Japanese Gendered Language

In America, 90% of J apanese teachers are women. Thats great, because women are good
people too, but did you know that women have a particular (though somewhat subtle) way
of speaking J apanese? Did you know that there are slight differences between the way that
men and women talk?
Now, I should be clear. Gendered language (thats what this is called) in J apanese is quite
different from other languages. First of all, compared to languages like German or Spanish
(and many others), its not as big of a deal. A big part of this is because J apanese gendered
language isnt a grammatical thing, where there is no choice. Dudes can speak more like
gals and gals can speak more like dudes. Depending on how much they do this, they can
sound odd, but not grammatically incorrect.
All that being said, though, its a good idea to learn the differences between feminine and
masculine speech in J apanese so that you can sound more fluent and natural.
Before we do that, though, a little history.
Where Did Japanese Feminine Language Come From?
To look at the history of J apanese gendered language, well actually have to (mainly) look
at feminine form. Why? Because really, this is (mainly) the only one thats really changing.
Its also the one thats focused on the most by intellectual types, who turn out to be not
all that intellectual at all.
If you ask a J apanese person (even the scholarly types) theyll probably tell you that the
tradition of gendered language (or more specifically, feminine J apanese language) came
before time itself (or, if theyre more specific, around the 4th Century AD). Turns out, this
isnt true and was probably just made up during the very nationalistic time after World War
II when J apan was attempting to re-figure out what it means to be J apanese. Endo (a big
expert in J apanese gendered language) found that while there are differences in speech back
during this time, it was based off of social status, not male or female so, somebodys
lying, and Im guessing its not Endo.
The first time gendered language really started popping up was actually after the Meiji Era
had begun (when J apan went through modernization), which is pretty recent. This is when
you first start to get high class and scholarly male types complaining about schoolgirls
speaking in an unpleasant, strange, and vulgar way. Turns out, these vulgar ways
schoolgirls started talking also happens to be pretty similar to the gendered language we see
in J apanese today. So, its not so much a tradition as it is a kind-of-recent-
phenomenon, not to mention one that the J apanese people didnt like before (but now
claim to be a tradition).
Fast forward a few years when these schoolgirls are all grown up. Suddenly this is the
norm, and combining this along with the Good wife, wise mother push going on at the
time, plenty of print media claiming its a thing, and more, feminine language (i.e. onna
kotoba / ) becomes official and no longer vulgar (oh, and did I mention this is a
tradition before time itself?? *Cough cough*).
So, gendered language is really a modern thing and even to this day its changing fast.
There are some things, though, that Id consider staples of gendered language. Theyll
probably hang out a while, though later on youll see some exceptions to the rule. Lets take
a look at the things that make feminine J apanese feminine and masculine J apanese
masculine.
Differences In Sentence Enders
One thing youll notice right off the bad about gendered language is that gendered language
in J apanese isnt all that difficult. Its really only a few things you have to learn (for the
most part), and once youve learned them, youll be A-okay. That being said, a lot of
people dont learn about this because its either a) so natural for the teacher they dont even
think about or b) it doesnt really matter because you learn neutral / formal J apanese, which
tends to be pretty gender neutral.
Sentence enders are one of the two main ways that gendered language shows up in
J apanese. There will be some crossover, which is okay (you wont be ostracized for using a
feminine sentence ender or vice versa), but in general during casual speech youll want to
use the right sentence ender so you dont sound odd. P.S. Youll need to know how to
read hiragana and some kanji for this table (use Rikaichan if kanjis a problem)
Guys Gals












Now, youll notice that the masculine form tends (more often) to be neutral form thats
because originally sentence enders were all the same between both men and women. In the
book Vicarious Language, Miyako Inoue compares two literary works, Ukiyoburo (1813,
aka pre-Meiji J apanese language) and Sanshiro (1909, aka modern J apanese language). She
shows how sentence enders changed over the course of approximately 100 years. The
column on the far right is the one you want to pay attention to if youre learning J apanese,
though the chart as a whole is very interesting too, I think.
M = Masculine
F = Feminine
B =Both
Sentence Ender Ukiyoburo (1813) Sanshiro (1909)
B F
B F
B F
B M
B M
B M
B M
B M
B M
no example F
no example F
no example F
no example F
no example F
B F
B (minus samurai-class females) F
B (minus samurai-class females) M
B (minus samurai-class females) M
B (minus samurai-class females) M
B (minus samurai-class females) M
B (minus samurai-class females) M
B F
B (Even crosses gender, age, status) M

J ust remember that there are exceptions to all rules, especially J apanese language related
ones. The above tables arent always going to be right in every single situation, but its a
good jumping off point when youre studying J apanese.
Besides these sentence enders, theres also another type of sentence ender that deserves
some focus, and that is asking questions. Lets do that now.
Differences In Asking Questions
Asking questions in J apanese isnt just adding a to the end of a sentence and calling it
good. Well, for a while it is, but eventually you grow out of that and learn that there are
other ways to ask questions. These other ways also happen to be both masculine and
feminine forms of J apanese, so you dont want to get them confused too often if you can
help it.
Guys Gals













You can see some of the differences between guys and gals, and also a bit how it compares
with the first table that does sort of the same thing. All this just for asking questions, too.
Good thing there actually isnt that much more to learn about gendered language for you to
become a J apanese gendered language expert of sorts.




Differences In I And You
I and You are the last big differences between men and women in terms of how they
speak. In fact, most likely, this is the only thing J apanese learners learn about gendered
language, though usually just in passing. This explanation should hopefully be pretty
thorough for you:
Word Explanation
Used by both men and women for polite / formal speech
Used by women to sound childish / innocent.

Considered very polite / formal for men and regular polite / formal for
women. Obviously women are held to a higher standard.

Used by younger men (usually up until college) to sound more boyish.
Recently being used by women more, though still sounds tomboyish
when used.

Very informal used by men, usually with other men (or sometimes
girlfriends). Can be considered a bit vulgar / rude depending on the
situation.
Very masculine. Often used by military people. Sort of archaic.

Used by both men and women, though for men its considered polite form
and for women just regular form. Once again, higher standards for
women.
Usually used by women informally when talking down to a man.

Usually used by men to close women friends, though women have been
starting to use it more lately (to talk down on men)

Usually used by men to talk to other men in a talking-down-on-you sort
of way. Kind of vulgar / rude unless youre doing it jokingly.
Used only by men to talk down on on someone.
Used mostly by men to talk down on someone
Used by men its a rude way to refer to someone else.

Used by both men and women, means that person.

Used mostly by women, literally means that person.

Used mostly by women to talk about someone else. Informal.
So, you can probably see now that theres a lot of variety in the ways in which you can
refer to yourself or someone else, and a lot of the rules are there to be broken (like , for
example). Id say that these I and You words are the main way that women are
breaking the gendered language rules as of late its definitely a way for women to
empower themselves, which is interesting (and wouldnt be possible if J apanese gendered
language was grammatical).
With Japanese Gendered Language You Should
Remember
To be honest, gendered language in J apanese isnt a huge deal. People often freak out and
think omgomgomg, am I speaking like a girl?? and go all crazy. Theres really not that
much difference between the two. J ust a few big things to know, and then you can move on
to learn something more important. Sure, these things will help you to be more fluent, and
help you to be a better J apanese speaker, but a lot of these youll learn automatically while
some things you may end up having to change. Good news is, therell never be a lot of
things to change. J apanese gendered language is quite simple, considering what it could be.
So, heres some basic things to remember about gendered language that should help you on
your way.
1. The purpose of feminine speech is to make female speech sound softer and more
submissive. It might be hard to tell the difference when youre just starting out,
but after a while you should be able to know when something is soft or hard in
J apanese. If you need to guess, choose the one that fits you best.
2. The most important set of things to know is probably the I and You section. If
you can learn that, I bet youll be just fine.
3. Try to pick out gendered language in materials youre using while youre studying
them. J ust by actively searching it out, youll learn a lot more and become
comfortable with it a lot quicker.
4. Gendered language pretty much only pops up in casual speaking not in writing
(unless someone is writing someone actually speaking in a book or something, then
therell be gendered language present).
5. Most likely youre learning gender neutral J apanese, especially if youre a beginner.
You probably dont have to worry about gendered language stuff until youre more
like an intermediate level student of J apanese, Id say.
To help you out, though, Ive put together this gendered language cheatsheet for you to
download and use at your own pleasure. Im guessing you wont need it all that much,
being the very smart hoopy frood you are, but just in case here it is.
If you remember these things, you should be fine that is, unless gendered language
changes anytime soon, and it just might, too!

Gendered Language, Ever Changing
Gendered language came into existence in less than a hundred years, so what makes you
think it wont change just as fast? While gendered language was originally something
popularized by schoolgirls speaking improperly, its come to be something that separates
men and women, in a way. Although not the case all the time, feminine language tends to
put women down a little bit. Its supposed to make them sound more submissive, which is
probably a little bit sexist, even if nobody really means it for realsies.
Women are using gendered speech to empower themselves. For example, women are using
to talk down to men because men have used it to speak to women first. , too, is
sort of a form of self-expression, Id say. Things will change somewhat fast, I think, and
then this post will become unimportant. It wont be tomorrow, it wont be next week but
I think someday gendered language will become virtually nonexistent in J apanese.
Until that day comes, though, I hope you find this how-to guide useful and sound like
whatever gender you want to sound like.