尊敬語

• 読み: そんけいご
• ローマ字: sonkeigo
• 漢字の分解: 尊 (son) — revere; 敬 (kei) — respect; 語 (go) — language, speech
• 発音: /so.ɴ.ke.i.ɡo/

意味

Honorific language; respectful speech. The register of Japanese in which special verb and noun forms are used to show respect for the person being spoken about.

One of the three main politeness registers in Japanese: 尊敬語 (elevating the subject), 謙譲語 (kenjōgo — humbling the speaker), and 丁寧語 (teineigo — polite neutral). 尊敬語 uses special forms such as いらっしゃる (for いる/行く/来る), おっしゃる (for 言う), and the お〜になる construction. Mastery is essential for professional communication and is a key focus in advanced Japanese language education.

例文

1. 社長がいらっしゃるという表現が尊敬語の代表例だ。
2. 尊敬語と謙譲語の使い分けは、日本語学習者にとって難関の一つだ。
3. ビジネスの場では適切な尊敬語を使えるかどうかが信頼に直結する。

使い方ガイド

場面: linguistics, Japanese language education, business communication

トーン: scholarly

起源と歴史

From 尊敬 (sonkei — respect, combining 尊 revere and 敬 respect) and 語 (go — language, speech). The concept of grammaticalised speech levels is ancient in Japanese, with formal honorific registers traceable to the Heian period.

文化的背景

時代: Ancient to present

世代: All ages

社会的背景: Universal