Paper short abstract:

This study examines how an MtF transsexual speaker, Hirasawa Yüna, a manga artist has transitioned from a man to a woman linguistically. Based on 25-hour-videotaped-conversation over the period of 10 months in 2016, it analyzes two aspects of linguistic transfer; (1) voice quality and (2) grammar.

Paper long abstract:

There have been 6021 individuals who changed their sex in koseki since 2004 in Japan. My informant is one of them. This study examines how a transsexual speaker of Japanese, Hirasawa Yüna, whom I met in 2016, has transitioned from a male to a female speaker linguistically. Hirasawa, well-educated, early 30s, who had an SRS (sex reassignment surgery) a few years ago in Thailand quit her well-paying job and has become a manga artist after the surgery. The author of "Boku ga watashi ni narutame ni (How I 'boku' became 'watashi')" claims that the linguistic transition has been the easiest among other issues she dealt with, which is shared by many other MtF transgender and transsexual speakers I interviewed. However, it was not as simple as she claims.

In this study, I discuss two aspects of linguistic transfers; (1) voice quality, and (2) grammar. Since taking hormones would not change the voice quality for MtF transgender and transsexual speakers, they have to train themselves, which takes years. Some hire a professional trainer, but eventually they have to develop their own training procedure as Hirasawa did. By discussing the process of her voice training, I analyze what the feminine sounding voice quality means to transgender and transsexual speakers. As for grammar, not only the use of gender-coded linguistic features such as person pronouns and sentence-final forms, but also choice of vocabulary is crucial to sound feminine. Avoidance of voiced sound is such an example.

This study is part of my on-going research on transgender and transsexual speakers of Japanese since 2012. Qualitative analysis of Hirasawa's linguistic practice as well as her position toward linguistic transfer based on 25-hour-videotaped-conversation over the period of 10 months, tries to answer a question of what it means to be, in her own words, "kissui no josei (real/genuine woman)" linguistically. She challenges the notion of "imitation" and "performance" in her linguistic transition.

Paper short abstract:

Recent research on kyara (character) and yakuwarigo (role language), by Sadanobu, Kinsui et.al., merits careful examination in the framework of similar research in the "West". This paper examines their approach focusing on the concepts, such as social context, polyphony, social roles, and habitus.

Paper long abstract:

Many positive influences in modern language research came from the outside of linguistic proper, from literary sciences (Bahtin), anthropology (Malinowski), social sciences (Goffman) etc.

In Japan recently there is a dynamic research on linguistic variation stemming from and inspired by popular genres such as manga and anime but reaching deeper into discursive reality and its connection with society. Namely, the research on kyara (character) and its, not necessarily only linguistic, manifestations, and related notion of yakuwarigo (role language), with Toshiyuki Sadanobu and Satoshi Kinsui as chief proponents. Several monographs by these researchers or inspired by them have already been published, among most recent, Sadanobu (2016) and Kinsui (ed. 2012) but their efforts have been almost unknown outside Japan. Their findings stress primacy of social context in considering discursive phenomena and importance of stereotypisation, problematise use of a priori categories, such as primacy of rational action, and crude mechanicistic functionalism. On the other hand, especially in the field of teaching Japanese as a second language where this approach seems to be gaining traction, there seems to be an oversimplified superficial understanding of its tenets and its achievements.

Based on the many parallels with thinking about language and society in the "West", among others, Bahtin, Bourdieu, Coseriu, Goffman, Halliday, I attempt in this paper to analyse and locate this research in the tradition of the research represented by the above authors, focusing in particular on the key concepts, such as social context, polyphony, social roles, imitation languages and habitus. My tentative conclusion is that the research on character and role language, while developing in isolation, fits well in the tradition represented by the above authors and has also new aspects that can contribute to our understanding of language in society.

Key words: kyara (character), yakuwarigo (role language), habitus, linguistic variation

Literature:

Sadanobu Toshiyuki (2016) Komyunkikēshon no gengoteki sekkin (コミュニケーションの言語的接近, Linguistic approach to communication). Tokyo: Hitsuji Shobo.

Kinsui Satoshi, ed. (2012) Yakuwarigo kenkyū no tenkai (役割語研究の展開) Development of research in role language). Tokyo: Kuroshio Publishers.