Japanese female idol nicknames : a linguistic analysis

In Japan, female idols have been debuting since the 1970s. Their nicknames during the 1970s and 1980s predominantly followed one pattern: the use of the suffix -tyan. However, nicknaming patterns began to diversify starting in the 2000s. This study aims to conduct phonological and morpho-phonological analyses of the nicknaming patterns derived from the Japanese Female Idol Nickname Database (J-FIND) established by the author. The findings indicate that the predominant process is suffixation with -tyan and its variants, including -pon, -tan, and -rin, which together comprise 36.8%, approximately one-third of the nicknames in the database. Other nicknaming patterns include reduplication, truncation, h→p alternation, reversing argot, vowel lengthening, gemination, and combinations of several of these processes.