I watch anime in subtitles, and that affects the voices of the characters in my mind’s ear. Among other things, any attempt to translate titles in dialogue often sounds extremely unnatural to me. Character thoughts call for translation. Those are explicitly narrated through someone (me) the reader can expect to speak English. In speech “out loud”, however, the titles are very much part of the characters’ names, and I treat them as such.<\/p>\n
Exceptions are made for series like Fushigi Yuugi<\/em> or Gundam Wing<\/em>, which, before I ever wrote for them, inundated me with so much gratuitous Japanese that I translate all the vocational titles just to stop myself cringing.<\/p>\n For those who need to know, or be reminded, here are translations of the titles I use in fic. Common titles are first, and series specific ones after them. Click on the menu below to jump down to particular series’ titles.<\/p>\n Additional notes contributed by Hope Ashley; many thanks!<\/p>\n o-:<\/strong> Honorific prefix.<\/p>\n -sama, -san, -kun, -chan:<\/strong> The common name suffixes, in descending order of social elevation.<\/p>\n Additional notes:<\/em><\/p>\n -Sama: applied to both names and positions, implies both extreme formality\/respect and no intimacy at all. Roughly equivalent to \u201cMa\u2019am\u201d or \u201cSir.\u201d<\/p>\n -kun: for boys, this implies both familiarity and informality. Can sometimes be used to imply a lack of formality while retaining unfamiliarity, in the case of a social superior addressing an inferior, but always when they are both part of something: the same school, company, whatever. In that particular register it is used for both boys\/men and girls\/women. For boys, in general it’s roughly equivalent to a friendly nickname. English has nothing that corresponds to the very specific meaning of this when it is used for a girl.<\/p>\n -chan: for girls, this implies both familiarity and informality. There is a diminutive aspect to it, but for women this isn\u2019t considered particularly significant; it\u2019s more like a general nickname. Used for small children regardless of gender, it sounds rather \u201ccute.\u201d Boys, however, grow out of it; by the time they\u2019re about 10, you can expect a boy to get embarrassed by people calling him \u201c-chan\u201d and want them to switch to \u201c-kun\u201d. From teenage years on, \u201c-chan\u201d on a boy implies extreme informality and intimacy, and is used almost exclusively by close family, generally female, a sister or mother, and lovers. <\/p>\n -San: like \u2013sama, this can apply to both names and positions; it’s a bit of a catch-all, and the boundaries depend on the person. If you don\u2019t know a person well enough to use \u2013kun\/-chan, and \u2018-sama\u2019 isn\u2019t appropriate, you use \u2013san. Likewise you would use it if you are being respectful or acknowledging the societal rank of someone you are close to, like a parent or an elder sibling. <\/p>\n -ue:<\/strong> Also an honorific suffix, sometimes combined with -sama. This suffix is not in common use any more, but it often shows up in historical-drama settings. It is sometimes used in contemporary settings for emphasis, or to indicate that the character using it is of very high class. Additional note: literally meaning \u201cup\/above,\u201d it specifically deals with societal rank\u2014the speaker is placing the person in question above them.<\/p>\n -dono:<\/strong> Another honorific, also not in common use any longer. Its connotations vary according to time period. In most cases it can be considered\u00a0 similar to -sama in level of politeness, though in a more intimate register. This can lead, at times, to it implying\u00a0 a lesser formality or respect, used to an inferior, or a certain privilege or close relation, used to a superior. Additional note: unlike \u2013sama, -dono does not necessarily imply either personal respect, distance or formality, being more of a title than a standard honorific. Instead, it has to do with rank, indicating that the person is noble, but not necessarily implying anything about the speaker’s relationship to them. \u201c-sama\u201d says that the person in question is far above and distant from the speaker, and that they are highly respected by the speaker; \u201c-dono\u201d just means that the person is of high rank.<\/p>\n Nee\/Nii:<\/strong> Sister\/Brother (elder). These can take various honorifics. Some common options are aniki, nii-san, onii-sama<\/em> or aniue<\/em> in ascending order of formality and respect. There is a certain gender slant common in the use of -san versus -chan. A younger sister might use onii-chan<\/em> to an older brother, but onee-san<\/em> to an older sister. A younger brother would likely use -san to a brother but -chan to a sister. Additional note in re aniki<\/em> and aniue<\/em>: aniki and aniue are both based on \u201cani,\u201d the term used when speaking about your older brother to an outside party; \u2018aniki\u2019 being rather rough and informal is a fairly recent development. However, more than one Japanese professor has pointed out that both have become somewhat unusual terms of address. (As in, \u2018stop that, only people in anime use that, you sound like an idiot.\u2019) <\/p>\n Kaa\/Tou and Haha\/Chichi:<\/strong> Mother\/Father. The first set is less formal than the second. Again, these take various honorific additions. Kaa-chan<\/em> is intimate and affectionate, while Ohahaue-sama<\/em> is extremely formal (and, frankly, a bit over the top in modern usage).<\/p>\n Oyaji:<\/strong> Old man\/One’s father\/boss. This one is a very casual thing to call one’s father, equivalent to that use of “old man” in English. A note of interest is that the oya<\/em>, here, is the kanji indicating parents. Deriving from that, in most cases, are the meanings “ruler”, “master\/primary”, “intimacy” and “kindness”. Usage, in this particular case, has considerably depreciated the respect of the term. Additional note: the \u2018ji\u2019 in this case means \u2018old man\u2019, and while \u2018parental-old\/elderly-man\u2019 is quite a polite and respectful to use on people who were not your father, using it on your actual father is rather rude, both because you aren\u2019t actually crediting them as your dad, and because you’re calling them old.<\/p>\n Senpai\/Kouhai:<\/strong> Senior\/Junior. These apply to any and all organized groups—school, work, teams, hobby-groups, monasteries, mystic warrior gangs, you name it. Might also be rendered, “fellow\/group-member who came before” <\/em> and “fellow\/group-member who came after”.<\/p>\n Sensei:<\/strong> Teacher\/Doctor\/expert. More literally, “having prior life\/experience”.<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Daisoutou:<\/strong> The writers translate this, not incidentally, as Fuehrer. In the spelling FMA uses, Soutou<\/em> is a word for “president” or “ruling <\/em>general”. Dai<\/em> is an intensifier meaning great or large.<\/em><\/p>\n Kakka:<\/strong> Generally translated as “your\/his excellency”, often used as a suffix for a name or title. The kanji it is spelled with is the one indicating Cabinet or Minister—a designator of high political rank. In FMA, you can hear Bradley called Daisoutou-kakka<\/em>, or His Excellency the Fuehrer.<\/p>\n Military Ranks: <\/strong>Among commissioned officers in the WWII army organization, on which the FMA ranks are based, there are three levels (-i, -sa and -sho) and four steps within each level (jun-, shou-, chuu- and tai-). It goes together like this. Equivalent ranks within Western armies are given in parentheses.<\/p>\n\n
Common use<\/h2>\n
FMA specific<\/h2>\n