Female Language

In Japanese, "female language," or joseigo 女性語, refers to words and manner of speech predominantly used by women in Japan, that, consequently, would sound weird if used by men.

It's also called "women's language," and onna-kotoba 女言葉, "women's words."

Usage

The concept of "female language" is a cultural and historical one. In the past, certain women spoke in certain way, and that influenced how the next generations of women spoke, until we got the mess we have today.

There's nothing special about the meaning of words in female language. Everything that can be said using feminine words can also be said in a non-feminine way.

It's merely a matter that, if a lot of women speak in a way and you speak like them, you sound like you speak like a woman. And if you're a woman, then you're fitting right in and that's great. If you're not a woman, however, you'll sound unusual.

Not all female language is strictly female. Some words are simply more commonly used by women than men. Some words are used by both genders, but in one specific way used more by women. There are words that were used more by women and then started being used by men afterwards.

In anime, the use of language is often stereotypical and exaggerated: male characters often speak in a very male way, and female characters often use a lot of female language. Notably, female language in more traditional forms is often used by certain types of characters.

For example, ojousama お嬢様, "rich girl," characters often use it conspicuously, probably to hint they received a different education based on traditional manners compared to the rest of the female cast.

As do their mothers, and other rich, refined ladies. Anachronistic characters, those always wearing traditional kimonos, specially geisha and so on, often use a set of female language from their era.

Examples

Pronouns

The simplest way female language manifests in Japanese is in pronouns.

Many languages have a grammatical case which reflects the gender of the noun: e.g. "gato" and "gata" both mean "cat." In English, nouns don't have a gender, but third-person pronouns—"he" and "she"—do have genders.

In Japanese, nouns don't have genders and third-person pronouns, although gendered, are normally not used at all since you refer to people by their names, instead.

However, Japanese has various first-person pronouns—"I," "me"—some of which are feminine and some of which are masculine.

atashi あたし
atakushi あたくし
atai あたい
uchi うち
(feminine.)
watashi 私
watakushi 私 (or ワタクシ)
(feminine or neutral.)
ore 俺
boku 僕
(masculine.)

Among the above, watashi can be considered either feminine or neutral depending on context.

In formal contexts, you're supposed to use watashi, regardless of your gender. In informal contexts, there's no such obligation, and using the more feminine watashi instead of more masculine ore and boku becomes a matter of personal choice.

On the other hand, there are female characters that use masculine first person pronouns. Some of them simply use a masculine pronouns, others are tomboys, they behave in a masculine way, and using a masculine pronoun is but one part of their whole profile.

They're called boku-kko ボクっ娘, ore-kko 俺っ娘, boku-shoujo ボク少女, boku-onna ボク女, and terms alike. Although they also exist in real life, you're more likely to find them in anime.

Among second-person pronouns, this one is often used by women (not toward women, by women).

anata あなた
anta あんた
You.
- In particular, it can also be used by wives to refer to their "husband."

てよだわ言葉

The term te-yo-da-wa kotoba てよだわ言葉 refers to the "words te, yo, da, wa," which are often used by women at the end of their sentences.

It originated in the Meiji period (1868–1912) and is said to be the source of most female language used in modern Japanese today.

-te ～て
(this is the thing at the end of the te-form of verbs.)
- The te-form used as an imperative is gender-neutral, but used as a question is female language.
- kaette 帰って
  Go home. (neutral, imperative.)
- dou nasatte? どうなさって？
  dou nasaimashita ka? どうなさいましたか？
  dou ka shite? どうかして？
  dou ka nasaimashita ka? どうかなさいましたか？
  Did something happen? (female.)
yo よ
(assertive particle.)
- sou yo そうよ
  That's right!
da wa だわ
(copula plus wa わ assertive, emotive particle.)
- muri yo 無理よ
  muri da wa 無理だわ
  It's impossible.
- sou da wa そうだわ
  sou desu wa そうですわ
  That's right.
  It's so.

The wa わ sentence-ending particle is used so much by women that sometimes you'll hear people saying it's used exclusively by women. This isn't true. Men use wa わ sometimes too.

At Sentence End

Some other sentence-ending particles also often used by women include:

kashira かしら
I wonder. (sentence-ending particle.)
- nani kashira? 何かしら？
  nan-darou? 何だろう？
  What is it, I wonder?
-de ～で
(see naide ないで.)
- akiramenaide 諦めないで
  akiramenai de kudasai 諦めないでください
  Please don't give up.
nasai なさい
(creates imperatives. The usage is female when attached directly to nouns rather than to verbs.)
- benkyou shi-nasai 勉強しなさい
  Go study. (neutral.)
- benkyou nasai 勉強なさい
  Go study. (female.)
ne ね
(neutral when after a copula, female otherwise.)
- sou da ne そうだね
  That's right. (neutral.)
- sou ne そうね
  That's right. (female.)
- kirei da ne 綺麗だね
  It's pretty, isn't it? (neutral.)
- kirei ne 綺麗ね
  It's pretty, isn't it? (female.)
- muri wa ne 無理わね
  muri wa yo ne 無理わよね
  Yep, it's impossible.
no の
(nominalizer normally used to ask questions. In fiction it's used more by women. It's also used assertively to explain things.)
- dou natteru no? どうなってるの？
  What's going on?
- watashi wa kaeru no! 私は帰るの！
  I'm going home! (bye!)
no yo のよ
(nominalizer plus assertive particle.)
- baka na no yo 馬鹿なのよ
  [He] is an idiot.

There's a trio of words that are normally gender-neutral nominalizers, but that are used by women as sentence-ending particles instead.

koto こと
(used in diverse ways.)
- {kirei na} koto desu
  綺麗なことです
  It's a thing [that] {is pretty}. (neutral.)
  It's a pretty thing.
- kirei desu koto
  綺麗ですこと
  It's pretty. (female.)
mono もの
(only when used to explain why things are somehow, because.)
- {kirei na} mono desu
  綺麗なものです
  It's a thing [that] {is pretty}. (neutral.)
- kirei da mono 綺麗だもの
  kirei da kara 綺麗だから
  Because it's pretty. (female.)
mon もん
(contraction of mono もの. Specially used by small children.)
- kirei da mon 綺麗だもん
  Because it's pretty.

A few other words:

kudasai-mase くださいませ
kudasai-mashi くださいまし
(kudasaru くださる in masu form in imperative form and noun form.)
choudai ちょうだい
(same meaning as kudasai ください.)
- okane choudai お金ちょうだい
  okane kudasai お金ください
  Give me money.
- yamete choudai やめてちょうだい
  yamete kudasai やめてください
  Please stop.

美化語

The o- お～ prefix is often used by women in order to create bikago 美化語, "beautified language." In the sense that simply by using the suffix the words sounds prettier (i.e. more feminine). Some examples include:

ote お手
te 手
Hand. Hands.
okashi お菓子
kashi 菓子
Sweets.
oniku お肉
niku 肉
Meat.

In particular, the prefix is used in plural words for body parts featuring reduplication, which are generally used when talking to babies, presumably, by mothers more than by fathers.

otete お手手
Hands.

山の手言葉

Historically, old Tokyo 東京, called Edo 江戸, was divided in the upper-class, Yamanote 山の手, "mountain's hand," and the lower-class, Shitamachi 下町, "down-town."

The language used by the the upper class was called Yamanote Kotoba 山の手言葉, "mountain's hand words." In other words, the following words were used by rich ladies of the era:

zamasu ざます
(from gozaimasu ございます.)
gokigenyou ごきげんよう
How are you? (greeting. Also used particularly used by ojousama characters in anime.)
asobasu あそばす
asobase あそばせ
(from asobu 遊ぶ, "to play," "to have fun," but used as an auxiliary.)
- gomen-asobase ごめんあそばせ
  shitsurei-shimashita 失礼しました
  [I'm] sorry.
- oide-asobase おいであそばせ
  irasshai いらっしゃい
  Welcome. Please come in.

ありんす詞

Another set of historic words are the arinsu-kotoba ありんす詞 used by prostitutes in the Edo period (1603–1868). It's also known as:

kuruwa-kotoba 廓詞
Red-light district words.
- A synonym for kuruwa is yuukaku 遊廓, of which Yoshiwara 吉原 was a famous one.
sato-kotoba 里詞
Village words. Countryside words.
oiran-kotoba 花魁詞
Courtesan words.

Although this set has many historic words in it, there's really only one that's important to know about:

arinsu ありんす
(contraction of arimasu あります)
- kirei de aru 綺麗である
  kirei de arimasu 綺麗であります
  kirei de arinsu 綺麗でありんす
  It's pretty.
- koko ni aru ここにある
  koko ni arimasu ここにあります
  koko ni arinsu ここにありんす
  It's here.
- mondai ga aru 問題がある
  mondai ga arimasu 問題があります
  mondai ga arinsu 問題がありんす
  There's a problem.

A character using this word may hint a courtesan background. For example, Yūgiri ゆうぎり from Zombieland Saga.

However, since arinsu is merely a contraction, it's not exclusively used by courtesans. There are many exceptions, even in anime, like Holo from Spice and Wolf, who is a goddess, and Shalltear from Overlord, who is a vampire.

Furthermore. arinsu comes from the polite arimasu, which means it's not used casually. For example, Tsukuyo 月詠, one of the Yoshiwara's guardians from Gintama 銀魂, uses arinsu when speaking politely with clients, which happens almost never in the series.

Interjections

There's a bunch of interjections often used by female characters in manga, for example:

ara あら
arara あらら
ara ara あらあら
Oh.
maa まぁ
Well.
ufu' うふっ
ufufu うふふ
*giggle*
ohoho おほほ
*the infamous ojousama laugh*
kya' きゃっ
kyaa きゃー
*shriek*
*squeal*
*fangirling noises*
hidooi ひどーい
(a longer pronunciation of:)
- hidoi 酷い
  Horrible. Cruel. Mean.
iyaan いやーん
yaan やーん
(this is a weird one.)
- Literally, it's supposed to work like these:
- iya yo 嫌よ
  iya no yo 嫌のよ
  It's unpleasant. (literally.)
  Do not want. I'd rather not. No, thanks.
- Which mean you'd use it when you disagree with an idea or find something unpleasant, you don't want it.
- However, iyaan いやーん, deliberately dragged out like that, is often used in joking or flirting tone instead.

Lastly, there's this:

ee ええ
Yes. No. (agrees with whatever the other person asked.)
- Also used by men in formal contexts.

Male Language

The "male language," danseigo 男性語, or "men's language" is the opposite of female language: words predominantly used by men that women wouldn't normally use.

It essentially boils down to:

Feminine words:
- Prettier.
- Polite.
- Weak.
Masculine words:
- Uglier.
- Rude.
- Strong.

Yep, that's a lot of stereotypes. Masculine words are alright in casual contexts, but they tend to be avoided in formal contexts because they sound impolite.

Which kinda sounds like in order to present yourself as serving your superiors, your boss, your clients, and not present yourself as above them, you have to sound less masculine than usual, which hints how sexism is ingrained in society, language, and blah blah blah.

On the other hand, the idea that ladies shouldn't use filthy (masculine) words seems to be international.

Anyway, as for words that are used more by men:

zo ぞ
(expresses emphasis)
- katta zo! 勝ったぞ！
  [I] won!
ze ぜ
(basically zo ぞ and ne ね merged into one.)
- issho ni ikou ze 一緒に行こうぜ
  Let's go together. (how about that?)
yatsu 奴
Guy. Person.
- baka na yatsu da バカなヤツだ
  [He's] an idiot guy.
ano yatsu あの奴
ayatsu あやつ
aitsu あいつ
(third person pronoun.)
- aitsu wa baka da あいつはバカだ
  He's an idiot.
omae お前
kimi 君
kisama 貴様
temee てめぇ
You. (pretty much any second-person pronoun that's not anata.)
oi おい
Hey. (interjection.)
What are you doing? Stahp!
kora こら
(used to call someone's attention. In fiction, it's the staple of gangster characters.)
- aan? yannoka, kora?
  ああん？やんのか、こら？
  Ahmm? Wanna fight, huh?!

There are many female characters that will use the words above and speak "like men" to sound strong in a fight, but the opposite never happens: nobody attempts to appear weak by using feminine words, despite the obvious strategic value in doing so. ^{(Sun Tzu, ~500 B.C.)}

オネェ言葉

The term onee-kotoba オネえ言葉 refers to female language used by male gays, transgender women, okama オカマ, and so on, but it's a bit more complicated than that. It involves a disproportional use of words like:

yada やだ
(often used when someone does something unexpected, that the speaker can't believe is happening, being said. "No way.")
mou もう
(diverse meanings.)
chau ちゃう
(contraction of te-shimau てしまう, "ended up doing.")
ttara ったら
(used after names of people, pronouns, to say something about them.)

The act of using onee-kotoba is referred to by the verb hogeru ホゲる. Some okama think you're supposed to use onee-kotoba if you're an okama, but not all think this way.

Furthermore, there are also men that aren't gay, or trans, or anything, but use onee-kotoba. They're simply called onee オネエ.

Manga: Handa-kun はんだくん (Chapter 3, 半田くんと委員長)

Context: a guy panicked so hard he started speaking in onee-kotoba.
panikku de onee kotoba
パニックでオネェ言葉
[Using] onee-kotoba due to panic.
e' yada sore jaa
えっ　やだ　それじゃあ
[Eh, no way, then that means...]

In anime, okama characters often use female language or onee-kotoba, which counts as a form of gender expression.

By contrast, "trap" characters (otokonoko 男の娘) generally look and unconsciously behave femininely, but don't consciously use female language, reinforcing the idea that they ultimately identify as men and simply happen to look like girls.

References

女性語 - Wikipedia.org
- Contains a list of female language words.
山の手言葉 - Wikipedia.org
男性語 - Wikipedia.org
Sun Tzu, ~500 B.C., The Art of War.
- "Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak."