Re: [Lingo] Re: [tlug] OT: yahoo.co.jp ending web mail: Thanks!

[CL <az.4tlug@example.com>]

Stephen J. Turnbull wrote:
> BTW, you might want to send this to Lingo instead in the first place.
> Reply-To set.
>
> steven smith writes:
>
>  > あたし would indicate a woman is speaking, right?
>
> Yes. 「あたし」 and 「あたい」 are definitely female.  「わたし」 is
> sometimes suggestive, in contexts where a man would almost certainly
> use「ぼく」 or 「おれ」.  I also don't think I can recall hearing a
> woman say 「わたくし」、「わたくしども」「われ」、 or 「われわれ」.
> But that's just an observation.  I assume that women are rarely
> permitted to be in a status where such usage is appropriate. :-(
I was originally trained in Japanese using the Harvard-Yenching texts
(Defense Language Institute, 1943 edition) and my learning confirms to
what you state above. Since I'm still having kana / kanji input
reliability problems, we're doing this in romaji. I was taught to refer
to myself as "watakushi" in public and to only use the other terms you
have provided if I knew _everyone_ else in the room in which I was
speaking. Women in my class were taught to read the same kanji as
"atakushi" or "atashi." Men were taught the other familiar forms and the
women were not. Of course, now that "samurai Japanese" is in vogue, my
Taisho / early-Showa Japanese has acquired a certain "romance grey"
cachet that is a benefit that is occurring almost too late in life.

-- 
CL