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I am currently reading the manga 「咲」and the character 片{かた}岡{おか}優{ゆう}希{き} regularly ends her sentences with じょ and じぇ. I will give a few examples (each line isn't related to the next)

学食でタコス買ってきたじぇー

のどちゃんはホントにすごいんだじょ!

のどちゃんやっぱ強すぎたじぇ

そうだじょ

What exactly does this mean? Is it a dialectical thing? I don't think this is a "pronounce ぞ/ぜ as じょ/じぇ" since she is shown pronouncing ぜ in words that require it.

2 Answers 2

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じょ used to be a very common sentence-ender in Awa (Tokushima) dialect, although it's becoming obsolete, like other dialects. Looks like じぇ is a sentence-ender in Iwate dialect.

That being said, this character's speech is not dialectal at all, so basically this is just another unique キャラ語尾 used to add flavor to a character.

Some キャラ語尾 are "recycled" ones taken from real but minor dialects. For example, なも is originally from Nagoya dialect and だっちゃ is from Sendai dialect, but the famous users of them in fiction speak basically standard Japanese except for these 語尾's.

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I think it's a mix of the two: a "dialectical" (or perhaps just personal) "pronounce ぞ/ぜ as じょ/じぇ" thing (but only specifically for the sentence-ending particles).

I feel like, in fictional media like video games, manga, and anime, sentence-enders are the very first thing that gets "tweaked" to indicate some sort of dialectical or individual, quirky speaking style.

I'm currently playing "Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks" (ゼルダの伝説・大地の汽笛) on the DS. In a rural town of woodcutters, they end most of their sentences with べ or っぺ. A village of Gorons (fictional race) end everything with ゴロ. Everyone encounters talking anime cats (or cat-eared people) that end with にゃ~ or にゃん. Rural jiisans end theirs with じゃ or じゃのう

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