honcho > honchas

[Joel S. Berson]

Thanks to Mike Speriosu and Douglas Wilson.  As usual, culture is
more complicated than the scientists (in this case, the Japanese -
English dictionary writers) would have us believe.

Joel

At 2/1/2007 10:57 PM, you wrote:
>>>While it's true that modern Japanese names ending in "-ko" are almost
>>>exclusively given to females, the character itself simply means "child"
>>>(genderless). I don't have any exact dates off hand, but I've been told
>>>many times by native speakers that "-ko" names actually used to be given
>>>to boys instead.
>>>
>>>There is no gender marking on common nouns whatsoever in Japanese (as
>>>there is in Spanish, German, Latin, etc.). Think of names ending in
>>>"-ko" as similar to English names ending in "-a", e.g. "Amanda",
>>>"Felicia", or "Brenda". They are a trend but not quite a rule: names
>>>like "Jonah" are acceptable male names.
>>
>>Isn't it the case that -hiko names (e.g. Yasuhiko) are predictably
>>male names?
>
>Pretty much so, I think.
>
>>Is this true of other -ko names?
>
>No.
>
>Here's something from Wiki:
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_name
>
>In the second paragraph under "Characters" one can see the kanji for the
>girls' "ko" and the different one for the boys' "hiko".
>
>Japan (like some other countries, e.g., Germany, Sweden, Argentina, IIRC)
>has rules about what names can be given to children. I don't know whether
>the rules would permit a presumptively female name (e.g., "Youko",
>"Kazuko", "Kumiko") to be given to a boy: probably he would be expected to
>have to fight at school, like the boy named Sue in the song.
>
>-- Doug Wilson
>
>
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