-ji (, ) is a gender-neutral
honorific
An honorific is a title that conveys esteem, courtesy, or respect for position or rank when used in addressing or referring to a person. Sometimes, the term "honorific" is used in a more specific sense to refer to an honorary academic title. It ...
used as a suffix in many languages of the
Indian subcontinent
The Indian subcontinent is a list of the physiographic regions of the world, physiographical region in United Nations geoscheme for Asia#Southern Asia, Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian O ...
,
such as
Hindi
Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...
and
Punjabi languages and their dialects prevalent in northern India, north-west and central India.
''Ji'' is gender-neutral and can be used for as a term of respect for person, relationships or inanimate objects as well. Its usage is similar, but not identical, to another subcontinental honorific, ''
sāhab''. It is similar to the gender-neutral Japanese honorific
-san.
Etymology
The origin of the ''ji'' honorific is uncertain.
[Archiv Orientální, Volume 75](_blank)
Československý orientální ústav v Praze, Orientální ústav (Československá akademie věd), 2007, "... Artur Karp is concerned with the etymology of the honorific -ji, which belongs to the basic vocabulary of Hindi. Its etymology is unclear and the author points out several possibilities ..." One suggestion is that it is a borrowing from an
Austroasiatic language
The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family in Mainland Southeast Asia and South Asia. These languages are scattered throughout parts of Thailand, Laos, India, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Nepal, and southern China and are t ...
such as
Sora.
[Sora-English Dictionary](_blank)
Giḍugu Veṅkaṭarāmamūrti, Mittal Publications, 1986, "... Is honorific -ji used in the neo-Aryan languages of India borrowed from Sora? ..." Another is that the term means "soul" or "life" (similar to the ''jān'' suffix) and is derived from
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
.
[Perfecting Women: Maulana Ashraf ʻAlī Thanawi's Bihishti Zewar: a Partial Translation with Commentary](_blank)
Ashraf ʻAlī Thānvī, Barbara Daly Metcalf, pp. 165, University of California Press, 1992, , "... Seemingly used interchangeably, the terms qalb, dil, and ji are, respectively, Arabic, Persian, and Hindi in origin, the linguistic universalism suggesting the comprehensiveness the term 'heart' is meant to convey; in all three cases, the meaning spills over to 'self', 'mind,' and 'soul' ..."
The use of the ''ji'' indicates users identity with Hindu culture and Indian language. Harsh K. Luthar gives examples of ''ji'' in ''Master-ji'', ''Guru-ji'', and ''Mata-ji''. The use of ''ji'' is also used by Urdu speakers who associate with Indian culture and language.
Variant spellings
* ''jee'' – Anglicised spelling, common in old publications.
* ''jii'' – example:
Ánandamúrtijii, founder of
Ánanda Márga.
* ''jiew'' – example: Shankari Mai Jiew in
Yogananda
Paramahansa Yogananda (born Mukunda Lal Ghosh; January 5, 1893March 7, 1952) was an Indian Hindu monk, yogi and guru who introduced millions to the teachings of meditation and Kriya Yoga through his organization Self-Realization Fellows ...
's ''
Autobiography of a Yogi
''Autobiography of a Yogi'' is an autobiography of Paramahansa Yogananda (5 January 1893 – 7 March 1952) first published in 1946.
Paramahansa Yogananda was born as Mukunda Lal Ghosh in Gorakhpur, India, into a Bengali Hindu family. '' ...
''.
* ''joo'' – example:
Lakshman Joo
Swami Lakshman Joo (9 May 1907 – 27 September 1991) was a mysticism, mystic and scholar of Kashmir Shaivism. He was known as Lal Sahib ("Friend of God") by followers.
Biography
Lakshman Joo was born in a Kashmiri Hindu Brahmin family ...
of Kashmir.
* ''jiu'' – example: Radha Raman Jiu temples in Bengal (
Radha Raman Ji temples in Uttar Pradesh).
* ''jyu''
* ''zi/zee'' - Eastern Bengali pronunciation
Usage
Ji can mean respect:
* With names, ''e.g.''
Gandhiji
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...
,
Nehru
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru (; ; ; 14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat—
*
*
*
* and author who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20t ...
ji,
Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
ji,
Rahul
Rahul is a popular male name in India and has a variety of meanings. The earliest meaning found in the Upanishads is "conqueror of all miseries." Later use of the word is attributed to the Buddha, who named his son '' Rahula'' as he felt that fa ...
ji,
Sant Ji or
Shiv
The word Shiv or shiv may refer to:
People with the name
* Shivnarine Chanderpaul, a West Indies cricketer nicknamed Shiv
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Shiv, a fictional location in Magic: The Gathering, see Dominaria
* Shiv, a villain in the ...
ji
* With inanimate objects of respect, ''e.g.''
Gangaji or
Kailashji
* For groups to whom respect is extended, ''e.g.''
Guruji
Guru ( sa, गुरु, IAST: ''guru;'' Pali'': garu'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: traditionally, the guru is a reverential ...
,
Panditji,
Khalsa Ji
* To denote respect in any relation, ''e.g.''
Mataji
{{italic title
''Mataji'' (Hindi माताजी ''mātājī'') is a Hindi term meaning 'respected mother'.
Etymology
"Mātā" (माता) is the Hindi word for "mother", from Sanskrit ''matr.'' (मातृ), and the "-jī" (जी) suff ...
, Baba-ji ("respected father"), Uncle-ji, Behen-ji ("respected sister"), Devi-ji ("respected madam"), Bhabhi-Ji ("respected sister-in-law")
* In conversation, ''e.g.'' ''Ji Nahi'' (No, said with respect)
* In polite conversation, ''e.g.'' ''Navraj Ji'' (Mr. Navraj, similar to how it would be said in Japanese, Navraj-san)
* As a shorthand for yes or to denote respectful attention, ''Ji''
* To reassure that a request has been understood and will be complied with, ''Ji Ji''
* To respectfully ask for clarification, ''Ji?'' (with a questioning tone)
* In
Parsi
Parsis () or Parsees are an ethnoreligious group of the Indian subcontinent adhering to Zoroastrianism. They are descended from Persians who migrated to Medieval India during and after the Arab conquest of Iran (part of the early Muslim conq ...
(Zoroastrian) names, e.g. in
Jamsetji Tata
Jamsetji (Jamshedji) Nusserwanji Tata (3 March 1839 – 19 May 1904) was an Indian pioneer industrialist who founded the Tata Group, India's biggest conglomerate company. Named the greatest philanthropist of the last century by several poll ...
, or Field Marshal
Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw
Contrast with Sāhab
''Sāhab'' (or ''
sāhib'') is always used for an individual, never for an inanimate object or group, though the plural term ''Sāheban'' exists as well for more than one person. ''Sāhab'' is also never used as a shorthand to express agreement, disagreement or ask clarification (whereas "ji" is, as in ''Ji'', ''Ji nahi'' or ''Ji?''). Sometimes, the two terms can be combined to ''Sāhab Ji'' to indicate a high degree of respect, roughly equivalent to ''Respected Sir''.
One important exception where ''sāhab'' is used for inanimate objects is in connection with
Sikh
Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism, Sikhism (Sikhi), a Monotheism, monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Gu ...
shrines and scripture, e.g.
Harmandir Sahib and
Guru Granth Sahib
The Guru Granth Sahib ( pa, ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ, ) is the central holy religious scripture of Sikhism, regarded by Sikhs as the final, sovereign and Guru Maneyo Granth, eternal Guru following the lineage of the Sikh gur ...
.
Contrast with Jān
''Jān'' is also a commonly used suffix in the subcontinent, but it (and the variant, ''Jānī'') denotes endearment rather than respect and, in some contexts, can denote intimacy or even a romantic relationship.
Due to these connotations of intimacy, the subcontinental etiquette surrounding ''Jān'' is more complex than the usage of the same term in
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
, where it is used somewhat more liberally (though even there, restrictions apply).
As a standalone term, ''Jān'' is the rough equivalent of ''Darling'', and is used almost exclusively for close relatives (such as spouses, lovers and children). In this context, sometimes colloquial forms such as ''Jānoo'' and ''Jānaa'', or combination words such as ''Jāneman'' (my darling) and ''Jānejaan''/''Jānejaana'' (roughly, "love of my life"), are also used. When used with a name or a relation-term, it means "dear". So, ''bhāi-sāhab'' and ''bhāi-ji'' carry the meaning of ''respected brother'', whereas ''bhāi-jān'' or ''bhaiyya-jānī'' mean ''dear brother''.
The term ''meri jān'', roughly meaning ''my dear'', can be used with friends of the same gender, or in intimate relationships with the opposite gender. In subcontinental etiquette, while ''bhaijan'' can be used by males to denote a brotherly relation with any other male of a roughly similar age including total strangers (the female equivalent between women is ''apajan'' or ''didijan''), ''meri jān'' is used only with friends with whom informality has been established.
Ji, on the other hand, is appropriate in all these situations and across genders because it carries no connotations of intimacy.
Popular conflation with the letter G
Because
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
usage is widespread in the Indian subcontinent, the fact that the honorific ''Ji'' is pronounced identically to the letter ''G'' is used extensively in
pun
A pun, also known as paronomasia, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use of homophoni ...
s. This is sometimes deliberately exploited in consumer marketing, such as with the popular "
Parle-G
Parle-G is a brand of biscuits manufactured by Parle Products in India. A 2011 Nielsen survey reported that it is the best-selling brand of biscuits in the world.
History
Parle Products was established as a confectionery maker in the Vile Par ...
Biscuits" (where the "G" ostensibly stands for 'Glucose'), which sounds like ''Parle Ji Biscuits'' (or, 'the respected Parle biscuits').
A pun popular with children in
North India
North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central ...
and
Pakistan
Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...
consists entirely of Latin letters ''BBG T PO G'', which is pronounced very similarly to ''Bibi-ji, Tea pi-o ji'', "respected ma'am, please have some tea". Some people add an "A" or "O" at the start as if a person is speaking to the Bibi-ji in a friendly way used in various regional types
slang
Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-gro ...
s of India: ''O BBG T PO G'' or ''ABBG T PO G''. The ''Bibi-ji'' may answer ''PKIG'', "I just had the tea".
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
names ending in ''-ji'' are sometimes rendered in
Sanskrit
Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...
as ''-opadhyay'' (''-a-upādhyāya'' with
sandhi
Sandhi ( sa, सन्धि ' , "joining") is a cover term for a wide variety of sound changes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries. Examples include fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of one sound depending on near ...
, i.e. ''Mukherjee'' and ''Mukhopadhyay''). ''Upādhyāya'' is Sanskrit for "teacher".
See also
*
Sri
Shri (; , ) is a Sanskrit term denoting resplendence, wealth and prosperity, primarily used as an honorific.
The word is widely used in South and Southeast Asian languages such as Marathi, Malay (including Indonesian and Malaysian), Javanese, ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ji
Suffixes
Hindustani language
Hindi
Indian culture
Honorifics by language