2

In a manga about boxing, the protagonist is going to fight an american boxer. His trainer is telling him how he should train:

白人はんは"拳"を鍛えてるだろうがお前は"足"だ。

I don't understand what "…はんは" is. Is it a contraction of "はのは"? If so, what is its meaning? Here is the page where it is taken from. Thank you for your help!

Improve this question
3
  • 2
    What is the name of the manga? Is it リクドウ 7? Does the trainer routinely refer to people as 「はん」instead of 「さん」?
    – BJCUAI
    Mar 14, 2018 at 18:35
  • Yes it's リクドウ 7. The trainer doesn't usually refer to people neither with 「はん」nor with 「さん」. He is quite a rude character. Is 「はん」a colloquial version of 「さん」?
    – Marco
    Mar 14, 2018 at 19:33
  • 2
    It is dialectical. Mainly around western Japan (Osaka, Kyoto).
    – BJCUAI
    Mar 14, 2018 at 20:06

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

はん is an uncommon dialectal name suffix similar to さん. It's widely known as a Kyoto-ben word. I may be stereotyped, but はん is typically used by maiko/geisha.

The person who said this is not a Kyoto-ben speaker, right? Then I think he used it as a mild joke. はん has a old-fashioned/pre-modern overtone (Kyoto was an ancient capital of Japan), so using はん can imply the American opponent is more advanced.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .