History of Whispering in Japanese?

[Haruto Uzumaki]

Were there ever documented occurrences of the equivalent of "whispering" in Japanese before western influence? I feel that whispering is a very western thing to do, and I rarely hear Japanese people do it except for ASMR. There's definitely plenty of good reasons for that, such as some words becoming misunderstood if the pitch accent is unclear/incorrect/non-existent. But that also makes me wonder if the Japanese even "discovered" whispering as a style of speech in their language before western influence affected them? If it existed, was it different than with western whispering? How did they (and how do they) overcome misunderstandings that could arise from whispering? I also noticed that some Japanese people are only half whispering when they do, and it's sort of an illusion because they lightly activate their voice, just making it extra breathy, something like that. Where as most western people who whisper would probably completely shut off their vocal chords, and whisper with air to the point that it honestly sounds louder than talking quietly like the Japanese So yeah, I just wanna know all about the history of whispering particularly for the Japanese language with its unique characteristics. It's also very softly spoken, often times, so there's that too. Thanks in advance

 

[mdchachi]

Were there ever documented occurrences of the equivalent of "whispering" in Japanese before western influence? I feel that whispering is a very western thing to do, and I rarely hear Japanese people do it except for ASMR. There's definitely plenty of good reasons for that, such as some words becoming misunderstood if the pitch accent is unclear/incorrect/non-existent. But that also makes me wonder if the Japanese even "discovered" whispering as a style of speech in their language before western influence affected them? If it existed, was it different than with western whispering? How did they (and how do they) overcome misunderstandings that could arise from whispering? I also noticed that some Japanese people are only half whispering when they do, and it's sort of an illusion because they lightly activate their voice, just making it extra breathy, something like that. Where as most western people who whisper would probably completely shut off their vocal chords, and whisper with air to the point that it honestly sounds louder than talking quietly like the Japanese So yeah, I just wanna know all about the history of whispering particularly for the Japanese language with its unique characteristics. It's also very softly spoken, often times, so there's that too. Thanks in advance

I have to believe this is a universal human behavior. I'm sure in Feudal Japan there was a need to be very quiet just before attacking a rival clan lord as they were sneaking into the castle for example. Unless the ninja only communicated using sign language.
Or simply for everyday people to speak quietly in order not to wake others up.

 

[Majestic]

囁く sasayaku = to whisper.
Or, 囁き which is the noun form.

The kanji itself comes from ancient China, as 99% of all kanji do, while the word "sasayaku" （ささやく）is a Japanese-origin word. It means the Chinese kanji was applied to the Japanese word when Chinese writing was imported into Japan around the 5th century. It's a universal human behavior.

 

[Haruto Uzumaki]

I see, that makes sense, thank you guys! So my other half of the question, was does it differ in any significant way from western whispering? As well as if pitch accent can become a problem when the voice is deactivated fully? Or maybe it would be rare to come across that kind of problem at the same time as you just happen to be whispering

 

[Majestic]

There's no difference. As you know, so much of Japanese language is context specific, so the context of the conversation will probably already be extremely clear if someone is whispering something to you (or vice versa). Also, pitch isn't dependent on volume, so even at a whisper the pitch can be inflected. I was looking for something in the classics (Genji Monogatari, The Pillow Book) where the lead character whispers something, but I couldn't find anything on line. (It seems like there should be some kind of reference in them). Anyway, my contention is that there is nothing special or "culture specific" about Japanese whispers. (← Also the name of an album by The Cure).