Form of Japanese honorifics
, is a controversial form of honorifics ("keigo") in the Japanese language taught via employee training manuals, especially to young part-timers (バイト) at fast-food restaurants and convenience stores. "Baito keigo" incorporates nonstandard formulas for servers and cashiers to use when addressing customers, commonly longer and vaguer than the standard expression in an attempt to increase the level of politeness and avoid offense. "Baito keigo" is opposed by language purists on the grounds that their use frequently leads to grammatically incorrect or illogical constructions.
Alternate terms include "manual "keigo"," "convenience-store "keigo"," and "family-restaurant "keigo"."
Forms.
False choices: "X no hō wa/ga".
The use of "X no hō wa" originally refers to direction. In a contrasting sentence it is used to express preference to one thing instead of another. (Example: "X yori Y no hō ga suki da." ("More than X, [I] like Y.") In "baito keigo", "X no hō wa/ga" is used to refer to the way to a seat (which is technically correct usage because it refers to the seat's direction) and also to refer to the customer's choice between several options, e.g., "gamushiroppu no hō ga ikaga desu ka?" ("as for [the choice of] gum syrup, how about [it]?"). The latter usage is disputed because there is only one suggestion and no choice between different options being made: instead of "X no hō wa/ga", the particle "wa" in "X wa" suffices for the meaning of "as for X."
States of matter: "N ni narimasu".
The use of "N ni narimasu" (N is a noun phrase) to mean "desu" is manual "keigo". For example, in a restaurant, a server brings the customer's food and says "ebi doria ni narimasu". Here, the meaning is simply "ebi doria desu" ("[this] is shrimp doria"). The construction "ni narimasu" as a substitute for "desu" is grammatically incorrect Japanese, appearing to the hearer similar to the English phrasing "This'll be the shrimp doria". In modern Japanese "narimasu" is a polite construction for the verb "naru", meaning "to become," but nothing in "X ni narimasu" is transforming or becoming something else. The standard keigo expression is ""ebi doria de gozaimasu." While the phrase "X ni natte imasu" (and its humble equivalent, "X to natte orimasu") does carry the meaning of "X desu", it implies a state of being rather than a physical object, as in, "Tōten wa zenmen kin'en to natte orimasu"" ("This restaurant is completely smoke-free").
At the cash register.
"O-azukari shimasu".
Cashiers frequently accept a sum of money from a customer and acknowledge receipt by saying, for example, "ichi man en o-azukari shimasu"; this phrasing is pervasive. The verb "azukaru," literally "[I] temporarily take into custody", implies that the recipient will return the thing he or she received — it is used when accepting checked luggage, for instance — but cashiers do not return the total sum to customers. The traditionally prescribed form is "ichi man en o chōdai (ita)shimasu," as "" is the standard, humble expression for accepting money. "Ichi man en o itadakimasu" ("[I] humbly accept 10,000 yen") is also used.
"X kara".
In addition to the above use of "o-azukari shimasu," cashiers may also use "kara" ("from"), as in "ichi man en kara oazukari shimasu". Prescriptivists argue that this is syntactically unacceptable, with the literal meaning "[I] temporarily take into custody from 10,000 yen", i.e., that the 10,000 yen itself has handed something over to the cashier.
Compound greetings: "Irasshaimase konnichi wa".
The double greeting is a form of manual "keigo", as is the evening pattern "irasshaimase konban wa." Some describe it as sounding like "welcome good afternoon" or "welcome good evening." "Irasshaimase" by itself is the traditionally prescribed greeting.
Non-traditional use of honorifics.
"Otsugi no okyaku-sama".
"[The] honorable next honorable customer" is also nonstandard "keigo." Purists maintain non-polite words can not be indiscriminately made polite by merely adding "o" or "go" (both prefixes meaning "honorable.") Although "okyaku-sama" (literally "Mr. Honorable Customer") is an accepted form of address of respect to a customer, adding "o" to "tsugi" ("next") is "baito keigo".
A similar proscribed usage is "[name of food ordered] + "no okyaku-sama"" (example: "ebi doria no okyaku-sama" ("shrimp doria customer")), which is disputed on the grounds that since it does not unambiguously mean "the customer who ordered X" it can be interpreted as literally meaning "the customer who is X".
"Gochūmon wa osoroi deshō ka".
It is common for serving staff to use this phrasing. While "gochūmon" is acceptable with an honorific (as it refers to the order as belonging to the customer, who is the intended recipient of the honorific speech), prescriptivists argue that "osoroi" is incorrect because "chūmon" is the subject of the verb, and raising up the status of the order itself is not the intent: the literal interpretation would be "Are your [hon.] orders all honoring us with their presence?" The traditionally prescribed phrasing is, "Gochūmon wa soroimashita deshō ka" ("Are your [hon.] orders all assembled?", i.e. "Have you decided what to order?")
Complex and confused humble speech: "Sasete itadakimasu".
This form is created by conjugating verbs with "" (the causative form of the verb "suru", "to do", thus "to force/to allow/let"), + "itadaku" (the humble form of "morau", "to accept", here used in the sense of "have [person] do [action]").
It is called ' because "suru" ("to do") is often attached to nouns which can function as verbs with "suru." For example, a store will place a sign outside stating "." (Today, we [humbly] have you allow our store to be closed.) However, this terminology applies to all verbs conjugated in such a manner. The appropriateness of ' ("we [humbly] have you allow us to...") is disputed; as a form of object-focused humble language, it implies that the recipient of the action itself is giving permission to do it, but manual keigo users will also apply it to situations where the listener has no such agency (as in the store-closure example above). Such situations should instead use hearer-focused humble language ("teichōgo" or "courtesy language"), such as the verb "itashimasu" in place of plain "suru" or polite "shimasu" (in the store example, it is properly 休業いたします, "We [humbly] will be closed").
Even in contexts where the "sasete itadakimasu" construction technically makes sense, it can cause pitfalls, as baito keigo users tend to use it indiscriminately to refer to both what they will do and what they want the customer to do (inadvertently replacing the forms "shite itadakimasu" ["we (humbly) have you do for us"] and "shite kudasaimasu" ["you (hon.) do for us"] for the latter), creating confusion about who is going to do what. Nevertheless, "" is quickly replacing the simpler, traditional humble form "itashimasu".
References.
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