"For an example of Politness Levels in action, see the example below.
Japanese Teacher: Good morning, Harry.
Harry: Good Morning.
Japanese Classmates: (gasps of horror and shock)
The bottom line is that Politeness Levels are completely beyond your understanding, so don't even try. Just resign yourself to talking like a little girl for the rest of your life and hope to God that no one beats you up."
Keigo is a Japanese speech register containing the language's more polite forms of address. It is used in formal and ceremonial circumstances, and in certain cases when those of lower social position are addressing those higher-up. For example, shop clerks generally address customers using
keigo forms. (A few
keigo phrases are used in daily conversation as well.)
In
anime,
keigo speech marks a character as refined, courtly, old-fashioned, or exceptionally polite and mild-mannered.
The Ojou,
Yamato Nadeshiko, and
Samurai characters are all likely
keigo speakers. People from
Kansai are also prone to using
keigo in situations where Kanto speakers would deem it unnecessary, especially speakers from Kyoto.
This form of speech is sometimes rendered in various dubs as British English or European Spanish if it is the defining trait of a character; on the other hand, how best to translate it when it's just normal characters speaking formally is problematic in situations where speakers of other languages would not go out of their way to do so. This is especially maddening where a character subtly switches between forms of speech used towards a peer, which marks a change in their relationship. It is important to translate this nuance, but there is no clear solution without cheating and assuming your audience is familiar with at least a basic level of Japanese.
See also
Japanese Pronouns,
Honorifics.
There are actually a variety of concepts related to levels of politeness, level of formality, respect, and humility. Keigo is just one aspect of these. This entry is of necessity an overview only.
Levels of politeness (formality) and respect (indication of the difference in status between speaker and subject) can be indicated by choice of syntax. Note that the two concepts are essentially independent; speech can be respectful but informal, or formal but condescending, or polite and respectful, or neither.
Politeness is most commonly indicated with the form of the end of a sentence. The plain form of a verb is used for informal speech, usually among close associates (friends, co-workers, etc.). The polite form is used in more formal situtaions. Some words and grammar constructions have an even-higher level of politeness.
Examples:
- Kore wa pen da. ("This is a pen", informal)
- Kore wa pen desu. ("This is a pen", formal)
- Kore wa pen de gozaimasu. ("This is a pen", very formal)
- Iku. ("I will go", informal)
- Ikimasu. ("I will go", formal)
Levels of respect can be indicated through honorifics (
keigo, forms which show the elevated status of the subject), and humble words (
kenjougo, forms which show the relatively low status of the speaker). This can be accomplished either with different verb conjugations, or with substitute verbs. Continuing with the "iku" example from above, the following all mean "I/you/he/she will go". Both plain and polite forms are shown.
- Iku / Ikimasu. (neutral)
- Ikareru / Ikaremasu. (honorific, non-standard but commonly used)
- Irassharu / Irasshaimasu. (honorific)
- Mairu / Mairimasu. (humble)
(A commonly-heard phrase coming from the
irassharu replacement verb is
irasshai or
irasshaimase, used by shopkeepers to greet patrons. Another common example is
itadaku, "to partake", which replaces
taberu ["to eat"], and is commonly heard in the form
itadakimasu, before eating.)
Most verbs don't have replacement forms, and thus various conjugations are the only option. The following all mean "I read/you read/he reads/she reads". Plain form only shown, for clarity.
- Yomu. (neutral)
- Yomareru. (honorific)
- Oyomi ni naru. (honorific)
- Oyomi ni nasaru. (even more honorific)
- Oyomi suru. (humble)
- Oyomi itasu. (even more humble)
(A common example of the "even more honorific" form is used with the verb
yasumu, to rest. In the imperative form, this becomes
oyasumi nasai ["good night"]. A similar form exists for making adjectives honorific, which results in
hayai, "early", becoming
ohayou gozaimasu, "good morning".)
There is also a suffix which can be added to verbs (-te form followed by yagaru) which is meaningless in and of itself, but which expresses extreme contempt for the one performing the action, and which is the social equivalent of dropping the F-bomb.
Also worth noting is
de aru, the slightly archaic version of
da (used a lot by military personnel in speaking with their superiors, and in writing).
The honorific
o- or
go- (or less commonly,
mi- or
on-), tacked onto the front of a noun referring to a person, it can mean respect. When the noun is an object, it is known as a 'beautifying prefix', and adds a sense of class to the object described, and makes the speaker seem refined. There are a few nouns (
ocha == tea,
omizu == water,
gohan == rice, et cetera) which are almost always referred to in this way. Certain nouns like 'sake' sound slightly vulgar without the
o- prefix, and dropping the prefix is mostly restricted to men in casual settings. One of the features of a
Kansai Regional Accent is adding
o- to words that Kanto speakers wouldn't, such as
o-soba == soba noodles and
o-mame-chan == beans (with
chan added for cuteness.)
Examples:
Anime and Manga
- Rurouni Kenshin
- Maria-sama ga Miteru
- Hana Yori Dango
- Ah My Goddess
- Keroro Gunsou
- Aoi and Miyabi from Ai Yori Aoshi. Also, Kaoru, when speaking with Aoi's parents.
- Basil from Katekyo Hitman Reborn!
- Played For Laughs in Bleach; Mizuiro and Keigo are commonly seen together, and as of recently Mizuiro has been speaking to Keigo in a very formal and distant way, to which Keigo dramatically screams at him to stop using keigo...which the word is a homonym with his name.
- In the Mahou Sensei Negima manga Negi usually uses Keigo with everyone other than very close old friends. This realization shocks the girls of his class when it is pointed out that he always uses Keigo with them but addresses Anya much more informally, leading those with crushes on him to worry that Anya might be his "favorite girl."
- Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann has Nia and her Keigo version of Kamina's catchphrase, usually translated as "ARE YOU AWARE OF WHO I AM!?"
- Gedächtnis from Fireball speaks in this fashion when conversing with Drossel. Of course, since he is a huge, crane-like robot it only adds to his weirdness.
- Mr. Yotsuya from Maison Ikkoku speaks in keigo, always wears either traditional or business clothes, but is the most impolite character in the series, breaking a hole in the wall between his room and Godai's room to steal things and bother him at awkward hours and drilled a hole between Godai's and Roppongi's wall to walk in and peep on her when he feels like it.
- Dio Brando from Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is one of the most complete and total aversions of this trope. He sometimes uses an elaborately dismissive and condescending way of speaking that is roughly equivalent to giving commands to an insect, reflecting that he is a complete sociopath who sees himself as a god lording over ants.
- Syaoran in Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle is scolded by Sakura in the first episode when he uses keigo around her, calling her Sakura-hime, or simply Hime (Princess Sakura or Princess respectively); she wants him to just call her "Sakura" because they are close friends (therefore he doesn't need to use keigo around her). Although, throughout the series Syaoran speaks very polite Japanese.
- There's a Korean character in Mai The Psychic Girl who always speaks in a very polite register, presumably because that's the only way he learned Japanese.
- It could be because, except in Seoul, Korean men are usually more formal than women. Korean has two polite forms, formal polite (verbs end in -(eu)bnida) and informal polite (verbs end in -(eo)yo). The formal polite in Japanese is exactly like the regular polite, except it says de arimasu instead of desu—it's the norm in the military, for instance.
- In Moyashimon, Tadayasu is able to distinguish between Japanese and European yogurt bacteria because the Japanese ones have topknots and speak in samurai-style keigo.
Film
- Probably any good samurai film.
Real Life
- This aspect of the language is what made famous real-life physicist and all-around interesting guy Richard Feynman give up on learning Japanese, as he writes in Surely You're Joking Mr Feynman. He disliked that, for example, "I solved the problem" and "You solved the problem" require entirely different verbs for "solve" to register different levels of politeness, even though both people are doing precisely the same thing.
Video Games
- Sayuri in Kanon speaks informally to girls, but will only use keigo with guys. It's for the same reason that she's a Third Personperson which is her guilt over not being a kind older sister to her brother like she wanted to. She only ever played (and presumably spoke casually) with him once, when he was dying.
- Sengoku Basara, being set in the Jidai Geki Era. In particular Yukimura, who is almost painfully polite to everyone, including his enemies. This is probably the result of a strict upbringing by his master Shingen. In contrast Yukimura's rival Masamune is the complete opposite, speaking English and being generally rude to everyone.
