I have heard であります being used in TED talks, as use of である i have heard it in Kotaro but that also in a comical way as Kotaro talks like his favourite Samurai character.
Is there any dialect that still uses this ?
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1Sometimes I hear it used in relative clauses even outside of literary works– AngelosJan 29 at 8:44
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1What is Kotaro? The manga/anime Kotaro Lives Alone, or something else?– Yusuke MatsubaraJan 29 at 10:29
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@YusukeMatsubara yes– Japanese LearnerJan 29 at 10:39
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dic.nicovideo.jp/a/… this may help you– ChanceJan 29 at 12:31
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This ありますように is a way of making a wish, and it's only natural to use a pompous phrase like あります.– narutoJan 31 at 13:59
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1 Answer
であります is grammatically a form of である, but their usages are very different.
- In the middle of a sentence, である is common at the end of a relative clause. This type of である is preferred in formal sentences, but does not sound particularly literary.
- At the end of a sentence,
- である is the default copula in academic manuscripts, Wikipedia articles and the like. だ sounds too blunt in such cases. In novels, である and だ are used interchangeably or arbitrarily according to the writer's preference.
- であります (the polite version of である) is unusual and sounds rather pompous. It doesn't sound particularly samurai-ish, but people usually only use it in very formal speeches or conferences. If anything, using it a lot will make you sound like a politician or a military man.
- Of course, its negative version, で(は)ありません, is super-common and used in every kind of polite sentences.
