Sunday, August 6, 2017

anta あんた (Second Person Pronoun)

In Japanese, anta あんた means "you." It's a second person pronoun, and a corruption of the more polite anata あなた. It's also spelled アンタ, with katakana.

爺さんあんたが作ったのか? この年季もんのご立派な盾 鉄の道具も染料もロクにねえ環境でよ
Manga: Dr. Stone, ドクターストーン (Chapter 29, Senku's Lab)

Usage

The pronoun anta is a corruption of anata.(dictionary.goo.ne.jp)

This means that while anata is used in polite, formal contexts, anta is not.

The pronoun anta is mainly used by women, but it's often used by men, too. In particular, it's also used by girls when they're calling out someone angrily, making it commonly used by tsundere ツンデレ characters in anime while they're being tsun つん.(dic.nicovideo.jp)

勘違いしないでよね!! 別にあんたのためじゃにんだからね!!!
Manga: Nichijou 日常 (Chapter 44)
  • Context: a tsundere being a tsundere.
  • kanchigai shinaide yo ne!!
    勘違いしないでよね!!
    Don't get the wrong idea!
  • betsu ni anta no tame janai-n-dakara ne!!!
    別にあんたためじゃないだからね!!!
    [It] isn't [like I did it] for you [or anything]!!!

Plural

The word anta takes the pluralizing suffixes ~tachi ~たち, ~ra ~ら, or ~gata ~方 to form the plural "you."

  • anta-tachi
    あんたたち
    You and the others.
  • anta-ra
    あんたら
    (same meaning.)
    • This is less polite.
  • anta-gata
    あんたがた
    (same meaning.)
    • This is more polite.

The polite anata doesn't take the non-polite ~ra suffix, but the corruption anta does.

Presumably, the reason why anta can take the more polite ~gata in spite of being a corruption is that anata is often used with ~gata, so when anata-gata is corrupted it becomes anta-gata.

For reference, some data:

Pluralizing Suffix Usage with Anta and Spelling by Number of Results on BCCWJ.
~ra ~tachi ~gata
たち がた
あんた 157* 5 310 22 23 29
アンタ 4 6 10 1 0 0
  • Note: あんたら yield a few results that were anta rashii あんたらしい instead. I haven't checked the exact count, but it should be around ten or fewer, meaning the plural anta-ra had around 150 results nevertheless.

Examples

The the sake of reference, some examples of anta being used in manga.

爺さんあんたが作ったのか? この年季もんのご立派な盾 鉄の道具も染料もロクにねえ環境でよ
Manga: Dr. Stone, ドクターストーン (Chapter 29, Senku's Lab)
  • Context: Senkuu 千空 meets the creator of the shield that Kohaku コハク possesses.
  • jiisan anta ga tsukutta no ka?
    爺さんあんたが作ったのか?
    Old-man, [it] was you who made [it]?
  • kono {nenki mon no} {go-rippa na} tate
    この年季もんの立派
    This {outstanding}, {seasoned} shield.
    • mon もん - contraction of mono もの, "thing."
    • nenki
      年季
      Seasoned. In the sense of accustomed, well-used, well-worn. Because the shield has been used for a good while.
  • {tetsu no dougu mo senryou mo roku ni nee} kankyou de yo
    鉄の道具染料もロクにねえ環境
    In an environment [with] {practically no iron tools or dyes}
    • Note: these three lines form a single dislocated sentence.
    • anta ga kono tate wo kono kankyou de tsukutta no ka?
      あんたがこの縦をこの環境で作ったのか?
      You made this shield in this environment?
アンタらいい加減にしなさいよっ!!面倒見きれないって!!
Manga: Gabriel DropOut, ガヴリールドロップアウト (Chapter 5)
  • Context: Vignette ヴィネット learns the harsh realities of doing group projects.
  • anta-ra ii-kagen ni shinasai yo'!!
    アンタらいい加減にしなさい!!
    You [two], [stop it already]!!
  • mendou φ mi-kirenai tte!!
    面倒見きれないって!!
    [I'm telling you] [I] can't take care of [all] the trouble [you two make]!!
    • mendou wo miru
      面倒見る
      To see trouble.
      To take care of trouble.
      To take care of someone, which is trouble, in the sense of it may cause trouble to you to do it.
    • ~kiru
      ~きる
      Completely.
      (auxiliary verb.)
    • mendou wo mi-kiru
      面倒を見きる
      To completely take care.
    • mendou wo mi-kireru
      面倒を見きれる
      To be able to completely take care.
      (potential form.)
    • mendou wo mi-kirenai
      面倒を見きれない
      To not be able to completely take care.
わしゃあんたらが生まれる前から運転しとるんじゃ わしが免許を取った頃には あんな標識なかったぞ!!
Manga: Taiho Shichau zo 逮捕しちゃうぞ (Chapter 22, 問答無用のチューンアップじいさん)
  • Context: an old man gets stopped by a couple of policewomen for not obeying a traffic sign.
  • washa {anta-ra ga umareru} mae kara unten shitoru-n-ja
    わしゃあんたらが生まれる前から運転しとるんじゃ
    I have been driving since {before you [two] were born}.
    • washa わし - a contraction of washi wa わし.
    • shitoru - a contraction of shite-oru しておる, in this case synonymous with shite-iru している.
    • ja じゃ - same as the da だ copula, typically used by old men.
  • {washi ga menkyo wo totta} koro niwa anna hyoushiki φ nakatta zo!!
    わしが免許を取った頃には あんな標識なかった!!
    When {I took [my] license} that [traffic] sign didn't exist!!

References

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