Appropriate use of the name Chib.

[Quontir]

In looking at the Sailor Moon manga and some people's translations I have been taking the dialogue to suggest that many characters actually call Chibi-Usa Chib on various occasions.

However, in looking at the Japanese laguage, Chib would not normally be a shortening, because her name is Usagi, and not Chibi-Usa.

My question is would someone really use Chib as a short form of Chibi-Usa or would they instead use the more Japanese appropriate Usa?

Thanks for any help on this...

[Staren]

Considering the singular "b" does not exist in the Japaneses alphabet I can say that no it wouldn't be used. Chib would very much be an americanism. Chibi loosely translated means little or small, but a more common meaning would actually be runt. It would be the equivalent of calling a kid squirt or something. If her name was going to be shortened it would be to Usa as it is for Chibi-Usa.

[Crescent Pulsar]

Agreed. Other than n/m, there are only exceptions for using other singular letters, such as omitting the "vowel" after an s in spoken Japanese, or for "doubling" (such as the two k's in tekken). Sorry, I'm not really familiar with the technical terms.

So, if not Usa, then add a "ko" before or after the name. Or a "chan" afterward, depending on the speaker. *Shrugs*

[P.H. Wise]

Usako is already taken as a nickname, though. That's what Mamoru calls Usagi.

[Quontir]

Thanks!

I'll be going through my fic and fixing that. It'll take some time away from my writers block on the epilogue and start of new arc anyway.

[lwf58]

Usako is a variation of her name, rather than a nickname per se. Mamoru is changing the last syllable of her name to "ko", a traditional suffix for girl's names that have one or two syllables. It's sort of the reverse of a nickname. I have an example of that in my own life. My given name is Larry, but a guy I used to work with called me "Lawrence", even though that's not my name.

One reason why you may have heard what sounded like "chib" is because the letters 'I' and 'U' are often kind of skipped over in Japanese. For example, "suki" is typically pronounced "ski", and "yoshi" is pronounced "yosh".

[Cheb]

AFAIR, they always use only the full names and titles. Up to yelling the full "Super Sailor Moon!" or "Tuxedo Kamen-sama!" in the situations of extreme shock and worry.

So there is *no* shorter form than "Chibiusa".
As a side note, I rarely (if ever) heard Japanese shorten somebody's name in anime. May be either a real specific or just a TV censure.

*if* they ever happen to shorten it I'm sure it would be "Usa", since a) "Chib" sounds horrible and b) Japanese doesn't have the words that end with a consonant except "n". It's just unnatural.

I think, the same goes for "Nabs" instead of "Nabiki". May work in English, but not in Japanese.

[nuriko]

One reason why you may have heard what sounded like "chib" is because the letters 'I' and 'U' are often kind of skipped over in Japanese. For example, "suki" is typically pronounced "ski", and "yoshi" is pronounced "yosh".

True, but it only happens with some sounds. It's simply not the case in this instance, though the people who use it probably don't know that...

[Darth Thanatos]

"Kas-chan" anyone? grrr.

Anyways, there is another shortened version, normally reserved for people that have grown together, are lovers or are married: using just the first syllable of the name and the suffix -chan, so I've read Genma calling his wife "No-chan"(in fanfics, at least, not sure in canon), for one. Another example of that would be Ranma ("Ran-chan", beware here, the "N" in Japan is a syllable by itself and the only consonant that does so; Japanese doesn't have an alphabet, it has two syllabaries) and Ukyo ("U-chan", which would coincide with Usagi's shortened form, BTW). The name "Chibi-Usa" is a way to distinguish grown-up Usagi (Queen Serenity) from little (chibi) Usagi. Otherwise both might have ended as "U-chan".

From other readings on Japanese culture, my take is that that contracted form is used just in the intimacy, and almost never in public. So, in the former case, Genma, might be trying to appeal to his wife's softer side, something quite IC for him. The case for Ranma and Ukyo is quite subtler. Ranma, the socially clueless, sees nothing wrong with calling his friend "U-chan", but he is giving actually a continous advantage over the other fiancees by remembering them constantly of their "past" together and allowing her to address him in a more intimate way.

Actually, I suggest to be wary of using "-chan" left and right. I can even recall one novel where that suffix was used as an insult. It seems the Kanji (ideogram) for "chan" means literally "treasure" and has weak possessive connotations, which would translate as "(my) treasure". My preciousss, indeed.

[lwf58]

Yep. I always wince when I see people inventing pet names for anime/manga characters to call each other in fan fiction. The writers generally have no idea how Japanese syllables break down.

As for pet names used between husband and wife, the most common are for the wife to call her husband "anata". That's actually just the word for "you", but using it in Japanese society is considered rather intimate. Having known Japanese couples, I can also say from experience that a Japanese husband may call his wife "kaa-san", which means "mother". This despite the fact that the couple I'm thinking about in particular didn't have any children.