PRONOUNS IN JAPANESE

1. what the hell is happening

We Indo-European speakers are obsessed with pronouns. They are all over our sentences. We often use them to replace entire noun phrases for more efficient communication. If you were to remove pronouns from the English language, writing a natural sounding conversation would become a massive challenge.

For this reason, pronouns are one of the first things we pay attention to when learning a new language. So when you're immersing yourself in Japanese for the first time you might notice that Mr. Joestar refers to himself with "ore", so that's how you say "I" in Japanese. But then you hear the love interest use "watashi". Maybe it's a gender difference. But the shoujou protagonist uses "atashi" instead. And the 14 year old shounen protagonist uses "boku", but so does the tomboy from the harem show, and also every single song regardless of the singer's gender. Then the "boku" saying boy grows into a man who says "ore" and he has children who just use their own name instead of pronouns because they have also lost track. What does Japanese need so many words for "I" for anyway? Especially when they're not even mandatory in the sentence they way there are in English.

Side note, Japanese doesn't technically have pronouns, as all the words I have mentioned and am about to mention function the same way as other regular nouns.

2. enter the "I" matrix

If you want to refer to yourself in the first person in English there is only one consideration: grammar. Am I the subject? Then I say "I". Am I the object? Then I'm "me". Am I both? Then I am myself. You can now immediately forget about this. To figure out how you need to refer to yourself in Japanese you need a threedimensional chart, and grammar isn't on there. Let's look at the three things you need to consider before you talk about yousrelf.

2.1 Gender Identity

Let's start on the y-axis because it is the simplest. Japanese society puts a lot of importance on gender and tends to enforce gendered stereotypes quite strongly. This is reflected in the language, as vocabulary often differs between men and women, with pronouns as the most obvious example. So before you speak it is important to consider if you are a man or a woman. The only Indo-European analogue I can think of is in Portuguese, where saying "thank you" depends on if you're male (obrigado) or female (obrigada). So unless you are Portuguese it might take some effort to remember that your gender identity matters when speaking. Pronouns such as "ore" and "boku" have masculine connotations, whereas "atashi" and "uchi" are almost exclusively female. Are you not sure of your gender identity? Then "watashi" is a safe bet. It is the standard pronoun choice when having a polite conversation, although despite being used by both gendes it still has a feminine connotation.

2.2 Remember who you're talking to

Now that you know who you are it's time to consider who you are talking to. As you probably already know if you are reading this, Japanese society and by extension the Japanese language is very hierarchical and places very high importance on formality. Not treating your seniors, your teachers or your boss with the utmost respect can have serious consequences. This is reflected in pronoun use, and leaves our chart with formality on the x-axis.

You know you are a very cool masculine man and it's imperative your friends and your subordinates know this, so your refer to yourself as "ore". But using this when talking to a stranger or god forbid your superiors at work would be incredibly rude. It's like entering a conversation and t-posing on them to assert dominance, it's just not okay. So when talking to the stranger you use "boku", which still conveys your masculinity without being overly imposing. And when your manager shows up to ask you a question you can default back to "watashi" just to be safe.

Girls might refer to themselves as "atashi" to their friends to show that they are extra cute, or use "uchi" if they're from the kansai region. However, anything more formal than that and "watashi" is the way to go for nearly all women.

2.3 Time is a dimension

Our z-axis shows time. Simply put, kids and students and old people use different pronouns. For children a lot of this has to do with the order of teaching. With so many pronouns you have to start them somewhere. For boys " boku" is baby's first pronoun, and because they haven't quite learnt how to be polite yet they will use it no matter who they're talking to. Adult men use it too, but it can be construed as a bit childish. For girls, the first pronoun they learn will be the same one you probably learnt first in Japanese class: " watashi" . However, it's also common for young girls to just say their own name instead, especially when talking to their own family. Interestingly enough, this habit can stick into adulthood. Of course, just like any other languague, Japanese changes over time. Some pronouns fall out of favour and new ones become more popular. For example, kansai's " uchi" has become increasingly popular with girls around the country, whereas the most formal pronoun, "watakushi" has mostly fallen out of favour.

3. Common pronouns you might encounter

3.1 Watashi / わたし/ 私

The most common first person pronouns. Formal pronouns for both genders, but also commonly used informally by women, which leaves it with a feminine connotation. The same kanji can also be pronounced "watakushi" if you want to be as formal as possible. It's now somewhat outdated. Can be written in kana but the kanji is more common.

3.2 Atashi / あたし

Common very feminine informal pronoun. It's literally just "watashi" without the w to sound cuter. If you use this as a man you will be called the f-slur unless you are a Rakugo performer in which case it's fine.

3.3 Uchi / うち/ 内

The Kansai version of "atashi". Increasingly popular with girls across the country. Also a first person plural pronoun when talking about your household or your company in informal contexts.

3.4 Your name

Young girls commonly use their name instead of a pronoun. Still occasionally used by women talking to their families at a later age.

3.5 Boku / ぼく/ 僕

Somewhat informal male pronoun. Used by all ages but most commonly by boys and thus has a connotation of sounding young. Also used by tomboyish women and feminists. It also carries a literary connotation and is the most common pronoun for poetry and song lyrics. It's almost exclusively written in kanji.

3.6 Ore / おれ/ 俺

The pronoun of strong and powerful men. Used to convey superiority over your inferiors and to convery familiarity to your friends. Its aura, as the kids would call it, makes it mostly informal in use.

3.7 Jibun / じぶん/ 自分

Literally means " oneself". Usually reflexive but inceasingly just used as a pronoun. It's mildly formal and mostly used by men, but also finds minor use with women. Unlike the previous two pronouns, it conveys lower status than the person you are talking to. It's generally written in kanji.

3.8 Job-specific pronouns

There are a couple job specific first person "pronouns" in Japanese. The most famous of these is "sensei"/先生, which is used by teachers. Other examples include "hissha"/ 筆者 for authors, " guso" / 愚祖 for monks, and "toukyoku"/当局 for amateur radio operators.

4. Enter the second person

Second person pronouns are significantly less common than first person pronouns in Japanese. In fact, using a second person pronoun can be considered rude, and it's therefore only done informally. The most common second person pronouns are: "anata / あなた/ 貴方, which is similar in use to "watashi", and also used as term of endearment by women for their husbands. Its most common use might be as a general "you" when no specific person is meant, such as in commercials. It is generally written in kana. "omae"/おまえ/ お前 is similar in use to " ore", and also used as a term of endearment by men for their wives. "kimi" / きみ/君 is similar in use to " boku". It's almost exclusively written in kanji as well. "otaku" /おたく/ お宅 is a second person pronoun which sounds somewhat distant and slightly formal. It was often used by nerds to refer to each other and serves as the origin for the word " otaku" for a geek. "kikyoku" / ききょく/ 貴局 is a second person pronoun used by amateur radio operators to refer to theri conversation partner. You only have to learn this if you are Maxim.

5. how to solve the third person pronoun issue

Indo-European languages are currenctly going through a language shift regarding third person pronouns. Now that queer people are more accepted in society, people have a need for gender neutral third person pronouns. English already used the singular "they" when the object's gender was unknown, and this has fit in for non-bionary people flawlessly. The Germany language, meanwhile, is in a state of chaos as no one can figure out how to use a gender neutral third person pronoun respectfully, as neuter "Das" translates to "it" and is seen as dehumanising. The Uralic languages, such as Finnish and Hungarian, avoid this problem entirely because their languages have never included gender, to the great anger of Viktor Orbán whose language is accidentally woke with it's one genderless third person pronoun "ő".

Japanese solves this issue by mostly just ignoring that third person pronouns are a thing that exist. There are some, but they are all very rarely used. Instead, it's customary to just refer to someone by name, almost always in tandem with the appropriate honourific. There was an effort to create gendered third person pronouns in the late 19th century when foreign literature was being translated to Japanese, but the male "kareshi" and female "kanojo" have since changed meaning to "boyfriend" and "girlfriend" respectively.

6. what if there's more than one

There are a couple suffixes to make prohnouns plural. Most commonly "tachi/たち/達 is used informally to form plural pronouns. For example "watashitachi" can mean we, and "kimitachi" can mean yous. Kata/gata "かた/がた/方 is the formal way of pluralising pronouns.

"karera"/ かれら/ 彼等 is third person plural pronoun which is used occasionally in literature.

Generally, because pronouns aren't used nearly as often in Japanese as they are in English, you aren't very likely to encounter these. Most often they are just left out, and context is used to determine who is being talked about. So maybe reading this was all for nothing. Who needs pronouns anyway.