Honorary prefix
An honorary prefix is a prefix that is placed in front of nouns in order to enhance the style of an expression. This is done either to show respect for the interlocutor or out of respect for the object itself.
Honorary prefixes as grammatical objects exist in the classical Chinese written language and in Japanese .
Japanese
There are five different honorific prefixes in Japanese: o- , go- , on- , gyo- and mi- . o- is usually used before nouns read in Japanese , while go- is used before words read in Sino-Japanese . There are a small number of exceptions to this rule, more on this below. gyo- is a variant of go- for words related to the imperial family, such as gyoen ("imperial garden") or gyoi ("the will of his majesty"). mi- is an outdated prefix, as in mikoshi ("sedan chair> portable shrine") or mikado ("gate> emperor"). on- is a shortening of the combination o-mi- , as in onsha (" your company").
All prefixes are written with the same Kanji 御 , so that one can speak of different readings of the same prefix instead of different prefixes. This distinction is purely academic. o is generally associated with its corresponding hiragana お written because this reading of the character, unlike gyo , go and on is not officially approved by the Japanese Ministry of Education. go is often written with its hiragana ご because it requires far fewer strokes.
Foreign words adopted into Japanese ( gairaigo ) are usually not given the prefix. However, the more these words are perceived as “Japanese”, the more likely it is that an advanced o- sounds natural. o-bīru (beer), o-kādo (credit card) and o-sōsu (sauce) are possible at least colloquially.
The honorific prefix is part of the Japanese language of politeness , so it is always used in combination with other means to show respect for one's counterpart. In this usage, the prefix is placed in front of things that belong to the conversation partner, but omitted for objects that are related to oneself. For example, you call your business partner's business card a go-meishi ( ご 名 刺 ), your own just a meishi .
A second use is respect for the object itself. An example of this is the Japanese expression goshintai for the sacred object of a Shinto shrine . Some words are used almost exclusively with the prefix, so that this combination can be seen as a fixed idiom. These include tea ( お 茶 , ocha ) and rice ( ご 飯 , gohan ). Such a prefix can also be found in gochisō-sama deshita ( 御 馳 走 様 で し た ), the phrase used to say thank you after a meal.
In Japanese women's language , the prefix is often used, firstly because women are generally expected to use more polite expressions, and secondly because certain “taboo terms” are defused, such as the stomach ( お 腹 , onaka ).
Another, purely grammatical use of the honorific prefix is in the formation of respectful forms of verbs. Numerous verbs have their own fixed synonyms in polite language. Where a synonym does not exist, the form o + ren'yōkei + ni naru can be used.
Exceptions
In a survey, the Japanese were asked whether they used the prefix go- or o- for different words :
| word | German | o (%) | go (%) | both possible (%) |
dominant |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| sino-japanese words | |||||
| 立 派 rippa | Great | 1.9 | 92.3 | 5.9 | ご 立 派 |
| 連絡 renraku | connection | 3.6 | 92.1 | 4.3 | ご 連絡 |
| 予 約 yoyaku | reservation | 2.9 | 91.8 | 5.3 | ご 予 約 |
| 予 算 yosan | budget | 3.6 | 83.0 | 13.4 | ご 予 算 |
| 葬 儀 sōgi | funeral | 14.7 | 80.6 | 4.7 | ご 葬 儀 |
| 相伴 shōban | Participation | 30.3 | 57.6 | 12.1 | お 相伴 / ご 相伴 |
| 誕生 tanjō | birth | 53.2 | 29.1 | 17.6 | お 誕生 / ご 誕生 |
| 返 事 henji | answer | 53.6 | 22.6 | 23.8 | お 返 事 / ご 返 事 |
| 礼 状 reijō | Thank you letter | 74.2 | 14.9 | 10.9 | お 礼 状 |
| 加減 kagen | physical condition | 87.8 | 6.3 | 5.9 | お 加減 |
| 時間 jikan | time | 95.1 | 1.1 | 3.7 | お 時間 |
| 食 事 shokuji | food | 95.3 | 0.9 | 3.9 | お 食 事 |
| pure Japanese words | |||||
| 怒 り ikari | Anger | 94.5 | 3.4 | 2.0 | お 怒 り |
| 気 遣 い kitsukai | Concern | 94.2 | 2.2 | 3.6 | お 気 遣 い |
| 支 払 い shiharai | payment | 94.0 | 1.0 | 5.0 | お 支 払 い |
| 知 合 い shiriai | Acquaintance | 93.5 | 1.3 | 5.2 | お 知 り 合 い |
| 引 っ 越 し hikkoshi | move | 92.7 | 2.2 | 5.2 | お 引 っ 越 し |
| 気 軽 に kikaru ni | light hearted | 87.0 | 5.8 | 7.2 | お 気 軽 に |
| 身 内 miuchi | relative | 81.5 | 12.5 | 6.0 | お 身 内 |
| 入 り 用 iriyō | desire | 33.6 | 58.4 | 8.0 | ご 入 り 用 / お 入 り 用 |
| ゆ っ く り yukkuri | slowly | 0.9 | 97.6 | 1.6 | ご ゆ っ く り |
Others are o-denwa ( お 電話 , German “phone”), o-rei ( お 礼 , German “thanks”), o-genki ( お 元 気 , German “healthy”).
translation
The German language has no honorific prefix. When translated into German, the prefix is simply omitted, a paraphrase such as “revered middle” for o-naka (“belly”) seems rather nonsensical stylistically. Instead, the sentence is viewed as a whole and the language level of the corresponding German sentence is adjusted. Example:
- 当 駅 で 喫 煙 を御遠慮 く だ さ い.
- tōeki de kitsuen o go -enryo kudasai.
- We ask you to refrain from smoking in the station area.
enryo , in English "renunciation", is given an honorary prefix in this sentence. This is omitted in German, instead the courtesy is achieved purely through the indirect formulation that is also present in the Japanese sentence. Compare: "Smoking is prohibited in this station."
Historical
A purely historical use of the prefix is Japanese women's names, these were formed from the o + word , for example O-Haru ( お 春 , English "spring"). Women's names of this type are often found in samurai films ( jidai geki ).
An original meaning of the character 御 is "imperial", which is why it also occurs in words that are associated with the emperor. The Go- in the names of some emperors (such as Go-Shirakawa ) is, however, a different character, it means “following” and thus corresponds to the European “II”.
Individual evidence
- ^ Samuel Elmo Martin: A Reference Grammar of Japanese . University of Hawaii Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8248-2818-6 , pp. 331 .
- ↑ Jōyō Kanji Hyō (常用 漢字 表). (PDF) Bunkachō (Office for Cultural Affairs), November 30, 2010, p. 37 , accessed October 5, 2018 (Japanese).
- ↑ Yasuo Kitahara: Mondai na Nihongo . Taishukan Shoten, Tokyo 2004, ISBN 4-469-22168-6 (Japanese: 問題 な 日本語 .).