Roujingo Uttered by “Young” Fictional Characters (The Phenomenon of Fictional Characters Visually Depicted as Teenagers or Underage Kids Who Speaks Using Japanese Elderly Language)

Abstract

- Yakuwarigo, also known as Role Language, is a concept created by Kinsui Satoshi in 2000,
referring to a certain style of oral communication which identifies the characteristic, gender, age, places of
origin, profession and even the social status of the speaker. One of those unique styles of language is
Roujingo, known also as the elderly language or old people lingo. In Japanese work of fictions such as
shousetsu (novels), manga (comic books) and anime (animated cartoon), even without seeing the speaker
directly, reading or hearing someone speaks in Roujingo already signifies that the speakers are an elderly,
which is a person above 50 or 60 years old. But in reality, Japanese fictional works often depicts young
looking characters, visually depicted as teenagers or even minors or children, who speak using Roujingo.
This unique phenomenon will be described and analyzed using some character examples from Japanese
fictional manga, novel or anime.