Honorific

An honorific is a term used to convey honor. "Honorific" may refer broadly to the style of language or particular words used, or, as in this article, to specific words used to convey honor to one perceived as a social superior.

Honorifics are similar to English titles like "sir" and "ma'am," but in many languages honorifics are much more commonly used. Japanese, for instance, has many honorifics, and their use is mandatory in many social situations. The Japanese uchi-soto relationships are partially expressed through the use, or omission, of honorifics.

Examples of honorifics in Japanese

Honorifics in Japanese may be used to emphasise social distance or disparity in rank, or to emphasise social intimacy or similarity in rank.

In Japanese, honorifics are always placed after the name.

• -san (さん). -San is the most common honorific, and its use is mandatory when addressing most social outsiders (for example, non-family members). -San is used unless it is superceded by some other title (such as sensei, meaning "teacher"), and is often translated as Mr., Ms., Mrs., and the like, though such a translation is not always accurate. -San is the Japanese honorific most familiar to non-Japanese people. There is a tendency in Japanese to avoid the use of personal names when another title is available, thus oldest brothers and sisters are referred to as "onii-san" (or -chan, see below) and "onee-san", respectively. "-San" may also be used to create other titles; A bookseller might be addressed as "honya-san" (roughly, "Mr. bookseller"), and so on.
  • -han (はん). -Han is the equivalent to -san in the Kansai dialect.

• -kun (くん，君). -Kun is an informal and intimate honorific primarily used by superiors in addressing inferiors, usually male (though in some cases it can be used for women also). Schoolteachers typically address their male students using -kun. -Kun is also used among friends of similar social standing, and by parents and relatives to address older male children (instead of -chan).

• -chan (ちゃん). -Chan is the informal, intimate, diminutive equivalent of -san, used primarily by children to refer to friends and family members but also applied to siblings, to close friends and lovers, and to children by adults.
  • -tan (たん): A mispronunciation of "chan" sometimes used by very young children or by adults as "baby talk." Also used by otaku, an example is OS-tan.

• -sama (様). -Sama is the most formal honorific used in daily conversation in Japanese. It is used primarily in addressing persons much higher in rank than oneself (as long as some other title is unavailable), and is used in commercial and business settings to address and refer to customers. (See uchi-soto for a more in-depth analysis of this.) -Sama is also used after the addressee's name on postal packages and letters, again provided it is not superceded by some other title.

• -dono or -tono (どの). -Tono/-dono roughly means "lord." It is no longer used in daily conversation, though it is still seen on certificates and awards.

Rarer forms

• -chama (ちゃま). -Chama is simply a combination of -chan and -sama, sometimes translated as "young master". It isn't horribly common, it denotes respect, but is not as distant as -sama, implies a closer bond.

• -ue (上). -Ue literally means "above" and denotes an extremely high level of respect. While its use is not longer very common, it is still seen in constructions like 父上 (chichi-ue) and 母上 (haha-ue), reverent terms for one's own, or someone else's, father and mother, respectively.

There are two other important honorifics in Japanese. These are the prefixes o- and go-, which are applied to nouns (and sometimes to verbs, particularly when using keigo). There is a set of words which commonly take these prefixes, and sometimes they are so connected that you will never hear the word without the prefix. Examples of this are go-han (rice, which by extension means a meal), go-chūmon (order at a restaurant), go-kazoku ([someone else's] family?when referring to your own you would not use go-), o-sushi and o-sashimi (sushi and sashimi, of course), o-cha (tea). Go- is used only for words which have a Chinese-derived pronunciation, and o- is used only for words with a Japanese-derived pronunciation.