degree of cuteness".

- The game series Touhou Project (東方Project) features an ice fairy, Cirno. She sees herself as the ultimate genius (天才) with cuteness that rivals no other. This video is her theme song, and she refers to herself exclusively with あたい. Complete lyrics of the song can be found here for closer inspection.

B1 - Another possible classification of of Japanese first-person pronoun use is with age. あたくし is a variant of あたし whose usage primarily lies with older, or elderly women. Its usage brings about a sense of wisdom and aged experience. Its male counterpart would be わし. The usage of these also brings an emphasis of respect for your elders, which has been a tradition in Japanese social etiquette. Both however, have fallen to relative disuse in modern Japanese language, hence, I do not have much examples to share here.

C1 - Alongside age, there is also the the issue of social status. 朕, ちん was used for a time by the lineage of Emperors of Japan, until the Showa period, where after the surrender of Japan to the Allied nations that concluded World War II, Emperor Hirohito dropped its use, even as an Emperor of Japan himself. He most probably did this to reduce the "sacredness" that connoted his position as Emperor. All the way until August 1945, the Japanese have been taught to revere the Emperor as a living god, descendant of the Goddess of the Sun, Amaterasu (天照大神) in Japanese mythology. He did this not just in accordance to General MacArthur's demand that the new constitution would reduce Imperial political influence, but also that he can approach and speak to the common Japanese person in a down-to-earth manner in their time of great crisis in postwar Japan. Now, the Heisei Emperor, Akihito also no longer uses 朕.

C2 - In popular culture and literature, archaic and antiquated pronouns such as 朕 have long been used to either denote someone from a older, ancient time-period. While 朕 was used to probably denote the Emperor's immortal importance, another example can be seen in Eri Takenashi's かんなぎ (Kannagi)...

The title character of the series: Nagi-sama (found by Google images)

 Nagi-sama, in both the anime and manga uses a very old-fashioned pronoun, わら/わらわ, 妾 when referring to herself. In the story, although she may have materialized in human form in present-day Japan, she is still in fact the ageless and ancient goddess that watched over the local forest and lands for many years. Hence, she uses わら both to show that her speech pattern is from older times in Japan, but also that she is a goddess. Youtube and various manga sites no longer host a workable copy of Kannagi, due to royalty and publishing rights. Here is however, a video example that took much searching. It is unofficial (and may not exactly be legal), and was last workable on the 16 of March, 2011. Load the player and fast forward to 05:33, where Nagi can be first heard in action, using わら.

D1 - By geographical locality, Japanese speech patterns may vary due to accents. The male protagonist of the 2006 film, 硫黄島からの手紙 (IooJima Kara no Tegami - Letters from Iwo Jima) uses a variant of おれ, おら. This is not a common form and neither is it standard Japanese. It has been thought to be "rural" Japanese, primarily those from the regions northern of the Kantou area. Known only as "Saigo" (played by Ninomiya Kazunari), he attempts to comfort his wife as he is conscripted to fight in Iwo Jima with the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA). In the process, he uses おら.

- This excerpt from the film also showcases the usage of わたくしたち, the formal, plural form spoken by the IJA female recruiter-representative and also, われわれ, which is a plural form that can be used to refer on behalf of a group, company, or in this case, General Kuribayashi Tadamichi (played by Watanabe Ken) referring to the IJA in the defense of Iwo Jima (seen in 04:52 of the film excerpt).

E1 - Shirane Haruo's Classical Japanese is a textbook that was meant to examine and inform readers of older Japanese grammar. Its objective was to help readers, especially scholars who delve into Classical Japanese literature and artifacts.

Shirane Haruo's Classical Japanese (Taken from Hong Kong Public Library - Yau Ma Tei Branch)

 In the book, there is a section that discusses first-person pronouns (p. 256 sec.17.2.1). It brings to mention the examples われ and まろ, 麿. 麿 is a pronoun that is very ancient and nowadays, has fallen to extreme disuse that it is probably already an extinct form of "I" in Japanese. With this said, no examples are available here at the moment on its usage. The only probable useful information known of its usage is that it is strictly for males.

F1 -  On a final note, the Japanese language prides itself as a language that gives speakers a choice that is not seen in English. There are instances where no first-person pronoun is used. Either none or your own name...

- Of course however, when referring to yourself using your one name, you present yourself to be quite juvenile. クラナド (Kuranado - Clannad)'s Ibuki Fuko is a high school girl with an increasingly notable childish personality. This excerpt shows how much this habit of hers prevents her from being considered as an adult.

In conclusion, Comrade Yuri details his personal thoughts:

"With all these information in mind, I feel that I would be using the pronoun おれ in reference to myself if I was Japanese. I may not look like it (especially in Japanese class), but I have a rather rude and violent personality. Others however, would simply say that my lively personality just does not tend to be girly. Akagi-sensei has cautioned me on its use, and has told me to stick with わたし. The only other reason why i would use おれ was that I recall a time speaking some Japanese with a friend who was apparently Japanese. He laughed at me slightly when I referred to myself as わたし, saying that it made me sound feminine. I have used おれ for the longest time, and probably, that research from MGU/UMASS now supports that claim."

"It is probably safe and appropriate to say, that the beauty of the Japanese language lies in its complexity and difficulty. NO other language (that I know so far) has more than three ways to refer to yourself! I like to stick to that beautiful piece of philosophy I've always had since taking up Japanese."

伝達終 [transmission end]