-ji (pronounced as /dʒiː/) is a gender-neutral honorific used as a suffix in many languages of the Indian subcontinent, such as Hindi, Nepali 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.
The origin of the ji honorific is uncertain.[1] One suggestion is that it is a borrowing from an Austroasiatic language such as Sora.[2] Another is that the term means "soul" or "life" or "sir" (similar to the jān suffix or shri suffix) and is derived from Sanskrit.[3] 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.[4]
Ji can mean respect:
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 shrines and scripture, e.g. Harmandir Sahib and Guru Granth Sahib.
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, 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.
Because English usage is widespread in the Indian subcontinent, the fact that the honorific Ji is pronounced identically to the letter G is used extensively in puns. This is sometimes deliberately exploited in consumer marketing, such as with the popular "Parle-G 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 and Pakistan 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 slangs of India: O BBG T PO G or ABBG T PO G. The Bibi-ji may answer PKIG, "I just had the tea".
Bengali names ending in -ji are sometimes rendered in Sanskrit as (with sandhi, i.e. Mukherjee and Mukhopadhyay). Upādhyāya is Sanskrit for "teacher".