# About Aisatsu



## livinadream

Hello,

I'm doing a research project about contrastive linguistics in which I compare greetings and courtesy phrases between Japanese and Catalan.

The thing is that now I've found out the aisatsu concept. I've read a little about it but I don't know if there is any written code or rules that speakers or natives have to follow or, otherwise, if the uses of aisatsu are learnt by interaction with other speakers and have an interiorised learning (linguistic conceptions and recommendations.)

In case there is a written source, it is possible to check it?
If it's a linguistic conception, which 'internal or generic' rules do you tend to follow?

I would really appreciate your answers!


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## Catnails

What is your main question? Put it in one complete interrogative sentence. And why don't you show some examples of "written code or rules" for those who have no idea what they are?


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## livinadream

The question, as I said, it's: 

there is any written code or rules that speakers or  natives have to follow or, otherwise, the uses of aisatsu are learnt  by interaction with other speakers and have an internal learning  (linguistic conceptions and recommendations)?

An example or, what I suppose it's a rule, would be the following situation: considering hierarchy or social status of the person you are adressing to, you will have to use "ohayoo" (more informal) or "ohayoo gozaimasu" (formal).

Is there any source with similar rules or situations (as you would like to consider) explained and exposed?

If not, do usally people learn them by socialising acts (such as dialogues or interactions with other people)?


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## Wishfull

Hi.
I'm not sure if I could understand your question correctly.
What you want is something like these;

Rule 1. We change our greeting words according to the time of a day.
Rule 2. We change our greeting words according to the season of a year.
Rule 3. We change our greeting words according to the person's social rank.
Rule 4. We change our greeting words according to the person's age.
Rule 5. We change our greeting words according to the relation with the person. (familiar or unfamiliar)
Rule 6. We change our greetings according to the person's personality.
We talk to less frequently those who remain silent. Those who are always sarcastic.
Those who speak back too much. Those who's mouth smells bad. Those who is very dark.
We talk to more frequently those who are cheerful. Those who are adequately-talkative.
Those who has attractive face, especially man to woman.

Rule 7; We change greeting expression according to how many times we met.
Rule 8. We change it according to the mood of ourselves.
Rule 9. We change it according to the formal/informal situation.
etc.


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## livinadream

Thank you Whisfull for your reply. What I'm looking for is very close to what you have posted.

Now, what you have written is something you have learnt in your culture and you just apply it or you know it because it's written and compulsory to follow?


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## Catnails

Are you looking for information like this?
*
Honorific speech in Japanese
From Wikipedia*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honorific_speech_in_Japanese


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## livinadream

It's not only about honorifics (although they are absoultely related with aisatsu). In my research I've already referred to honorifics but to talk about verb forms, as you can agglutinate (add) honorifics marks in the verb altogether with time and/or positive-negative marks.

I'm looking for something like the infortmation Wishfull has posted above. But thank you very much for your help!! =)


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## Wishfull

livinadream said:


> Thank you Whisfull for your reply. What I'm looking for is very close to what you have posted.
> 
> Now, what you have written is something you have learnt in your culture and you just apply it or you know it because it's written and compulsory to follow?



Hi.
I don't think it is written nor compulsory to follow.



I've learned them naturally from my culture, and I tried to reconstruct them in my brain, as if I became a language scholar.  Though they are so childish.

Some of them are taught at elementary school when I was a kid.
Like _*changing expression according to the time of a day*_.


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## livinadream

They may seem very chilish, but they are very helpful to me!

In all the books I've found, they talk about aisatsu but they don't say a word about learning it.

In my culture a similar concept would be manners. You don't have to follow them as well, and nowadays they have disappeared completely except for a few formal situations.

I've asked about a written code because when my mother went to school, she had a manners and social conduct subject and a manners book!

And since Japanese culture it's so complex, I was wondering about the way you did get all those concepts


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## kenjoluma

I used to live in Japan as a kid and lived there for long time. And I can answer that question. Yes, there was a rule book in Japan, too. Wow, I remember that. But as many European countries, it is becoming old and extinct

I think I see what you are looking for. You might want to look up '茶道(sadou)'. It's a specific way to have a tea but it's so complex that it's rather a 'ceremony'.


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## nekojita

Written material does exist, of course. Did you try googling for Japanese sites on 挨拶 or マナー?  e.g. http://www.jp-guide.net/manner/ao/aisatsu2.html#0

I'd guess native speakers really only need these things for keigo, the same way as in English you might have been taught at school the proper way to address letters, or a book on dealing with job interviews will probably have a chapter on how to greet people, shake hands, etc, in a way that makes a good impression.


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## livinadream

No Nekojita, I didn't know about that sites. The problem is that I have a very basic knowledge of Japanese language. I can understand short and basic texts. The source you have posted it's very useful (as I see with google translator) but I would like to find similar context or a version in English, French, Spanish, Italian or German because I will include it the paper and my lecturer doesn't know how to read Japanese ^^


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## lammn

Aisatsu also varies according to regions (i.e. dialects).
For example, Japanese people in Okinawa say めんそーれ(mensōre) to welcome people to their homeland, instead of the standard ようこそ(yōkoso) spoken by most Japanese.

Also, Japanese people have to change their wordings according to their own gender.
This applies not just to aisatu, but applies to all kinds of conversations.


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