Hedging in Bienséance Bokokugo (Because to be polite, you have to hedge!)

Bienséance Bokokugo has linguistic ideals somewhat akin to those of Malagasie: male speech [Ref 1E] is ideally “veiled” contextually, while feminine speech is supposed to be not so much “blunt” as forthright and direct [not per-se, painfully honest as “blunt” implies.] This of course, inevitably comes into the Japanese association of feminine = polite. As such, to the Terran ear, “direct” no longer equals “rude” but rather a strange mix of the decorous and the indecorous highly prized for it’s volatile characteristics.

Also, because of this, a male using rude forms becomes MUCH more shocking than a women using rude forms, not because of lack of frequency, but rather conflict with a very strict, albeit utterly fabricated, view of the speech community at large. Poor Ran.


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