で ございます

[gozo2u]

I was watching a Samurai movie and the man in the movie introduced himself as ういちで ございます. Is this a polite way of saying "my name is Uichi" or is this an archaic way of saying it?

 

[Glenn]

It's super polite. Here's a quick rundown:

あります, polite; ございます, more polite (they mean the same thing)
です = であります, so then でございます is more polite.

I don't think it's used so much anymore; it's pretty much known as "samurai speak" as far as I know. Apparently the samurai said it all the time.

 

[epigene]

Hi gozo2u and Glenn!

"de gozaimasu" is polite language but not archaic yet! If you call a business office in Japan, the first person to answer will say, "XX-sha (Company XX) de gozaimasu." It is commonly used in business situations and in stores when speaking to customers.

On the other hand, "de gozaru" is obsolete and is certainly "samurai-speak."

 

[PaulTB]

"de gozaimasu" is polite language but not archaic yet!

~まして (-te form of -ます verb ending) is still sometimes used in polite language as well.

 

[gozo2u]

Thanks Glen, Epigene and Paultb for your quick response and great explanations. I had also heard で ございます used at other times during the movie and thought it sounded really nice. By the way the movie was one from the old zatoichi series... if you're interested in samurai movies... It's a great series.
Well, thanks again.

 

[GaijinPunch]

Walk into a bank, and all you will hear is でございます。 I consider the banks one of the first frontiers of conquering Japanese... or at least getting comfortable with it... phone calls to NTT, Cable Company, Tokyo Denki etc. would be in a very close second.