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What is the difference between the "わ" sentence ender used by women in general and the one that is used by both Males and females in the Kansai area?

I've asked my Japanese co-workers about it specifically and they said that there is a difference to them, but unfortunately, like most native speakers of a language, couldn't concretely explain what that difference is.

One comment was that women can say "~わね" where this cannot be said by men in the Kansai area.

Mechanical snail
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Mark Hosang
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1 Answers1

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One is feminine and the other is just very emphatic. Both are particles so both can be used in the same context. The wa used by males is likely to be used with less formal language, but only because of the common language of its users, not any grammatical constraint.

Nate Glenn
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  • so to correlate this to another particle, would you say it was taking the place of "yo"? – Mark Hosang Jun 01 '11 at 05:30
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    There's overlap, I suppose. Think of yo as being used when directly transferring information to another (or I suppose you could be talking to yourself). The male wa is exclamatory. "疲れてるわ！" "ええわ！" (slamming door on salesman's face). – Nate Glenn Jun 01 '11 at 06:04
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    Not to mention you can also combine よ with わ and make it わよ! Add ね to the mix, oh the horror! そうですわよね！ I hate it when they say that! そうですわよねやでだべ！ – syockit Jun 03 '11 at 20:01