Japanese honorific adj. ending "-ou" (Specific Languages) Language Learning Forum

Japanese honorific adj. ending "-ou"
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Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages

Lucky Charms
Diglot
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Japan
lapacifica.net
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Message 1 of 3

18 August 2012 at 10:53am | IP Logged

Many years ago I remember reading in a textbook about an honorific adjective form where
the final "ai" becomes "ou". The example given was a company worker saying to an older
man who goes running every day, 「おわこうですね」（若い→わこう） This really excited me at the
time because I realized it must be the origin of the set phrases 「おはよう」（from 早い）、
「おめでとう」（from めでたい）, and「ありがとう」（from 有り難い）.

However, I've never come across this ending since, and I can't find any information
online whether in Japanese or in English. Has anyone come across this ending before? If
it's obsolete, when did it become so?

Edited by Lucky Charms on 18 August 2012 at 10:54am
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Volte
Tetraglot
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Switzerland
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Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese

Message 2 of 3

18 August 2012 at 5:22pm | IP Logged

Is Polite language in Japanese any help?

above page wrote:

Adjectives

These are made honorific by the addition of special endings. I am considering only -i adjectives here (see the chapter on Adjectives). It's just a simple substitution: -oi and -ai become -ou (long o); -ii and -ui become -uu (long u). So atarashii ("new") becomes atarashuu, while osoi ("late" or "slow") becomes osou. Then, instead of tacking on desu to make the adjective polite, you substitute (de) gozaimasu or (de) irasshaimasu (these are the honorific forms of (de) aru; see below).

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howtwosavealif3
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United States
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Message 3 of 3

18 August 2012 at 8:17pm | IP Logged

I think it's obsolete. I've only cOme across that on the awesome jdrama Jin which is set in The Edo era. I
think saki said oishuu de gozaru instead of oishii de gozaru. If you google in Japanese I'm sure you'll find the
answer as far as when it became obsolete. And if you can't find anything you can ask On chiebukuro

Edited by howtwosavealif3 on 18 August 2012 at 8:18pm

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