Translating Japanese gender speech?

[minakichan]

I'm trying to translate a couple of songs (for which I have Japanese romaji) from Japanese male speech to Japanese female speech, and vice versa. I don't really know any Japanese aside from otaku-ese; I know about gender pronouns and some endings, but I'm definitely unfamiliar with most rules and the vocabulary differences between genders. I know that it probably takes a lot of study to understand all the differences, but can someone give me crash notes on the basics?

Just to explain what I'm doing:
I want to karaoke these Suzumiya Haruhi songs as the genderbent version-- that's Kyon-ko and Suzumiya Haruhiko/Haruki. The Japanese fandom already has some genderbent versions of the songs, so I basically want to do those songs, but lyrics aren't posted anyway and I have to make sure mine are accurate.
Hare Hare Yukai~ Kyon ver. male speech to female speech
God Knows... female speech to male speech
Lost My Music female speech to male speech

Thanks~

[TalKeaton]

Sorry, my Japanese isn't quite good enough to help you there. If you have anything in Hiragana/Katakana/Kanji you need turned into Romanji, though, just let me know.

[Aka-chan]

I'm relatively proficient in Japanese, so I'm familiar with gender-specific speech, but I'm not entirely sure what you're going for here. Also, there are a lot of things that can be said by both genders, so it's not always switchable. Can you give me something in particular that you want to work with?

[minakichan]

So, for example, this song: http://www.animelyrics.com/anime/haruhi/harehareyukaikyon.htm

I can easily do a Ctrl-R and replace ores with atashis and omaes with anatas, but I know that some of the word endings and phrases are different; I'm just not sure what, exactly.

(thx for help~)

[Lynx]

It's also feminine to hold out your vowels, and to add "ne" to the end of sentences where appropriate.

[EricTheFred]

I'm not sure if I agree with the 'ne' in general, but I have noticed men more likely to ruminate 'so desu ka' and women more likely to use 'so desu ne' (in situations where they are essentially saying 'give me a moment to think about this.')

A number of other items, but these are the ramblings of a poorly skilled speaker, not an expert:

I have noticed a tendency for female vocalists (and speakers) to use an 'ng' sound instead of a hard 'g' (like the particle 'ga' coming out 'nga') but I haven't figured out yet if this is a gender speech difference or a regional thing (i.e., maybe I've heard only female speakers from said region by coincidence.)

You are more likely to hear women switch to a 'soo' pronunciation of words ending in 'su' (instead of 's') Especially the word 'desu'. But note this is a politeness thing, and women just retreat to politeness more readily. Men do not sound effeminate by using this, just very very formal.

Women are a lot less likely to use 'boku' or 'ore' first person pronouns, which both considered masculine, or 'omae' second person ('kimi' is the politer second person.) In some places I've seen 'anata' given as politer, in others as more informal.


There are a variety of particles that are masculine or feminine in nature, where the men use one particle and the women another. In a lot of cases, though, the men can use either one but the women only use the 'softer' one. Example: yo as opposed to zo or ze. Yo isn't effeminate, but zo and ze are too masculine for female speech. I don't have my 'all about particles' book with me, or I would leaf through and name off some other examples.

[Bobtheduck]

I was under the impression (based on Pimsleur) that Soo, desu ka? was a question where as Soo, desu ne? was a soft agreement... In Soo, desu ka? you're actually questioning the situation... So they mean very different things.

As for Anata, well... that's the neutral "you" but second person is almost never used... Instead, a person's name is used...

What I know about gender speech is this:

Atashi is female
Watashi is neutral
Ore is an adult male
Boku is a child male
Washi is an old man

All of those mean "me" or "I" (none of them mean "strawberry eggs", but that's beside the point)

If something has an optional honorific form, Women are usually supposed to use it (unless it's in reference to themselves), but men have more freedom to go without an honorific.

There was a word I learned from school rumble that I wanted to use that turned out to be a feminine word... I just can't remember it now...

Ne isn't feminine... It should be used by everyone. What MAY be feminine is an overuse of it, but ne is just used to show that you're flexible...

[EricTheFred]

I was under the impression (based on Pimsleur) that Soo, desu ka? was a question where as Soo, desu ne? was a soft agreement... In Soo, desu ka? you're actually questioning the situation... So they mean very different things.

As for Anata, well... that's the neutral "you" but second person is almost never used... Instead, a person's name is used...

What I know about gender speech is this:

Atashi is female
Watashi is neutral
Ore is an adult male
Boku is a child male
Washi is an old man

All of those mean "me" or "I" (none of them mean "strawberry eggs", but that's beside the point)

If something has an optional honorific form, Women are usually supposed to use it (unless it's in reference to themselves), but men have more freedom to go without an honorific.

There was a word I learned from school rumble that I wanted to use that turned out to be a feminine word... I just can't remember it now...

Ne isn't feminine... It should be used by everyone. What MAY be feminine is an overuse of it, but ne is just used to show that you're flexible...

Agreed about 'Ne'. It's a tendency in feminine speech to seek agreement or concord more often that gives the impression that it's feminine.

"Anata" is very often translated as 'Dear', when used between husband and wife, because of the feeling behind using it. It and kimi are both considered 'formal', not neutral (which is why they don't get used a lot and people revert to names instead.) The informal is 'omae', which has become rude in modern speech (it's often used like saying 'look, buddy' to someone you're **** at). I do hear it regularly used toward younger siblings in Anime all the time, though. There simply isn't a true 'neutral' second person. That's probably why calling "Ano" to get a stranger's attention isn't rude.

"Soo desu ka.": This is commonly used in the way I described, as is "Soo desu ne." (I've heard "Soo ka" many times also). I'm not adding question marks. Say it like you're mulling it over, not like you're asking a question. With the question mark, it is used as you describe, but without the question mark, it has a completely different meaning.

IIRC, Pimsleur mentions the "Soo desu ne." usage.

"Ore" implies superior status or authority. It can be rude in the wrong context, even when used by an adult male.

I need to modify a statement I made previously, BTW. I decided to pay better attention lately, and I'm hearing men using 'ng' for 'g' a lot more often than I had realized. I've decided it's a regional thing, not a gender thing at all. I've looked for literature that discusses it, but I've yet to find anything.