Gendered Speech
Team Members:
Shohei S Etzel, Rongjin Zhu, Shaojie Deng, Yikuan Zhang, Andie M Favret
Introduction:
In this project, our main focus is to make an analysis about the use of gendered speech in Japanese by comparing two same gender person in Japanese fiction. In the first meeting, the team members gathered and brainstorm all characters that we can find speaking distinguishable Japanese with gendered features. In the end, we picked two characters “Jotaro Kujo” and “Yoshikage Kira” form the second season of “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure” animation. Both characters are very unique and there are lots of noticeable gendered features in their speech. Also, it is easy to find subtitle of both Japanese and English for this animation. After setting the target, we assigned a week of time for two team members who never watched this anime before and we also assigned the job for each member on the second meeting. Finally, we finish this report on a Google doc together.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (ジョジョの奇妙な冒険):
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure originally written by Hirohiko Araki (荒木飛呂彦). It tells the story of the Joestar family who all have special abilities that they use to take down supernatural enemies. Yoshikage Kira is an antagonist in the series. He pretends that he is a salesman when he is a serial killer. He lived with no one knowing that he was a serial killer until the ghost of his first victim went the Joestar family for help. He is smart, arrogant, overconfident and calm. Jotaro Kujo was a young student when the series started who became a marine biologist after he graduated. He is a relative of the Joestar family and started fighting the supernatural after his mother became ill because of a guy named Dio Brando (ディオ・ブランド).
Jotaro Kujo (空条承太郎):
Jotaro Kujo is the main character of the third story arc Stardust Crusaders of the Japanese manga series JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. Jotaro Kujo is a 不良( a delinquent high school student ) not like a character in a other comic. Therefore, plenty of Jotaro’s speech is rude which is a speech feature of 不良. Meanwhile, speeches of 不良 are mostly男っぽい(manly)as well. Hence, there is a lot of masculine words in Jotaro’s speech (such as だぜ,ぜ and ぞ).
- オレ（俺）
Compared with僕（ぼく） or 私 (わたし） which are polite form in casual conversation for indicating oneself, 俺 (おれ) is relatively rude and unacceptable and it is usually used as casual speech form by young male people, the elderly and delinquent protagonist (日本の中学や高校の不良). Jotaro Kujo is set as a Bad youth when he was a high school student, so he behaved tough in the jail after he has been arrested for hospitalizing four men.
- オラオラオラオラ
Oraoraoraora is a one of the most famous speeches of Jotaro. Oraoraoraora is a pet phrase which is originally used by 不良 when they fight with others and it has no meaning for itself. Jotaro used it when he does a fast attack on enemies with punch (stand’s punch). It might be thought as a method to improve momentum while fighting with an enemy.
- おい
A word used by men to greet someone who has close relationship or low status. (Such as ahoy, hey in English).
- やがる
The Edo-period Kansai dialect after early modern period. A rough speech form used by men. It often expresses the meaning of the opponent’s action with the feelings such as contempt and hatred.
- 貴様（きさま）
One of meaning of this word is used in modern time by men for calling close relationship or people with low status in a rude way. It’s also used between enemies and is usually said by Japanese males when angry. Another meaning is used in long ago while showing respect to a superior opponent.
- だぜ
It is a masculine word using in the end of sentence. In here Jotaro looks impatient and disappointed. やれやれhas already expresses his feeling, but the だぜ makes it sounds more assertive.
- ヤツ（やつ 奴）
It’s a word meaning “guy” in masculinity speaking style. It sounds slangy and mannish. In this situation Jotaro looks very angry so he uses やつ to express his anger.
- このアマ！
アマ is a words origin from Buddhism, means “nun”. It also is a rude word to indicate women. In this case, Jotaro using このアマ to show his role is a delinquents male.
- てめー（手前）
It also indicate “you” in masculinity speaking style. Kind of same as おまえ, but this is likely meant to be rude, and shows the disdain from the speaker.
- ブチのめす
This is a word that Jotaro usually use. The meaning is same as 倒す but it sounds more manly and powerful.
Yoshikage Kira (吉良吉影):
Yoshikage Kira is the last boss of the season. In the story, he worked daily as a polite salaryman; however, deep down that he is a cold blood killer. To give the reader the image of a salaryman; few feminine words and many neutral words are used by Kira. Such as 「ね」and 「かな」 ending phrase, which considered more eneutral polite ending.
- すまないが、遠慮するよ
In this quote, both「すまない」and 「遠慮」are often used in polite situations, even though the phrase is not in police-form. The use of よ is also friendly, making the whole phrase come across as fairly gentle.
- それでは
It is often used as polite way to say good-bye.
- こんなすばらしい街は他にあるかな？
「すばらしい」could be thought as a typically more feminine phrase. Males can sometimes use it to reduce their masculine characteristics.
- やはり気になる
「やはり」is commonly known as the written form, while 「やっぱり」is known as the spoken form. The fact that he uses written form language points to the fact that he may be more traditional.
- たまげたな
This is a word that is no longer used in modern spoken Japanese. Similar to the above point, it supports his image as a more “traditional” person
- 立ち去らねばならない
Again, since this is a fancy (old) way of saying “I must leave”, it reflects his character as more traditional.
- とこにつく
This is another fancy way of saying something, with this phrase meaning “going to bed”.
- また私のところに戻ってきたね
While a male can use a number of words to talk about himself,「私」is often used in more polite situations, as well as less masculine situations. This is somewhat uncommon in anime, as male characters are usually hyper-masculine.
- 私に話しているのかね、ボーヤ
The use of 「ぼーや」is typically used by older women, so using it here can be one way to introduce more femininity and reduce masculinity.
- 同じパワーを持っているのかね
Kira repeatedly uses 「ね」 and 「のかね」at the end of his sentences, and also says them in soft tone of voice. In this case, the language itself is not feminine per say, but when paired with the tone of voice, it definitely does not reflect hyper-masculinity as most male anime characters do.
Final Analysis:
During the comparing of these two characters, we learned that there are noticeable difference between two characters. On one hand, Jotaro Kujo frequently use male speech even bad languages to show his power which gives the reader a great impression of his nature. On the other hand, Yoshikage Kira tend to use more neutral words or female words which shows the politeness of him to the reader. By comparing these two characters, we also learned that in Japanese, speech style doesn’t affected by biological gender. Masculine words in Japanese speech express the outward or wildness of a person to others; while, feminine words shows more inward or politeness of personality. In a word, the gendered language used by author is not for the purpose of simply showing gender in this case. It is more like to giving both characters characterization and make easy for readers to touch with the nature of characters.