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I have embarked on a project of translating a novel I am writing into Japanese
in parallel with writing it, and one of the hardest parts for me (in
contemplation, I haven't really gotten that far) is figuring out **what
pronouns are appropriate** for the various characters I am developing. I was
wondering whether anyone could give me a rundown on what a person's choice of
first- and second-person pronouns says about them and their relationship with
the person they are addressing.

The setting makes it a bit difficult, because while the main characters are
high school students, the 'fantasy' nature of the work means that primordial
quasi-deities, hundred-million-year old demons, several-hundred-year old elven
royalty and aristocracy, and such are not uncommon. For a very small number of
characters, I have a clear idea of what pronouns they might use, but I don't
have enough experience to decide on many others.

This might be a bit niche, but really I am looking for a guide on archaic and
modern Japanese pronouns and the association they have with characters and
situations.

(I probably won't go so far as to have dialogue in Classical or dated
Japanese, but that is a possibility as this project unfolds.)
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question
translation pronouns first-person-pronouns second-person-pronouns
Pronoun collocations
> **what pronouns are appropriate** for the various characters I am
> developing.
>
> what a person's choice of first- and second-person pronouns says about them
> and their relationship with the person they are addressing.
>
> the main characters are high school students, the 'fantasy' nature of the
> work means that primordial quasi-deities, hundred-million-year old demons,
> several-hundred-year old elven royalty and aristocracy, and such are not
> uncommon.
>
> I am looking for a guide on archaic and modern Japanese pronouns and the
> association they have with characters and situations.

I've found **[this page](http://mag.japaaan.com/archives/15080)** has a
convenient historical chart for first-person, and also Wikipedia talks about
it more in detail: [**this page for
一人称**](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%E3%81%AE%E4%B8%80%E4%BA%BA%E7%A7%B0%E4%BB%A3%E5%90%8D%E8%A9%9E#.E5.A6.BE.EF.BC.88.E3.82.8F.E3.82.89.E3.82.8F.EF.BC.89),
and **[this page for
二人称](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E6%97%A5%E6%9C%AC%E8%AA%9E%E3%81%AE%E4%BA%8C%E4%BA%BA%E7%A7%B0%E4%BB%A3%E5%90%8D%E8%A9%9E#.E5.8F.A4.E8.AA.9E.E3.83.BB.E5.8F.A4.E9.A2.A8)**.

The most primitive form for the first-person seems to be あ, but this might
cause a problem of not being understood by us native speakers. I think for
young characters, われ is good for boys, and わらわ for girls, although われ for both
boys and girls seems to be more accurate.

If the high school students you mean they are modern people, then you know
that, 僕 or 俺 for boys and 私 for girls.

> primordial quasi-deities, hundred-million-year old demons, several-hundred-
> year old elven royalty and aristocracy,

For these... For example, I see that _Kenji Miyazawa_ made an old female snow
deity call herself あたし, in [his short-story,
水仙月の四日](http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000081/files/1930_9724.html) written in
the early 20th century.

For the second-person, they are more likely called by the proper names or the
nicknames, except adults from the perspective of children; they might use such
as じじ, ばば to call their grandpa and grandma.
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answer
The pronoun associations you're looking for—old men use _washi_ , tomboys use
_boku_ and so on—are more a trope of fiction than of real life (to an extent,
even things like "women's speech" are more a prescription or ideal than an
accurate description of real-world speech patterns). Luckily, someone has been
studying _exactly_ those tropes: Satoshi Kinsui, who calls it **役割{やくわり}語{ご}**
or " **role speech** ". Take a look at this example (from [this Japan
Foundation
page](https://www.jpf.go.jp/j/project/japanese/teach/tsushin/reserch/201302.html)):

[![yakuwarigo character example \(source: Japan
Foundation\)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/AHgLW.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/AHgLW.png)

Can you connect the characters above to the speech patterns below?:

  1. おれは、この町が大好きだぜ。
  2. あたしは、この町が大好きなのよ。
  3. わしは、この町が大好きなんじゃ。
  4. ぼくは、この町が大好きさ。
  5. わたくしは、この町が大好きですわ。

It's not the kind of thing they teach you in Japanese classes, and again, it's
not representative of real life; but if you've been reading manga or playing
videogames, it will sound incredibly familiar and quite self-evident.

So I recommend you look for Kinsui's work, starting from
[wikipedia](https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%BD%B9%E5%89%B2%E8%AA%9E) or [his
website](http://skinsui.cocolog-nifty.com/sklab/). If you have access to
Japanese sources, try to get some of the material published on _yakuwari-go_.
Consulting Kinsui's [〈役割語〉小辞典](http://amzn.asia/2UOMlrP) I can find, for
example, that the pronoun _nanji_ :

  * Was originally a respectful second-person pronoun.
  * By Heian it was already in use for people of equal or lower standing.
  * After the feudal era, widely used for lower standing.
  * In _Taketori Monogatari_ , used by the Emperor to address the Old Man (he includes the exact quotation).
  * After Meiji, becomes associated with the voice of God in religious texts, especially the Christian Bible. (Also with sample quotations.) Thought to be chosen by translators due to sounding classical at the time. Examples can also be found of people using it to address God, so perhaps at first more a matter of elevated textual style than _yakuwari_.
  * In novels, found connected specifically to Bible quotations in Nakaishi's 『死刑囚と其裁判長』 (1922), to things like marriage ceremonies etc.
  * In manga, found in the literal voice of God in _Black Jack_ (1974). 
    * In many fantasy/RPG-like settings, used by characters in a divine or cosmic position of absolute authority, such as creator-gods. (There's an illustration from the big reveal at the end of CLAMP's _Rayearth_ ; a character who just revealed themselves to be a creator-god starts using the pronoun _nanji-ra_ ).
    * Also used by characters such as sages or saints whose role is to guide the protagonist, especially when extremely old. (The _yakuwari_ pronoun is therefore tagged 老人語 and 神様語).
    * Often associated with Western-style fantasy, but not exclusively; there are examples of it being used by Eastern-type Gods and Buddhas.
    * Finally, used by characters who hold some sort of divine or otherwise special power, in things like magical incantations etc. The example is magical girl Sakura, of card-capturing fame: 「汝のあるべき姿に戻れ。クロウカード！」

I'm posting a summary of the entire entry because I want to give a sense of
how extensive is Kinsui in laying out fictional patterns of language and their
associations. If you're interested in the topic, I highly recommend this
author. See [here](http://skinsui.cocolog-
nifty.com/sklab/files/JASS19kinsui_paper.pdf) for an introduction which lists
some pronouns; if you're unsure about the connotations of any of them, you
could try looking'em up on [nicopedia](http://dic.nicovideo.jp/), or just
general web searches (the keyword 役割語 is your friend).

That being said, the most natural way of learning these tropes is to expose
yourself to them. If you want to write fantasy, why not binge on fantasy
novels or manga? High-school students interacting with elves etc. is an entire
subgenre (including e.g. the aforementioned _Rayearth_ ), and if you like
light novels, there are more of them than anyone could possibly handle. Go
read stuff you like, and take notes on which pronouns are used by which kind
of character when addressing who—and not only pronouns, but also verb
inflections and such. You'll not be procrastinating, it's research!
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