In the Japanese part, Bu-chan refers to himself as “ore-sama,” which I think is really only used to ironically refer to yourself as if you’re the most conceited person who ever lived. But I can imagine a cat using it unironically.
It’s a lot more common to hear the Japanese imagine that cats would refer tp themselves using the first person pronoun wagahai (吾輩). The most important reason is because there is a book from 1905 called I am a cat (Wagahai wa neko de aru) that’s “a frequent assignment to schoolchildren”, and thus one of their eaely exposures to the more archaic form of Japanese. This has thus solidified their imagine of cats using wagahai to refer to themselves.
Incidentally, wagahai, while almost never used in modern Japan, is historically used by pompous scholars / educated people, so also conceited and hollowly arrogant. This is also captured in the same book above, where the cat would speak in very high register, i.e. the way people in, back then, high society would speak, likely given that it was a house cat owned by a teacher. As a cultural note, teachers were held in VERY high regards in most East and Southeast Asian societies back in those days, and they still are held in rather high regards even today.
All this to say is that, while ore-sama wouldn’t be out of place for certain cats, especially those that act like rascals, given that most cats would act all high and mighty and treat us all humans as lowly peasants that are simply allowed to serve their noble selves, wagahai would certainly be the stronger image. From my impressions, the _ore-sama_s have generally been a bit more approachable as they generally don’t mind being approached so that they can impress, but the _wagahai_s would definitely shoo you off when they don’t feel like seeing you.
I’m not a native Japanese speaker, so sometimes it is hard for me to guess how a native would read something, but I think a Japanese person would pronounce that as “Bu-sama-zama,” and it would mean something like “various 'Bu’s”, since “sama-zama” is a common word that is made by repeating 様, and means “various”.
In the Japanese part, Bu-chan refers to himself as “ore-sama,” which I think is really only used to ironically refer to yourself as if you’re the most conceited person who ever lived. But I can imagine a cat using it unironically.
Thanks for that added interesting fact. A cat would definitely use it unironically.
Random uninitiated Japanese trivia time! :p
It’s a lot more common to hear the Japanese imagine that cats would refer tp themselves using the first person pronoun wagahai (吾輩). The most important reason is because there is a book from 1905 called I am a cat (Wagahai wa neko de aru) that’s “a frequent assignment to schoolchildren”, and thus one of their eaely exposures to the more archaic form of Japanese. This has thus solidified their imagine of cats using wagahai to refer to themselves.
Incidentally, wagahai, while almost never used in modern Japan, is historically used by pompous scholars / educated people, so also conceited and hollowly arrogant. This is also captured in the same book above, where the cat would speak in very high register, i.e. the way people in, back then, high society would speak, likely given that it was a house cat owned by a teacher. As a cultural note, teachers were held in VERY high regards in most East and Southeast Asian societies back in those days, and they still are held in rather high regards even today.
All this to say is that, while ore-sama wouldn’t be out of place for certain cats, especially those that act like rascals, given that most cats would act all high and mighty and treat us all humans as lowly peasants that are simply allowed to serve their noble selves, wagahai would certainly be the stronger image. From my impressions, the _ore-sama_s have generally been a bit more approachable as they generally don’t mind being approached so that they can impress, but the _wagahai_s would definitely shoo you off when they don’t feel like seeing you.
Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.
If his full name is Bu-sama, we must address him as Bu-sama-sama.
I’m not a native Japanese speaker, so sometimes it is hard for me to guess how a native would read something, but I think a Japanese person would pronounce that as “Bu-sama-zama,” and it would mean something like “various 'Bu’s”, since “sama-zama” is a common word that is made by repeating 様, and means “various”.
I know. I’m just joking, but it’s easier to get if I keep it that way for the non-speakers.
I’m sure Japanese people would get the joke if I wrote ブ様 様.
I know people add pauses or break pronunciation patterns sometimes to make it clear which word they’re using.