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While looking up マイカー in
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_gairaigo_and_wasei-eigo_terms>, I came
across マイ・ワイフ. Is マイ・ワイフ used in real life, or mainly in anime?

If the former, what differences does it have to other words for "wife"?
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words wasei-eigo
When is マイ・ワイフ used?
At least in daily life, there is no word マイ・ワイフ or マイワイフ.

The prefix マイ means "personal (property)" or "private (property)" as opposed
to "public" such as マイカー "privately owned car (as opposed to public
transportation or company owned vehicles)" or マイマヨネーズ "mayonaise personally
carried into restaurants (as opposed to those that restaurants are equipped
with)". If there were such word as マイワイフ, it would most likely mean "a
personal wife (as opposed to a shared one)".
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2012-07-16T14:03:12.930
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Well there is this open paper [English Loanwords in Japanese (Gillian
Kay,1995)](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CEgQFjAA&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.csun.edu%2F~bashforth%2F301_PDF%2F301_P_P%2FEnglishLoanWordsJapanese.pdf&ei=_SAEULejAsHv0gGf3YSvBw&usg=AFQjCNHqaQd5AtOJdDSJq80yrOBhiQ9NIg&sig2=zZfvnrDHYGOKs8A26vBSmg&cad=rja)
that has a nice short summary on _The function of English Loanwords in the
Japanese Language_ (3rd to last page of PDF) that I paraphrase here:

  * The existence of many loanwords which have Japanese equivalents provides an alternative tone of discourse.
  * Loanwords are sometimes used for special effect, especially in writing where the angular katakana contrasts with the curvey hiragana to emphasize or reveal a foreign connotation. 
  * English loans do not have as deep undertones of meaning as native words, and can be used more easily to express sentiments or describe situations which may be difficult to talk about in Japanese. This is the euphemistic utility of Loanwords.

Kay doesn't really say much about all the social aspects of 外来語 but, to risk
speculation, I'm guessing that マイワイフ, and most 外来語 in general, are used only
because they are so conspicuous. Clearly 外来語 carries a class of connotations
that native Japanese words don't provide (superficial or not), and its usage
is at least one effective way to add some colour to one's diction. As for the
difference between マイワイフ and the lexeme 妻 or 奥さん, I would think that the most
important and salient contrast is at the discourse level where it seems that
the set of social contexts for which マイワイフ would be appropriate are quite
different from those contexts in which 妻 would be appropriate. It is kind of
hard to articulate specifically the contextual conditions that afford the
employment of マイワイフ, but to take a guess at it, I would think that the
situational usage of マイワフ is characterized by what social behaviour is
tolerated or permissible. So, マイワイフ would be observed in contexts where, for
example, irony is permissible. Between friends, or between a manga author and
its readership, irony is certainly a permissible language device. But between
doctor and patient, politician and citizen, plaintiff and defendant, teacher
and student, etc. irony cannot be employed so productively due to the
potential violation of social factors.

Some further examples where my マイワイフ may be permissible/appropriate/tolerated:

  * Critical information is not being communicated
  * A low demand for explicit or unambiguous information
  * The speaker/writer is entertaining the listener/reader
  * Innovative/atypical/conspicuous word choice is acceptable, or even desirable
  * Intimacy. Specifically, an intimate relationship affords a wider or different scope of admissible words

So, in general, マイワイフ probably differs from the Japanese equivalent in the
same way that all 外来語 differ from their Japanese equivalents. The differences
might be described as particular specifications of a more general social
criteria of what is acceptable behaviour and what is not for which 外来語 must
conform too.
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2012-07-16T15:09:59.880
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It is an anime-subculture term. "Mai waifu" is commonly used to refer to one's
favourite female character, and may also imply having an imaginary
relationship with the character.
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2012-07-17T13:37:15.893
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Usage of マイ is pretty important, but ケースバイケース as pointed out above. For
example, back in the '80s マイペース トレーニング was commonly heard on TV sumo
commentary to describe those wrestlers who took a (too) leisurely approach to
training. If you're living in Japan and using TV as study resource, you can
drop this kind of thing into conversation to gain respect (especially if they
know you can use keigo, too). Pronunciation has to be dead-on Japanese,
though. At any rate You need マイ__ to read ads.
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