Aisuru

On Language and Honorifics

On Language and Honorifics

This novel is primarily set in Hakodate, Hokkaidō, Japan. While it was written in English by my very American self, I strove to remain true to the culture of Japan.

While most day-to-day speech is easily translated to English, the people of Japan have quite a bit of ritualized speech that uses words that do not have simple English equivalents. Changing them to English would have required unwieldy or unnatural-sounding speech, so instead I retained their Japanese wording, with footnotes of explanation.

Japanese societal rules provide for an extensive set of guidelines on how people refer to one another, when one wishes to be polite. You generally refer to people by their family names, unless it is a very informal situation or the person is a close friend or a family member, or if you are speaking to someone inferior in station or position to you (such as, say, an underclassman).

Further, during polite speech, you add honorifics to a person’s name to indicate your statuselationship with them, whether you are talking to them or about them. Leaving these out of my characters’ dialog or their inner thoughts was never really an option to me: it is just too quintessentially Japanese.

Now, you could write a book on the various honorifics in the Japanese language (and, indeed, there are some on sss), but for our purposes, I’ll highlight ones you’ll encounter while reading Aisuru:

-san: the “all purpose” honorific, for use in almost any situation where one wishes to be polite; it’s a generally safe go-to if you aren’t sure which honorific to use

-kun: typically added to boys’ names to indicate familiarity or endearment, or while addressing someone younger than oneself

-chan: another common honorific, primarily used to indicate endearment or familiarity with girls, or when referring to young boys and pets; it’s also sometimes used among couples

-sensei: this title, which literally means “one who has come before,” is used for teachers, doctors, and other professionals and can be used as a suffix or as a standalone title

For someone to drop an honorific altogether usually indicates an intimate relationship. This special privilege is usually reserved for lovers or spouses, younger family members, and the closest of friends, though it is also sometimes seen between members of sports teams and within a school class as a sign of their closeness. Conversely, one could drop an honorific as a sign of disrespect or to insult the person when talking to them directly.

In this story, mirroring real life, the characters introduce themselves in the ordering appropriate for their place of origin, meaning Japanese characters use last name followed by first name. And, just as you would call a pizza a pizza in a US-based novel, the foods herein are referred to by their Japanese names with footnotes to offer quick explanations for ones that may be less commonly known.

With all of that said, please join me as we head to Hakodate, where our story begins…