page_title: Japanese profanity
section_title: Honorific language
hierarchical_section_title: Japanese profanity / Language-based profanity / Honorific language
caption_attribution_description: English: Identifier: physicalculture201908macf (find matches) Title: Physical culture Year: 1899 (1890s) Authors: MacFadden, Bernarr Aldolphus, 1858- Subjects: Physical education and training Publisher: New York&#160;: Physical Culture Publishing Co. Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries View Book Page: Book Viewer About This Book: Catalog Entry View All Images: All Images From Book Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book. Text Appearing Before Image: s shown in the photograph wereproduce. This was also, to all ap-pearance, the outcome of the desire ofmore or less savage nations to havedirect evidence of a well-liked strang-ers characteristics through the sense ofsmell. This desire of a substantial evidenceof good-will was carried to a greaterextent in ancient Persia, where, so it isreported, a vein was opened by each ofthe parties to a ceremonious salutation. 450 PHYSICAL CULTURE The greetings of the Chinese havemuch in common with those of theJapanese. The common style of salu-tation of the former people consists ofa query as to ones diet, in the form:How is your rice?—a more or lesspertinent question after all. All of thegreetings of the Chinese are prescribed for various occasions, down to thesmallest detail. The people of bothJapan and China follow the fashion ofdeprecating themselves in their greet-ings, which is explanatory of the bowing-down of the Japanese shown in thephotograph reproduced in connectionwith this article. Text Appearing After Image: From Stereograph copyright by Underwood &amp; UfidefWood, X. Y. The extreme of formal courtesy is practiced by our Japanese cousins; hostess and guest payeach other the honor of kneeling and bowing to the very floor Excessive Meat Eater Converted To the Editor: At one time I was what one mightstyle an excessive meat-eater, and ofcourse was accustomed to eating two,or sometimes three, portions of meatdaily. I must admit that at times, afterfinishing my meal of this carnivorousdish, there seemed to be a feeling ofweariness and fatigue, with a touch ofdullness and inactivity. At length I had the pleasure of read-ing an article by one of our foremostauthorities on this topic, and after care-fully weighing the matter I designed acourse that would lessen the quantityof meat I consumed. At first my noonday meal containedmeat, This satisfied my desires, and I gradually lessened the amount until Iused meat only once every two days.vSo it went until now I have reduced itto a minimum of once a w Note About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.
context_page_description: Profanity in the Japanese language can pertain to scatological references or aim to put down the listener by negatively commenting on their skill levels, intellect, or appearance. Furthermore, there are different levels of Japanese speech that indicate politeness, social standing and respect, referred to, simply, as honorific form. Using the incorrect form of Japanese can, itself, be insulting to the listener.
context_section_description: Profanity can be accentuated also through use (or lack) of honorific language (敬語 けいご keigo). Following on from pronouns and suffixes in the example above, the speaker has contracted the words for 'excuse me/sorry' (すみません sumimasen to ごめん gomen), 'I cannot hear you' (聞こえません kikoemasen to 聞こえない kikoenai) and 'can you speak' (話してくれませんか hanashitekuremasenka to 言って itte).
  Politeness can be conveyed to the listener by conjugating plain forms (verb stems) of Japanese verbs into what is called the polite form.
  Consider the original example. The plain form verb for 'listen' is 聞く kiku. The potential form of this is 聞こえる kikoeru, and the corresponding negative form is 聞こえない kikoenai. The polite conjugation of the negative potential plain form is then 聞こえません kikoemasen, as seen in the example (1). In example (3) the speaker has chosen to use the plain form 聞こえない kikoenai, and this indicates a disregard for the social hierarchical status of Ms Ishiyama over the speaker.
caption: Japanese women dressed in kimono bowing to each other in formal greeting in a tatami room
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