Danbooru

Question about "ojousama", "oneesan" etc.

Posted under General

I was wondering if there is any policy in place for words like お嬢様, お姉さん, etc. Current tags are mixed regarding whether they should be rendered as "ojousama"/"oneesan" or as "ojou-sama"/"onee-san" (possible third option: "o-jou-sama"/"o-nee-san").

Updated by KeliraTelian

glasnost said:

And it's definitely "ojou-sama"/"onee-sama". Too many hyphens spoil the broth.

Indeed. Personally, more than one hyphen per "word" gets cumbersome.

For example, by itself: "Onee-sama", connected to a name: "Sachiko-oneesama"

I don't know if thats objectively "correct", but "Sachiko-onee-sama" is...icky.

Fencedude said: For example, by itself: "Onee-sama", connected to a name: "Sachiko-oneesama"

Yeah, this seems to be standard practice from what I've seen, and it's certainly the way I prefer. But no hyphen even when it's standalone isn't the end of the world either. Just don't double-hyphen.

Well unless it's one of those weird and uncommon cases like Makoto calling Touka "Tou-chan-senpai" in Touka Gettan. Or "Yuri-chan-sensei" in Toradora. Tou-chansenpai is kinda silly.

jjj14 said:
Thanks, guys. On a related note, what about "tachi"? We have kanojo_tachi_no_ryuugi (separated by a space), oretachi_ni_tsubasa_wa_nai (as one word), and kohitsuji-tachi_no_rakuen (hyphenated). I guess the hyphenated form is preferred here as well?

I'm for hyphenating that. X-tachi is a noun referring to a group of people including X. The -tachi is not an honorific.

F.I.A said:
While we're at it, some of my translations of "Milady" have been changed into "ojou-sama" as well. So I assume we will stick to the default japanese honorifics regarding these?

No, if you used "Milady" (or some other suitably respectful term) in the translation, it should have stayed that way. There's no good reason I can think of to change it that way.

sgcdonmai said:
No, if you used "Milady" (or some other suitably respectful term) in the translation, it should have stayed that way. There's no good reason I can think of to change it that way.

My stance on terms like that depends on the work in question. If the setting is westernish, or high-fantasy, "Milady" wouldn't bother me. If the setting is Japanese, or generally easter, "Ojou-sama" is my preference.

Sometimes "Princess" works, depending on the character and their backstory.

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