Friday, July 22, 2016

~sama ~様 (Honorific Suffix)

In Japanese, ~sama after someone's name is a honorific suffix, used to refer to people with reverence and respect. It's also spelledさま,

In real life, it's used toward customers, clients. In anime, it's used by a slave or servant to refer to their master, lord, or lady. To refer to deities, and to other beings who are superior to the speaker.

神様!仏様!古見様!!
Manga: Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu. 古見さんは、コミュ症です。 (Chapter 14, あがり症です)

Usage

The usage of the sama 様 suffix is rather complicated. Basically, it's supposed to refer to someone who's superior to you. Them being superior makes you inferior, so it's a humbling word.

Due to this superiority connotation, in practice, the sama 様 suffix is only used under certain circumstances.

Normally, to refer to someone respectfully, but as an equal, the san さん suffix is used instead. This san さん suffix is actually a corruption of the word sama 様.

A corruption of san さん is the chan ちゃん suffix, which is cutesy and generally used toward girls. There's a similar corruption for the sama 様 suffix: chama ちゃま, which is used only jokingly and in a few actual words.

Besides being attached to names, sama 様 is also found in a lot of words, in particular accompanied by the honorific prefixes o お or go. See: o__san お〇〇さん for a list.

Business

In the business world, sama 様 is normally attached to the names of clients, customers, or even employees of other companies.

It's not used to refer to people within the same company. The respect is toward people outside the company.

  • okyakusama
    お客様
    Customer.

Family

Certain terms for family members in Japanese can get the sama 様 suffix attached to them.

Such words are all about people who are born before you. They're older than you, that's why sama 様 can be used.

You wouldn't refer to your "younger sister," imouto, as imouto-sama, for example, because they're younger than you. When the word imouto-sama is used, it normally refers to the younger sister of other people, not your own.

Someone simply being older than you isn't enough to warrant sama 様 to be used. Again: the san さん suffix is normally used. A senior in an institution like a school can get the honorific title senpai 先輩 instead.

Masters

Slaves, servants, retainers, and so on, may refer to their master, lord, or lady with the suffix sama 様. After all, there's a very clear vertical hierarchy here.

  • goshujinsama
    ご主人様
    A slave's master.
    A retainer's lord.
    The house's owner. Or owner of a establishment..
    One's husband.
    A summoned being's summoner.
    A pet's owner.
  • ojousama
    お嬢様
    The daughter of the lord. Young lady.
    A random rich girl.
  • bocchama
    ぼっちゃま
    The son of the lord. Young master.
    A random rich boy.

Royalty

It's also the case that royalty is referred to using the sama 様 suffix.

  • ousama
    王様
    King.
  • joousama
    女王様
    Queen.
  • oujosama
    王女様
    Princess.
  • ohimesama
    お姫様
    Princess. (too.)
  • oujisama
    王子様
    Prince.

Deities

The sama 様 suffix can also be used toward deities, gods, and those hierarchically closer to God and thus above the random unblessed peasant.

  • shinpusama
    神父様
    Priest. Reverend father.
神様!仏様!古見様!!
Manga: Komi-san wa, Comyushou desu. 古見さんは、コミュ症です。 (Chapter 14, あがり症です)
  • kami-sama!
    神様!
    God!
  • hotoke-sama!
    仏様!
    Buddha!
  • Komi-sama!
    古見様!
    Komi-sama!
  • doo suruu?
    どーするー?
    [What should we] do?

Very Important People

In anime, it's often the case that a character is very important for some weird reason or another, and as such is revered by a lot of other characters. Such characters can end up getting the sama 様 suffix, too.

In particular, it's kind of a trope that referring to such character with sama 様 is the norm, and there will be a character that knows that very important person, but is completely unaware of that fact.

This develops into the unaware character finding it weird everybody calls the VIP with sama 様. And some of the VIP's followers correcting the unaware character, telling them: "you have to say VIP-sama, where's your respect?!"

Self-Importance

In rare cases, a pretentious characters addresses themselves with sama 様, like with ore-sama 俺様. Sometimes the demonstrative pronoun kono この is used, too. See: kono ore da この俺だ for reference.

やかましいっ!!! オレ様が、なんであんな低レベルな奴らと友達になんなきゃいけねーんだよっ!!?
Manga: Zatch Bell!, Konjiki no Gash!! 金色のガッシュ!! (Chapter 1, 清麿、正義の味方)
  • yakamashii'!!!
    やかましい!!!
    [You're] noisy!!!
    [Stop annoying me!!!]
  • ore-sama ga, nande
    anna tei-reberu na
    yatsura to tomodachi ni
    nan'nakya
    ikeneendayo'!!?

    オレ様が、なんであんな低レベルな奴らと友達になんなきゃいけねーんだよっ!!?
    Why do I have to become friends with low-level guys like those!!?
    • tomodachi ni naru
      友だちになる
      To become friends.
てめえなんかがこのナッパさまにかなうわけがないんだ!!!
Manga: Dragon Ball, ドラゴンボール (Chapter 224, 孫悟空の静かな怒り)
  • Context: Nappa ナッパ informs Goku 悟空 of his opinion.
  • temee nanka ga
    kono Nappa-sama ni
    kanau wake ga nai-n-da!!!

    てめえなんかが このナッパさまに かなうわけがないんだ!!!
    [There's no way someone like] you [can defeat] THIS NAPPA-SAMA!!!
    • kanau 叶う
      "To rival" someone, as in, "can defeat," since someone unrivaled is undefeatable.

Sarcasm

Sometimes, the sama 様 suffix is added to someone's named sarcastically, to imply they're acting like a king, or master, and mocking how they're giving orders around, or being pretentious, and that sort of holier-than-thou attitude.

It can also be used in many other dishonest forms, like to fawn somebody.

どうかお願いしますサターニャさん・・・ いえ サターニャ様
Manga: Gabriel DropOut, ガヴリールドロップアウト (Chapter 9)
  • Context: Raphiel plays Satania like a fiddle.
  • douka onegai shimasu
    Sataanya-san...

    どうかお願いしますサターニャさん・・・
    Please [do it for me], Satania-san.
  • ie
    Sataanya-sama

    いえ サターニャ
    No. Satania-sama.
  • Here, Raphiel makes Satania feel important by using the ~sama ~様 suffix, which has added reverence. Raphiel only used the suffix here to compel Satania into doing something for her, but nevertheless managed to fawn her over with this display of blatant flattery.

Other People

The sama 様 suffix is sometimes added to words that refer to other people, as a way to imply you respect, or should respect, other people.

The word hito, which means "person," becomes "other people," hito-sama 人様, when the honorific is added. It's used in ways like: don't bother other people, don't break into other people's houses, and so on. It implies the inherent respect you should have for others.

Similarly, ko, "child," becomes okosama お子様, which often refers to someone else's child.

Other Words

There's a couple of words worth noting about that have nothing to do with sama 様.

First, sama 様 can be used to mean "appearance." In this case, it's not the honorific.

  • ano arisama
    あの有様
    That outcome.
    That result.
    Ended up that way, looking like that.
  • sama ni naru
    様になる
    To become [of appropriate] appearance.
    To become as it should look like.

The word samazama, basically sama said twice, means "various."

  • samazama na yarikata
    様々なやり方
    Various ways-to-do [it].

The word you 様, spelled with the same kanji, is a light noun used to refer to the appearance of things, how things "seem." It's normally spelled with hiragana, but you may find it spelled with kanji, too.

  • tada no shikabane no you da
    ただのしかばねのよう
    It seems it's just a corpse.
Honorific Suffixes

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