Yuugi-ou: Language

[branchandroot]

First, a few pet peeves, just to get them off my chest. Feel free to skip these if linguistic purism irritates you.

Duel: a fight between two individuals, usually somewhat formalized and over matters of honor. Dual: being in two parts. While there is some ironic suitability to mistaking the latter for the former in this case, that makes it no less a mistake.

Terms

Yami and hikari (dark and light). These are never used as if they were proper nouns, nor as a categorical referent (a yami or his hikari). Yami is used in conjunctions: yami no game, yami no sekai (world), yami no seii (power), yami no jinkaku (personality, character), yami no kokoro (heart/soul/mind), yami no duelist. Those last three were used to refer to the Fury and Bakura, surprise, surprise. In the manga it is occasionally used in conjunction with a name to indicate a tenant (Yami Yuugi or Bakura), though never by the omote. Hikari, to the best of my knowledge, is never used anywhere to indicate an omote. The phrase yami to hikari (dark and light) is used in two places anime-wise: the first introductory bit during the first season, and about the masked partners toward the end of Battle City. Using these in fic is one thing, but tossing them around as if they were canon to the original series is something else. The fact that the US producers decided to use Yami as if it were Pharaoh’s name didn’t help, I admit. That just makes it more important to keep one’s facts straight.

Yugi and Yuugi. Yugi is a Japanese name, but it is not a word (though those who have only had contact with the dub may be forgiven for thinking it is; they are sadly misled by producers who should really know better by now). Yuugi, on the other hand, besides being a name means game and (by another spelling) friendship. This is what Takahashi named his character. The long vowel matters. It always irritates me when people say that it’s “correct” to romanize Japanese without indicating long vowels. If you want to write it with a single “u”, you need to use the appropriate diacritical (either a macron or a circumflex) over it. Early (and phonetically unenlightened) romanization systems did attempt to make do with diacritcal-less single vowels. Some common spellings are still holdovers from this system (Tokyo instead of Toukyou, for instance). There is a reason that system was replaced: it leads to serious confusion. The current systems still lead to serious confusion, but at least there’s less of it. I don’t care if you use “oo” or “ou” or “oh” or “ô”, but use one of them! It’s the difference between Yuugi o (Yuugi is the object of this sentence) and Yuugi-ou (king of games). O-ji-sama is a high-class way of saying “Uncle”; ou-ji-sama means “Prince”; o-jii-sama is a high-class way of saying “Grandfather”. Do I need to go on?

The way the characters talk about each other says a lot about how they relate. Lets take a look at some of the terms.

Aibou (partner). This one pops up a lot, notably as the term Pharaoh uses for Yuugi. In this case, the circumstances add something to it. The first time he uses it is toward the end of Duelist Kingdom after Yuugi tells his friends that it’s his other self that always duels, not him, and after he has finally made Pharaoh hear him and insisted on helping out in the duels. Thus, for Pharaoh to call Yuugi “partner” says that he is not, in fact, simply the useless vessel but is strong enough to take a significant part in the struggles he/they get into.

Omote (surface, exterior, head of a coin). In the anime, at least, I believe the Fury is the first to bring in this useful term, which distinguishes between an original personality and a later addition, whether from an item or from the original’s own heart.

Shujinkaku (primary personality). This is what the Fury calls Malik to his face. Well, actually shujinkaku-sama, since the Fury likes to pile honorifics on people he’s mocking. I think the most extreme example is o-chichiue-sama to his father right before killing him.

Utsuwa (vessel, container, bowl). Malik also uses this one for Yuugi, before Yuugi thwarts him sufficiently to become an actual person in his eyes.

Yadonushi (host to a parasite, also landlord–funny, I would have said that was the tenant…). This is a term Bakura uses for Bakura-kun, particularly when Bakura is talking to Malik about how they could use his host to catch Yuugi’s friends. If you break this into the two main terms, yado is the word for an inn or shelter, and a part of the word for pregnant. Nushi usually means owner. Appearing alone it has some extra connotations (owner/master/lover/god), having to do with possession in the divine sense. For this reason I found it curious that, in the manga, both Pharaoh and Bakura use the term nushi alone to describe Bakura-kun and Malik, respectively (Battle City finals). The double edge of the term nushi here is apparent if we translate it as “possessor”. Bakura also uses it when he first speaks to Bakura-kun, but it has a rather sardonic tone at that point considering that Bakura is in the process of possessing Bakura-kun. What it does, though, is emphasize the link between an Item-bound spirit and the Item. The manga, in particular, implies that when the Item chooses an owner that imposes some bonds or obligations on the spirit holed up in the Item.

Make inu (defeated or loser dog, stray dog) -> zako (small fish) -> bonkotsu duelist (ordinary or average duelist). Timelapse insults from Kaiba to Jounouchi. It’s the progression that interests me here. The first is vicious in a blunt sort of way, though also unfortunately accurate considering that Kaiba mops the floor with Jounouchi the first time they duel. The next one is disdainful, but not quite so abysmally contemptuous. That last one is downright evil, though in a far different way than the first. For Kaiba to call Jounouchi an average duelist could be construed as a backhanded compliment (ignoring the tone of voice) for someone who was a rank beginner not very long ago. Kaiba’s expression, however, (Evil Little Smile tm) makes it perfectly clear that he wants to goad Jounouchi. His choice of insult indicates that he knows Jounouchi aspires to be a really good duelist and is taunting him that he has fallen short of his goal. Combined with the Evil Little Smile when Kaiba agrees (if only temporarily) to duel Jounouchi in Battle City, the third-stage insult inclines me to think that Jounouchi has started to actually amuse Kaiba. I suppose it’s even possible that he’s goading Jounouchi in order to make him progress far enough to be a real challenge. While I would never invite Kaiba to my school as a motivational speaker, it’s true that his insults seem to get Jounouchi up and running faster than anyone but Shizuka’s or Yuugi’s encouragement.

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Vocabulary

The words that a given character commonly uses also make useful barometers.

Chikara (force, strength, power, authority, ability). Kaiba’s favorite, the word that encompasses his life philosophy, it’s perfect for the person who’s reading Nietzsche the very first time we see him.

Yuujou (friendship, fellowship) and nakama (company, fellow, comrade, circle, partner). Yuujou is the word that our core (Yuugi, Anzu, Jounouchi and Honda) tend to use about each other. Nakama is the word that those outside the inner circle tend to use about them (Mai and Malik, for instance). I suspect that the day Mai uses yuujou will be the day she actually accepts a date from Jounouchi instead of a duel.

Pronouns are good tab-keepers, as always.

Mou hitori no boku/ore. This is the way that Yuugi and Pharaoh, respectively, refer to each other for a long time. OtherSelf in modest and proud flavors.

Bakura-kun and Bakura’s version is a bit more extreme. Bakura-kun, polite boy that he is, uses boku/kimi for I/you, while Bakura, arrogant bastard that he is, tends to ore-sama and kisama.

Malik, though no less psychotic than Bakura, uses boku/kimi. Here I take it partly as a class indicator, much the same as Isis’ use of watakushi, and partly as a way to point up the difference between Malik and the Fury. Though I noticed once or twice he used kisama to Bakura; casual manners between plotters, perhaps. Of course, the Fury uses ore/kisama.

I did find it interesting that at the very start, before we have duels happening every other second, Kaiba uses boku/kimi. As soon as he sees someone as a duelist he switches to ore/kisama, which means that’s what we hear him using all the rest of the series. One doesn’t need to have two spirits to have two distinct modes of dealing with the world, which goes a little toward explaining why it takes everyone so long to notice the Pharaoh. Anzu actually thinks something similar about Mai in the manga, that the face of the duelist is different from the normal person…for all of them.

And I have to say, I find it entertaining that everyone except Jounouchi calls Mai by Mai-nee-chan (manga).