Cultural History of Japanese Women's Language

Erscheinungsjahr 2006
ISBN: 978-1-929280-39-1
Verlag: University of Michigan Press

Buch, Englisch, 152 Seiten, Hardback, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 345 g

Reihe: Michigan Monograph Series in Japanese Studies

Among Japanese nostalgic for older times, as well as students and scholars of Japanese, it is commonly assumed that the Japanese language possesses special words reserved for women. Did these “women’s words” actually exist at the very beginnings of the Japanese language? If such words were in fact part of the language, what kinds of attitudes and treatment toward women were inscribed in them? In her endeavor to address these questions, Endô Orie explores Japan’s early literary works to discover what they have to say about the Japanese language. Among her most significant conclusions is the finding that “womanly” language in Japan was socially mandated and regulated only with the beginning of warrior rule in the Kamakura period. Now, in contemporary Japan, critics charge that women’s language has lost its “womanly” qualities and has veered perilously close to men’s language. However, if we look at the evidence of history, what we may actually be witnessing is a return to the origins of the Japanese language when no sexual distinctions were made between users.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Orie, Endo

Über Autor(innen)

Endô Orie is a professor in the Department of Cultural Linguistics at the Koshigaya Campus of Bunkyô University (Tokyo) with a teaching specialization in social linguistics and Japanese language pedagogy. Her best-known works are Ki ni naru kotoba: Nihongo no saikentô (Words That Concern Me: A Reconsideration of the Japanese Language) (Nanundô, 1987); Onna no kotoba no bunka-shi (Gakuyô shobô, 1997), the book on which A Cultural History of Japanese Women’s Language is based; and Chûgoku onna moji kenkyû (A Study of Chinese Women’s Script) (Meiji shoin, 2002). She is also co-author of Senjichû no hanashi kotoba: rajio dorama daihon kara (Spoken Japanese during Wartime: Radio Drama) (Hitsuji shobô, 2004).