Yakuwarigo and Fantasy Characters : A Case Studyof Howl’s Moving Castle

Yakuwarigo, or role language, is a Japanese term used to describe different typesof exaggerated spoken languages that are used in Japanese fiction. Yakuwarigo isoften assigned to a character based on, for example, the character’s personality,age, or occupation, and it can be different from how people actually speak in reallife.In the present study, the first research question intended to find out which type ofyakuwarigo was used when translating certain fantasy characters from English toJapanese. This was done by analyzing the dialogue of four characters from thenovel Howl’s Moving Castle (1986) written by Diana Wynne Jones. The aim ofthe second research question was to see if the personalities of the characters couldbe interpreted differently by the reader in the translated novel due to the use ofyakuwarigo.The results show that two witches both used a mix of onna-kotoba and otokokotoba, and additionally one of them used ojōsama-kotoba and the other obāsango. A wizard used otoko-kotoba and shōnen-go/jōshi-go, and a demon used mostlyotoko-kotoba with a hint of Edo-kotoba. The role languages seemed to fit most ofthese characters, but the demon’s personality was deemed to have changed in thetranslation