u/EGM0130

Just finished the Manga through chapter 96, and had some theories and wanted the community opinion.

Also marked spoiler for anime only watchers

There are obvious connections, both on paper and subtextually between Qifrey and Coco, but some things are confusing and others I can't remember if they were explicitly said or were just my theory.

1. In Chapter 90, the gossip in the great hall refers to Qifrey as an outsider. Does this mean someone like Olruggio who grew up with magic but away from the hall. Or an Outsider Outsider like Coco?

2. Was there ever a specific reference to Qifrey being the original Child of Hope? That might've just been something I imagined.

And 3. Is it general consensus that between the parallels of Qifrey and Coco, and the numerous references to "seeds being sprouted" in reference to Coco, that she might also have the Silverwood curse?

I am working on my final project for my Japanese pragmatics class and needed some opinion and possibly help finding academic sources regarding whether the use of -ちゃん is considered feminine speech.

What I do understand is that it is used by older people to younger people or to animals(猫-ちゃん、赤ちゃん,etc..) and that it wouldn't be necessarily out of place for anybody to use it in the right circumstance. However, I am doing gendered analysis for a character from a book with an ambiguous gender presentation, and they use shortened name + ちゃん almost exclusively when referring to everybody. However, they also speak almost exclusively to close friends and kouhai, and in plain form, so that might factor in as well.

When asking, many of my Japanese speaking American friends, they agree it is definitely indicative of feminine speech, and my Japanese friends say that sounds like the speech of a young woman. However, my sensei for the class and other elder Japanese people in my life say that it really has no indication either way. And it has been hard to find sources that point either direction, too.

Looking for thoughts and opinions on the matter, thank you!

I am working on my final project for my Japanese pragmatics class and needed some opinion and possibly help finding academic sources regarding whether the use of -ちゃん is considered feminine speech.

What I do understand is that it is used by older people to younger people or to animals(猫-ちゃん、赤ちゃん,etc..) and that it wouldn't be necessarily out of place for anybody to use it in the right circumstance. However, I am doing gendered analysis for a character from a book with an ambiguous gender presentation, and they use shortened name + ちゃん almost exclusively when referring to everybody. However, they also speak almost exclusively to close friends and kouhai, and in plain form, so that might factor in as well.

When asking many of my Japanese speaking, American friends, they agree it is definitely indicative of feminine speech, and my Japanese friends say that sounds like the speech of a young woman. However, my sensei for the class and other elder Japanese people in my life say that it really has no indication either way.

Looking for thoughts and opinions on the matter, thank you!