Foreign character language : A case study on Kagura from Gin Tama

• Main Author: Kanon, Nillen
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: Högskolan Dalarna, Japanska 2020
• Subjects: Languages and Literature; Språk och litteratur
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:du-35925

Role language in Japanese is a term defined in 2000 by Satoshi Kinsui. Role language usesdifferent pronouns, copula and sentence-ending particles to depict a certain type of characterusing language. This thesis compares the language of the character Kagura from the mangaGin Tama , written and illustrated by Hideaki Sorachi, to the role language definitions featured inSatoshi Kinsui’s work Virtual Japanese: Enigmas of Role Language , as well as the standardizedJapanese language. Kagura is an alien character landing on planet earth in Edo -period Japan,her character is portrayed with Chinese details and her language is known as the aruyo rolelanguage, which has been used to represent the Chinese in fiction.The case study consisted of 530 lines from the original manga gathered from seven differentvolumes spanning ten years between the first and the last.The analysis featured in the result section produced statistics of how many lines contained acertain phrase or sentence-ending particle and began analyzing the meaning of particles andhow they are used in the context of the manga . The conclusion brings forth new discoveriesregarding the command conjugation and its equivalence in role language.