Revisiting Vandread. Hibiki is a classic sufferer from "short man" syndrome. Not only is he quite small physically (shorter even than Meia and Jura) but he's also a third class citizen on Tarak, a member of the lowest caste. So he's got a chip on his shoulder and snarls a lot.

He talks like a ruffian. I've gotten to where I can pick that particular vocal affectation out a lot of the time. He rolls his "r" sounds, which is a pretty standard "tough guy" affectation, but I've long been subliminally aware of another affectation, and just now I finally nailed it: he uses -ze and -zo a lot at the end of sentences.

The Wikipedia article on Japanese particles says that -ze and -zo get used the way -yo does, except that they have different connotations. -ze is stronger than -zo and "is never considered polite". Hibiki uses them both.

I'm sure I've heard other characters using -ze and -zo, but I wasn't really sensitized to it before. Now that I do know about them it will be interesting to see what other examples spring out at me when I rewatch things.

It's been a long time since I've rewatched the Sakura Wars TV series; maybe it's about time again. I know that Kanna rolls her r's. I wonder if she uses temee and ore and ze and zo? Yeah, I know that any female, no matter how tough she is, shouldn't be using ore. That's why I was so shocked to hear Beth using it in Petite Princess Yucie. A 10 year old girl using ore ain't any kind of "petite" I've ever heard of.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Japanese at 11:06 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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