Authors: Eva Emter, Ezequiel Roberts, Henry Bringenberg, Nicholas Olenich

Methodology

For our project, we analyzed the two male protagonists of the manga series 坂道のアポロン “Sakamichi no Aporon” (or Kids on the Slope in English), a story about two high school students in 1960’s Kyuushuu who bond over their passion for jazz music. One of them is Nishimi Kaoru (西見薫), who has recently moved to Kyuushuu from Yokosuka (located in the Kanagawa Prefecture). The other is Kawabuchi Sentarou (川渕千太郎), an orphan who has lived in Kyuushuu all his life.

Sentarou (千太郎)

Kaoru (薫)

For our analysis, we looked at several scenes from the manga (non-translated), specifically volume 1 pages 17-27 (where Kaoru and Sentarou meet for the first time) and volume 3 pages 24-38, taking note of the dialogue used by each character. One particular focus when analyzing the dialogue was the difference in regional dialect between Kaoru and Sentarou. Since Kaoru is from Kanagawa, he has more “standard” Tokyo-style speech, while Sentarou speaks with a Kyuushuu dialect. We wanted to see what impact this might have on their gendered speech. Another focus was the characters’ contrasting personalities. Kaoru is very introverted and shy, while Sentarou is much more straightforward and brash, exemplifying the popular “delinquent” archetype. We were interested in how these personality differences might be represented in their dialogue, and whether their distinct features are actually gender indexes or simply indicative of assertive vs. non-assertive manners of speech.

Materials

The first scene we looked at is the first meeting between Kaoru and Sentarou. While he is looking for a place to be alone, Kaoru inadvertently comes across Sentarou taking a nap. He wakes him up and they have a brief (and awkward) encounter. They don’t even exchange names, but this scene provides some good examples of their distinctive and contrasting speech features.

The second scene occurs some time later, after Kaoru and Sentarou have become friends and started playing music together. It takes place right before Christmas, when Kaoru buys Sentarou new drumsticks as a present and finds out that he’s adopted. This scene provides further examples demonstrating the differences in their manner of speaking.

Analysis and Discussion

After analyzing the dialogue of these two characters, there are a few immediately apparent differences in their speech habits. First of all, while they both technically use the first-person pronoun 俺 (おれ), Sentarou uses a variant pronunciation おい, as it is common in Kyuushuu Japanese to drop the /r/ consonant in many words. This is also demonstrated by Sentarou’s pronunciation of 誰 (だれ) as だい. However, this regional variation is used by both men and women, and therefore isn’t really indicative of gendered features or personality differences. One thing to note, however, is that upon initially meeting Kaoru, Sentarou doesn’t immediately use dialectal language, but when Kaoru provokes him Sentarou “slips” into using more dialectal language potentially to appear more masculine even if dialectal language is not masculine explicitly.

One more noticeable difference in the two characters’ speech is their use of second-person pronouns. Kaoru tends to use 君 (きみ) when addressing someone else, while Sentarou seems to prefer お前 (おまえ). Once again, Kaoru uses the more formal and polite alternative, and also the one that’s generally considered more gender-neutral. On the other hand, the pronoun used by Sentarou is a lot more direct, often considered rude unless addressing close friends. And just like the particle ぞ, it is conventionally used more by men than women.

Another more subtle difference in their dialogue is the particles each character tends to use when ending statements. Kaoru seems to favor the particle よ, while Sentarou often uses ぞ. Kaoru also uses various other sentence ending particles such as even ぞ on occasion, as well as other masculine (but less so than ぞ) particles like だよ and んだ.Both of these particles can have many different implications in various contexts, but typically よ conveys a more formal or polite tone, while ぞ is much more informal and can indicate “strong language”, a particle that would commonly be used between friends. In the scene where the two boys were meeting for the first time, Kaoru’s tone would probably be considered the more normal or “appropriate” one, while Sentarou’s is very overfamiliar, demonstrating their contrasting personalities. Also, while よ is typically used by both men and women, the particle ぞ is generally more associated with masculinity, and is sometimes used to sound “cool” or “tough”, possibly implying that Sentarou is the more dominant or “manly” one between them.

Another difference is the particles that Sentarou and Kaoru both use for questions. Both use か in a casual setting, which is typically more masculine, but Kaoru tends to soften his questions with の or なの resulting in most of his questions ending in のか or なのか. Although the usage of か is still masculine, adding の distinguishes him as a bit more effeminate than Sentarou. In addition, Sentarou tends to be more masculine in his commands and requests, using the imperative form or stem+な form in order to command and request others. Kaoru, in contrast, uses てくれ to make requests from people, which, much like the other particles he uses, is still masculine but less so than Sentarou.

Finally, both Kaoru and Sentarou both use gendered diction in their speech in order to represent their gender. Both of them use だろう for volitional speech, which is a masculine choice over でしょう. They also both use あいつ to refer to each other upon first meeting which is a rough sort of way to say “that guy.” Kaoru uses the overtly masculine でかい on one occasion, and Sentarou uses やる, a more informal way of saying する and ばかたれ a rough masculine way of saying idiot. Most other notable diction is Sentarou’s usage of dialectal language, mostly in different permutations of や instead of だ as that is the copula more commonly used in Kyuushuu dialect. Finally, Sentarou throughout the manga refers to Kaoru as 坊, and he himself is referred to by people close to him as 千坊. Which is not exactly exclusive to Kyuushuu dialect, but is a bit more common there, and is analogous to someone in English calling someone “son” or “boy,” with 千坊 roughly meaning in English “Little Sen(tarou).”

Conclusion

Through the usage of gendered language, the dynamic between Kaoru and Sentarou is clearly displayed, and as the manga centers around their relationship, it serves as an important pillar to their characters and development. Sentarou is clearly pinned as the delinquent who doesn’t quite fit in through his usage of hyper-masculine language like ぞ, imperative commands, and a second person pronoun like お前. His usage of Kyuushuu forms of standard Japanese constructions like やけんな in place of だからな or pronouncing 俺 as おい further distinguishes his character from the higher class standard Tokyo dialect that Kaoru speaks. Although Kaoru speaks masculinely, using 俺 as his first person pronoun, and constructions such as だよ and てくれ, his gendered speech doesn’t set him apart as a unique character nearly as much as Sentarou’s does. This gives the initial presentation of Kaoru as a “blank state” which considering his position in the manga as being at the crossroads between following what he wants and what his family wants, fits him well. Even as these characters change together as the story of the manga progresses, they still generally tend to use the same gendered constructions, providing some familiarity for the readers even as they become different people over time. Sentarou throughout the entire story stays more assertive while Kaoru stays more passive. Without the gendered language included within Japanese, their characters’ dynamic would not be as easily established.