Wing H. Yi (yokosima@EROLS.COM)
Sun, 17 Jan 1999 05:44:58 -0500
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.06 [en] (Win95; I) Message-ID: <36A1BF2A.3F54C6AC@erols.com> Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1999 05:44:58 -0500 From: "Wing H. Yi" <yokosima@EROLS.COM> Subject: Re: Internet Message Header
Richard E. Rae wrote:
> For that matter, all the characters have dialectic variations that imply their
> origins or class. Kanna speaks with Okinawan dialect, Sakura has a "country
> girl" accent, Sumire uses extremely formal speech which pegs her as a snob
> ("Watakushi" and "desu wa", for example), Iris speaks Japanese with a French
> accent and structure (note that her "mo" often ends in "mon", and her habit of
> inserting her name as the speaker). Orihime belts out her lines with a very
> clear, hard-edged Italian accent that pegs her as a foreigner immediately. And
> so forth!
Except for what you say about Orihime's accent and Sumire's formal
speech,
that's not quite right actually. Everyone except Kouran is speaking
what's called "standard Tokyo dialect". The differences between them
are in the politeness levels, and male or female and adult or child
type speech.
Kanna uses informal male type speech and Sumire is at the opposite end
with
her formal female type speech. Leni is right in the middle with polite
neutral with Maria close by, but more feminine. Iris would fit in maybe
between Kanna and Leni with her female children's speech pattern.
Orihime and Sakura's is closer to but not as formal as Sumire's speech.
Kouran's politeness level falls in with Sakura and Orihime.