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The lingua franca of Japan is called hyjungo (, lit. "standard language"), and while it was based initially on Tokyo speech, the language of Japan's capital has since gone in its own direction to become one of Japan's many (-ben), or dialects. Eastern Japanese Dialects Hokkaid The residents of Hokkaido Prefecture are (relatively) recent arrivals from all parts of Japan, and this combination of influences has resulted in a set of regionalisms sometimes called Hokkaido-ben. Hokkaido-ben appears to have been influenced most significantly by Tohoku-ben, not surprising due to Hokkaido's geographic proximity to north eastern Honshu. Characteristics of Hokkaido-ben include speech that contains fewer gender-specific differences, a rich vocabulary of regionalisms, and alternatives to "desu". There is a tendency toward rapid, abbreviated speech patterns, as is not uncommon in other rural areas of Japan. Overall, Hokkaido-ben is not dramatically different from what is called standard Japanese. Most native speakers of Hokkaido-ben can easily switch to standard Japanese when the situation calls for it. However, Hokkaido-ben is different enough that the prepared ear has an advantage in understanding it. Here are some examples of words and phrases common in Hokkaido that are less common in standard Japanese: -be or -bee as volitional suffix (common to Tohoku-ben) dabe isn't it (desho) (tebukuro o) haku wearing gloves, using the verb traditionally reserved for shoes sa - often used instead of ne (final particle soliciting confirmation or agreement) dabe sa -- (roughly) indeed, isn't it? (desho ne) o-ban desu good evening (common to Tohoku-ben) shibareru freezing cold weather, hard freeze namara very kowai I am tired. (gomi o) nageru discard (trash) literally, "to throw" trash waya dreadful menkoi cute futtsuku - sticking to, adhering to tekkurikaeru - stumble and fall (skiing) bakuru - swap, trade hankakusai fool zangi fried chicken nuggets dosanko Hokkaido native, 3 or more generations Thoku Thoku-ben is spoken in Thoku, the northeastern region of Honshu. Toward the northern part of Honshu, Thokuben can differ so dramatically from standard Japanese that it is rendered with subtitles. It is considered by some to be a slow and "clumsy" dialect with connotations of dawdling or idleness. A notable linguistic feature of Thoku-ben is its neutralization of the high vowels /i/ and /u/, so that the words Sushi, "susu" (ash), and "shishi" (lion) are rendered homophonous, where they would have been distinct in other dialects. It is for this reason that Tkoku-ben is somewhat pejoratively referred to as "zuzu-ben". In addition, all unvoiced stops become voiced intervocalically, rendering the pronunciation of the word "kato" (trained rabbit) as [kado]. However, unlike the high vowel neutralization, this does not result in new homophones, as all voiced stops are pre-nasalized, meaning that the word "kado" (corner) is roughly pronounced [kando]. Tsugaru Shimokita Nambu Sendai
Akita Yamagata, Yamagata-ben Echigo Kant Ibaraki Ibaraki dialect, Ibaraki-ben, is characterized by dakuten insertion, effecting a voiced syllable. For example, byki, illness, becomes something like bygi. Also characteristic of Ibaraki-ben in many areas is a decreased distinction between i and e sounds, so that iro enpitsu becomes ero inpitsu among many speakers. The final particles ppe, be, and he are perhaps most well-known. They derive from literary beshi (now beki in standard Japanese). The pitch accent of Ibaraki dialect is also fairly different from standard Japanese, typically rising at the end of statements and falling in questions. Below are a few words which are rather ubiquitous among speakers of the Ibaraki dialect: anme related to literary aru mai, and to nai dar in standard Japanese, meaning "(I suppose) not". Its opposite is appe, from aru and ppe arutte walking (instead of aruite) daiji daijbu in standard Japanese, meaning "alright", and unrelated to the identically-pronounced standard word for "important" dere(suke) lazy foolish person goja((ra)ppe) silly foolish person medo hole -me suffix for small animals (e.g. h-me, "fly"; kan-me, "turtle"); used differently from the abusive -me in standard Japanese odome child Tokyo The speech of modern Tokyo is often considered to equate standard Japanese, though in fact Tokyo dialect differs from hyjungo in a number of areas. Noticeable earmarks of Tokyo dialect include the frequent use of (sa, roughly analogous to "like" as used in American English slang), (jan, a contraction of ja nai, "Isn't that right?") and (tsuu) in place of (iu, "to say" or "is called"). It is also not uncommon for Tokyo dialect to change the - (-ru) stem of the present progressive to - (-n), as in (tsutten n, "[someone] is saying") vs. (itte iru no yo) of standard Japanese. Edogawa-ben, the fast-fading dialect of old families from Eastern Tokyo around the Edogawa river, is another example of a Tokyo dialect that differs from standard Japanese. This dialect is primarily known for the inability to pronounce or distinguish some phonemes which are considered wholly distinct in all other Japanese dialects. Most famous is the decreased distinction between "hi" and "shi", so that "hidoi" (terrible) becomes "shidoi", and "shichi" (seven) becomes "hichi". Though it also includes a few distinctive words, today it is largely indistinguishable from the standard speech of Tokyo other than the phonemic difference. Tkai-Tsan Nagano-Yamanashi-Shizuoka Shizuoka Ensh Gifu-Aichi Mino Hida dialect dashikan bad, no good Nagoya
Nagoya-ben is a dialect spoken in and around the city of Nagoya. It is similar to Kansai-ben in intonation, but to Tokyo-ben in accent. Instead of "shitte iru?" Nagoya residents will say "shittoru?" They attach unique suffixes to the end of sentences: "-gaya" when surprised, "-te" for emphasis, "-ni" to show off one's knowledge, and "-dekan" for disappointment. Some Nagoya words: "ketta" for "jitensha", "tsukue o tsuru" to 'move a desk', "dera-" or "dora-" for "sugoi" or "tottemo". A Tokyo resident: "Sou ni kimatteru janai" Nagoya resident: "Sou ni kimattoru gaya." "Gan" is not typical Nagoya-ben. It is rather slang used by the younger Nagoya residents.
Mikawa Mikawa-ben is spoken in the east half of Aichi prefecture while Nagoya-ben is in the west half. The two dialects are very similar for people from other areas of Japan. But Mikawa and Nagoya people claim that the dialects are completely different. Mikawa people also claim that Mikawa-ben is the basis of Tokyo Japanese because it was made up in Edo period by samurai from this area. Hachij Island Western Japanese Hokuriku Kaga Noto Sado Island Toyama Toyama-ben is spoken in Toyama prefecture. Instead of the standard, shitte imasuka? or colloquial shitte iru? for "Do you know?" Toyama-ben speakers will say, shittorukke? Other regional distinctions include words like kitokito for fresh and delicious. Other distinctions include the negative past tense being formed differently from standard Japanese as follows: Standard Japanese: konakatta (did not come) Toyama-ben: konda (did not come) Standard Japanese: inakatta (was not) Toyama-ben: oranda (was not) (n.b.,Toyama-ben uses "oru" instead or "iru" to express "existence") Standard Japanese: tabenakatta (did not eat) Toyama-ben: tabenda (did not eat) Standard Japanese: shinakatta (did not do) Toyama-ben: senda (did not do) The distinction made is that the negative past tense in Toyama-ben is formed by adding to the stem of the verb the "nu" suffix, indicating a negative, followed by a "da" indicating the past tense or completed action. "Nu" becomes "n".
Fukui Fukui-ben is the dialect of Fukui prefecture. Speakers of Fukui-ben tend to talk in an up-and-down, sing-songy manner. It is considered a relatively rural dialect, yet it is not without its own rough, home-spun elegance. Examples of Fukui-ben include: hoya hoya, meaning hai (yes) or so desu yo (that is true) mmmmm-do, instead of -to (let's see, or well) tsuru tsuru, meaning "very," or "a lot" (as in, "tsuru tsuru ippai," or this glass is very full, almost overflowing) jami jami describes poor reception on a TV. The usual term is suna arashi "sandstorm."
Kansai-ben () is a dialect spoken in the Kansai region of Japan. Though sometimes erroneously referred to as Osaka-ben (in reference to Osaka, the second-largest city in Japan and the economic force of the Kansai region), Kansai-ben features a number of regional differences: to draw a broad generalization, Osaka-ben can be considered "brash," Kyoto-ben "lilting" and Kobe-ben "melodious."
Bansh mi
Ise Shima
Osaka Osaka-ben belongs to the kansai family of dialects. The terminology is confusing, as people often use Kansai-ben interchangeably with Osaka-ben. Even those in the know may confuse true Osaka-ben with Kansai-ben.
Kyoto Kyoto-ben is a soft and melodic Kansai variant. Traditional Kyoto dialect uses -taharu or -teharu (e.g. nani shitaharu no?) in its sentence endings, though -yasu and -dosu are also common. See Kansai-ben for more. To end a verb in taharu is also often considered to be more formal and is almost exclusively used by women. Ending a verb in -taaru is said to have the same effect but useable by men, though it is not very common.
Kobe Kobe-ben is notable among Kansai dialects for conjugating the present progressive with the verb ending -ton or -t. For example, while the phrase "What are you doing?" in standard (and casual) Japanese would be Nani shite iru? in
Kobe-ben it would be Nani shiton? or Nani shit? Like Osaka-ben, Kobe-ben uses the inflectional (nen) to add emphasis, such that (Nani itteirundayo, "What (the heck) are you saying?") of standard Japanese could become (Nani iutnen) in Kobe-ben.
Umpaku
Shiga Prefecture Gachakon ( is the local slang word for the Omitetsudo (ja:), a local train. It is named such because it is said to go "gacha gacha gacha" as one rides it. -taharu is also used commonly in Shiga prefecture. One must not mistake, though, there are many differences in speaking patterns between Kyoto and the cities of Shiga Prefecture.
(tege) as opposed to (totemo) very (sami) as opposed to (samui) cold (kosen) as opposed to (deshou) -isn't it? (Ky wa tege sami kosen): Today's really cold, isn't it?
Hakata Hakata-ben is the dialect of Fukuoka. Throughout Japan, Hakata-ben is famous, amongst many other idiosyncrasies, for its use of -to? as a question, e.g., "What are you doing?", realized in Standard Japanese as nani o shite iru no?, is nanba shiyotto? in Hakata.
asoban instead of asobou; "let's have fun" batten instead of demo, kedo "but" da ken instead of da kara "therefore" yokarmon instead of ii desh "good, don't you think?" bari instead of totemo "very" shittchan instead of shiterunda "I'm doing it" ~shitkiyo instead of shite kinasai "please do ~"; used with children yokka yokka instead of ii yo "It's fine." sogyan kanji instead of sonna kanji "Like that." wakaran bai instead of wakaranai yo "I don't understand / don't get it." umaka/samuka/atsuka instead of umai/samui/atsui "tasty/cold/hot" Most other dialects in Kyushu share much in common with Hakata-ben, but the dialect of Kagoshima is strikingly different from other Kyushu dialects.
Satsug
Kagoshima Satsuma-ben, the dialect of Kagoshima prefecture, is often called "unintelligible" because of distinct conjugations of words and significantly different vocabulary. As the furthest place from Kyoto, it is likely that divergences in dialect were accumulated in Satsuma making it sound strange.
There is a story, told both inside and outside Kagoshima, that Kagoshima dialect was consciously and deliberately developed as a way of protecting against spies from other parts of Japan during the Edo period.
Ryukyu In recent years, the majority of specialists working on the languages spoken in Japan have come to agree that the speech of the Ryukyu Islands (the islands of Okinawa Prefecture and some of the islands of Kagoshima Prefecture) is not a dialect of the Japanese language; rather, it comprises a separate branch of the Japonic family. In this view, Japonic is split into two groups: Japanese, spoken throughout the Japanese islands, and Ryukyuan, found in the Ryukyu Islands, south of Kyushu. Even so, there is great diversity within Japanese, and even greater within Ryukyuan, and many native speakers from one area of Japan can find the speech of another area virtually unintelligible.
There has also developed in the Ryukyus a dialect which is close to Standard Japanese, but which is influenced by Ryukyuan languages. For example, "deeji" may be said sometimes instead of "taihen", or "haisai" instead of "konnichiwa".
Japanese Dialects
There are dozens of dialects spoken in Japan. The plurality is due to the mountainous island terrain and Japan's long history of both external and internal isolation. Dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent, morphology of the verb and adjectives, particle usage, vocabulary and in some cases pronunciation. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this is uncommon. From the northern island of Hokkaido to the southern islands of Okinawa, Japan is rich in various regional dialects. The Japanese dialects can be divided into the Eastern and Western dialects.
While the Easterners say "yano-assatte" (the day after tomorrow), "shoppai" (salty) and "-nai" (not), the Westerners use "shi-asatte," "karai" and "-n" or "-nu." The consonants are more emphasized in the East, whereas the vowels are more carefully pronounced in the West. And the Japanese high-low tonal accents sometimes take different forms between the eastern and western dialects. The dialects of Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto and the eastern part of Chubu are the Eastern Dialects, while those of the western part of Chubu (including Nagoya City), Kansai (including Osaka, Kyoto and Kobe Cities), Chugoku, Shikoku, Kyushu and Okinawa are the Western Dialects. The Japanese common language used to be based on the dialects of the Kansai region, but since the 17th century is based on the dialect of Tokyo in the Kanto region, as Japan's political and economic centre moved from Kyoto and Osaka to Edo, present-day Tokyo. Extremely geographically separated dialects such as Tohoku-ben and Tsushima-ben may not be intelligible to other dialect speakers. The dialect used in Kagoshima in southern Kyushu is famous for being unintelligible not only to speakers of standard Japanese but to speakers of nearby dialects in northern Kyushu as well. The Ryukyuan languages used in and around Okinawa bilingually mostly by the elderly are related to Japanese, but the two are mutually unintelligible. Due to the close relationship they are still sometimes said to be only dialects of Japanese, but linguists consider them to be separate languages. However, recently, Standard Japanese have been prevalent nationwide some because of TV. Young generation usually speak mixed language of standard and local dialects. Japanese dialects ( hgen?) comprise many regional variants. The lingua franca of Japan is called hyjungo (, lit. "standard language") or kytsgo ( , lit. "common language"), and while it was based initially on the Tokyo dialect, the language of Japan's capital has since gone in its own direction to become one of Japan's many dialects. Dialects are commonly called -ben (, , ex. "Osaka-ben" means "Osaka dialect") and sometimes also called -kotoba (,, ex. "Kyo-kotoba" means "Kyoto dialect"). From the 19th century into the 1960s, some dialects and other Japonic languages were suppressed, as detailed below.
Eastern Japanese
Hokkaid dialect
Map of Japanese dialects and Japonic languages
The residents of Hokkaid are (relatively) recent arrivals from all parts of Japan, and this combination of influences has resulted in a set of regionalisms sometimes called Hokkaid dialect ( Hokkaid-ben). The Hokkaid dialect appears to have been influenced most significantly by the Thoku dialect ( Thoku-ben), not surprising due to Hokkaid's geographic proximity to northeastern Honsh. Characteristics of the Hokkaid dialect include speech that contains fewer gender-specific differences, a rich vocabulary of regionalisms, and alternatives to desu (). There is a tendency toward rapid, abbreviated speech patterns, as is not uncommon in other rural areas of Japan. Overall, the Hokkaid dialect is not dramatically different from what is called standard Japanese. Most native speakers of Hokkaid dialect can easily switch to standard Japanese when the situation calls for it. However, the Hokkaid dialect is different enough that the prepared ear has an advantage in understanding it. Ainu language is the language which used to be spoken by the native people of Northern Tohoku and Hokkaido region before Japanese settled there from Heian era to Meiji era.
Thoku dialect
The Thoku dialect is spoken in Thoku Region, the northeastern region of Honsh. Toward the northern part of Honsh, the Thoku dialect can differ so dramatically from standard Japanese that it is sometimes rendered with subtitles. It is considered by some southern inhabitants of Japan to be a slow and "clumsy" dialect with connotations of dawdling or idleness. A notable linguistic feature of the Thoku dialect is its neutralization of the high vowels "i" and "u", so that the words sushi, susu (soot), and shishi (lion) are rendered homophonous, where they would have been distinct in other dialects. It is for this reason, in addition to the tendency of Thoku dialect speakers to draw out their vowels, that the Thoku dialect is somewhat pejoratively referred to as "Zz-ben". In addition, all unvoiced stops become voiced intervocalically, rendering the pronunciation of the word "kato" (trained rabbit) as [kado]. However, unlike the high vowel neutralization, this does not result in new homophones, as all voiced stops are pre-nasalized, meaning that the word "kado" (corner) is roughly pronounced [kando]. This is particularly noticeable with the "g" sound, which is nasalized sufficiently that it sounds very much like the English "ng" as in "thing", with the stop of the hard "g" almost entirely lost, so that ichigo 'strawberry' is pronounced [zo]. The types of Thoku dialect can be broken down geographically:
Northern Tohoku o Tsugaru dialect (western) Aomori Prefecture o Nambu dialect (eastern Aomori Prefecture and northernmost of Iwate Prefecture) o Shimokita dialect (northeastern Aomori Prefecture, around the Shimokita Peninsula) o Iwate dialect (northern Iwate Prefecture) Morioka dialect (around the city of Morioka, Iwate Prefecture) o Akita dialect (Akita Prefecture) o Shnai dialect (northwestern Yamagata Prefecture, around the former Shonai Domain)
Southern Tohoku o Sendai dialect (Miyagi Prefecture) o Iwate dialect (southern Iwate Prefecture) Kesen dialect (southeastern Iwate Prefecture) o Yamagata dialect or Murayama dialect (central Yamagata Prefecture) o Yonezawa dialect or Okitama dialect (southern Yamagata Prefecture) o Mogami dialect or Shinjo dialect (northeastern Yamagata Prefecture) o Fukushima dialect (central Fukushima Prefecture o Aizu dialect (western Fukushima Prefecture)
Kant dialect
The Kant dialect ( Kant-ben) has some common features to the Thoku dialect, such as "-be" () and "-nbe" () being used to end sentences. Eastern Kant dialect is especially similar to Thoku dialect. So some linguists insist that Eastern Kant dialect(such as the Ibaraki dialect and the Tochigi dialect) should be classified as the Thoku dialect. Tokyo and the suburbs' local dialects are steadily declining because standard Japanese started spreading in Kant earlier than in other areas. Types of Kanto dialect include:
Western Kant o Tokyo dialect (Tokyo) Yamanote dialect (old upper-class dialect) Shitamachi dialect or Edo dialect (old working-class dialect) o Tama dialect (western Tokyo) o Saitama dialect (Saitama Prefecture) Chichibu dialect (Saitama Prefecture, around Chichibu) o Gunma dialect or Jsh dialect (Gunma Prefecture) o Kanagawa dialect (Kanagawa Prefecture) o Bsh dialect (southern Chiba Prefecture) Eastern Kant o Ibaraki dialect (Ibaraki Prefecture) o Tochigi dialect (Tochigi Prefecture) o Chiba dialect (Chiba Prefecture)
Tkai-Tsan dialect
The Tkai-Tsan dialect is separated into three groups: Nagano-Yamanashi-Shizuoka, Echigo and Gifu-Aichi. Nagano-Yamanashi-Shizuoka
Nagano dialect or Shinsh dialect (Nagano Prefecture) o Okushin dialect (northernmost area)
Hokushin dialect (northern area) Tshin dialect (eastern area) Chshin dialect (central area) Nanshin dialect (southern area) Izu dialect (eastern Shizuoka Prefecture around the Izu Peninsula) Shizuoka dialect (central Shizuoka Prefecture) Ensh dialect (western Shizuoka Prefecture) Yamanashi dialect (Yamanashi Prefecture)
o o o o
Echigo
Niigata dialect (around the city of Niigata) Nagaoka dialect (central Niigata Prefecture) Jetsu dialect (western Niigata Prefecture) Uonuma dialect (southern Niigata Prefecture)
Gifu-Aichi
Mino dialect (southern Gifu Prefecture) Hida dialect (northern Gifu Prefecture) Owari dialect (western Aichi Prefecture) o Chita dialect (along the Chita Peninsula) o Nagoya dialect (centered around Nagoya) Mikawa dialect (eastern Aichi Prefecture) o West Mikawa o East Mikawa
Western Japanese
The dialects of western Japan have some common features that are markedly different from standard Japanese. Of course, not all dialects in western Japan use these features, but some extend from Kinki to Kyushu, sometimes even Okinawa. Some examples are oru () instead of iru (), ja () or ya () instead of da (), and the negative form -n () as in ikan ( "don't go") instead of -nai () as in ikanai (). These features are sometimes derived from Old Japanese.
Hokuriku dialect
Main article: Hokuriku dialect Types of Hokuriku dialect:
Kaga dialect (southern Ishikawa Prefecture, formerly known as Kaga Province) o Kanazawa dialect (around the city of Kanazawa)
Noto dialect (northern Ishikawa Prefecture, formerly known as Noto Province) Toyama dialect or Etch dialect (Toyama Prefecture) Fukui dialect (northern Fukui Prefecture) Sado dialect (Sado Island)
Kyoto dialect (southern Kyoto Prefecture, especially the city of Kyoto) o Gosho dialect (old Kyoto Gosho dialect) o Muromachi dialect (old merchant dialect in central area of the city of Kyoto) o Gion dialect (geiko dialect of Gion) Osaka dialect (Osaka Prefecture) o Semba dialect (old merchant dialect in the central area of the city of Osaka) o Kawachi dialect (eastern Osaka Prefecture) o Sensh dialect (southern Osaka Prefecture) Kobe dialect (city of Kobe) Nara dialect or Yamato dialect (Nara Prefecture) o Oku-yoshino dialect or Totsukawa dialect (southernmost Nara Prefecture) Tamba dialect (central of Kyoto Prefecture, and eastern Hygo Prefecture) o Maizuru dialect (city of Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture) Bansh dialect (southwestern Hygo Prefecture) Shiga dialect or mi dialect (Shiga Prefecture) Wakayama dialect or Kish dialect (Wakayama Prefecture and southern Mie Prefecture) Mie dialect (mainly Mie Prefecture) o Ise dialect (central Mie Prefecture) o Shima dialect (eastern Mie Prefecture) o Iga dialect (western Mie Prefecture) Wakasa dialect (southern Fukui Prefecture)
Chgoku dialect
Chgoku dialect is separated into two groups by copula.
copula ja () group o Aki dialect or Hiroshima dialect (western Hiroshima Prefecture) o Bingo dialect (eastern Hiroshima Prefecture) Fukuyama dialect o Okayama dialect (Okayama Prefecture) o Yamaguchi dialect (Yamaguchi Prefecture) copula da () group
o o o o
Iwami dialect (western Shimane Prefecture) Inshuu dialect or Tottori dialect (eastern Tottori Prefecture) Tajima dialect (northern Hygo Prefecture) Tango dialect (northernmost part of Kyoto Prefecture)
Although Kansai dialect uses copula ya (), Chgoku dialect uses ja () or da (). Chgoku dialect uses ken () or kee () instead of kara () meaning because. is also used in Umpaku dialect, Shikoku dialect and Kysh dialect. In addition, Chgoku dialect uses yoru () in progressive aspect and toru () or choru () in perfect aspect. For example, "taro wa benkyo shi yoru" () means "Taro is studying",and "taro wa benkyo shi toru" () means "Taro has studied" while standard Japanese speakers say "taro wa benkyo shi te iru" () in both situations. is used mostly in Yamaguchi dialect.
Umpaku dialect
"Umpaku" means "Izumo (Eastern of Shimane) and Hoki (Western of Tottori)". Types of Umpaku dialect include:
Izumo-ben, unique from both southern Shimane's Iwami dialect and Inshuu dialect to the east, is a very thick dialect that superficially resembles Tohoku dialects and is thus also called "Zuu zuu ben". The most representative expressions from Izumo-ben include ("dan-dan") to mean thank you, ("chonboshi") in place of ("sukoshi") and ("banjimashite") as a greeting used an hour before or after sunset. ("ken") is used in place of ("kara"), even by younger speakers. ("gosu") is used in place of ("kureru") and ("oru") is used in non-humble speech as in much of western Japan.
Shikoku dialect
Types of Shikoku dialect:
Tokushima dialect or Awa dialect (Tokushima Prefecture) Sanuki dialect (Kagawa Prefecture) Iyo dialect (Ehime Prefecture) Tosa dialect or Kochi dialect (Kochi Prefecture) o Hata Dialect (Hata district, Westernmost of Kochi)
Shikoku dialect has many similarities to Chgoku dialect in grammar. Shikoku dialect uses ken () instead of kara (), and in progressive aspect and or in perfect aspect. Some people in Kchi Prefecture uses kin (),kini (), or ki () instead of
() instead
The largest difference between Shikoku dialect and Chgoku dialect is in pitch accent. Shikoku dialect uses Kyoto-Osaka-type accent, but Chgoku dialect uses Tokyo-type accent. So accent in Shikoku dialect is similar to Kansai dialect.
Kysh
Hnichi dialect
Hnichi-ben is found in a region encompassing Buzen (Eastern Fukuoka and Northern Oita), Bungo (Southern Oita) and Hyuga (Miyazaki). Sub-dialects of Hnichi-ben include:
Kitakysh dialect(Kitakysh, Fukuoka Prefecture) ita dialect (ita Prefecture) Miyazaki dialect (Miyazaki Prefecture)
Miyazaki dialect is most noted for its intonation, which is very different from that of Standard Japanese. At times it can employ a pattern of intonation seemingly inverse to that of Standard Japanese. Miyazaki-ben shares with other Kysh dialects similarities such as: (to) replacing the question particle (no).
Hichiku dialect
"Hichiku" means "Hizen (Saga and Nagasaki), Higo (Kumamoto), Chikuzen (West Fukuoka) and Chikugo (South Fukuoka)" Types of Hichiku dialect include:
Hakata dialect (Fukuoka City) Chikugo dialect (Southern Fukuoka) o muta dialect o Yanagawa dialect Chikuho dialect (Central Fukuoka Prefecture) Saga dialect (Saga Prefecture) Nagasaki dialect o Sasebo dialect o Hirado dialect (Hirado Island, west of Nagasaki) Kumamoto dialect Hita dialect (Western Oita)
Hakata-ben is the dialect of the Hakata of Fukuoka City. Throughout Japan, Hakata-ben is famous, amongst many other idiosyncrasies, for its use of "-to?" as a question, e.g., "What are you doing?", realized in Standard Japanese as "nani o shite iru no?", is "nan ba shiyotto?" or "nan shitt?" in Hakata. Hakata-ben is also being used more often in Fukuoka in television interviews, where previously standard Japanese was expected. Most other dialects in Kysh share much in common with Hakata-ben, but the dialect of Kagoshima is strikingly different from other Kysh dialects. For example, the yotsugana (, , , ), which are pronounced as 2 different phonemes in most dialects, are 4 separate phonemes in the Kagoshima dialect. Tsushima-ben is a Kysh dialect spoken within the Tsushima Subprefecture of Nagasaki Prefecture. Tsushima dialect includes several words unintelligible to speakers from the other parts of Japan because Tsushima-ben has borrowed several words from Korean due to historical international exchanges and the geographical proximity of Korea. However Tsushima-ben shares most of its basic words with those of other Kyushu dialects. Korean loanwords in Tsushima dialect Tsushima dialect yanban , chingu, chingui ( tmankatta hangachi ) tomang gatta hangaji hitotsu Escaping at night (or running from debt)
(Note that the Korean source, tomang gatta, is actually a verbal phrase meaning "ran away; escaped")
English gloss
Rich person
(Note that in Korean yangban is a Korean elite class)
() chingu
Friend tomodachi
yonige
One (item)
(Note that the Korean word actually means "one kind, one type, a sort (of)")
chokoman batchi
jogeuman baji
Satsug dialect
"Satsug" means "Satsuma (Western of Kagoshima) and Osumi (Eastern of Kagoshima)" Types of Satsug dialect include:
Satsuma-ben, the dialect of Satsuma area of Kagoshima prefecture, is often called "unintelligible" because of distinct conjugations of words and significantly different vocabulary. As the farthest place from Kyoto, it is likely that divergences in dialect were accumulated in Satsuma making it sound relatively distinct. There are several different dialect regions within Kagoshima prefecture. There is a story, told both inside and outside Kagoshima, that Kagoshima dialect was consciously and deliberately developed as a way of protecting against spies from other parts of Japan during the Edo period when many samurai noble people lived within Kagoshima and conducted important business within it.
Hachij Island
A small group of dialects are spoken in Hachijjima and Aogashima, islands south of Tokyo. Usually Hachij Dialect is regarded as an independent "root branch" itself for its unique characteristics, especially the abundance of inherited ancient Japanese features, in spite of its small population.
Ryky
Main article: Ryukyuan languages There is no agreement over whether speech of the Ryukyu Islands (the islands of Okinawa Prefecture and some of the islands of Kagoshima Prefecture) is a dialect of the Japanese language or a separate branch of the Japonic family. The former view refers to Ryukyuan as
Ryukyu dialect (Ryky hgen ) or Southern Island dialect (Nant hgen ) while the later view refer Ryukyuan as the Ryukyu language. It should, however, be noted that there is no clear demarcation of language and dialect in linguistics and many old Japanese dialects would be (and often are) classified as languages by European standards[citation needed]. Moreover, within East Asian languages, Chinese in particular, many dialects would be classified as languages and are often associated with regional nationalism as is the case in Europe. There is a regular relationship between vowel pronunciation in standard Japanese and Ryukyuan dialects.[citation needed] Standard Japanese Ryukyuan languageRyukyuan dialects /e/ /o/ /i/ /u/
As an example of Ryukyuan dialects, the Shuri dialect pronounces the following words as such:
, ame, ami ,fune, funi , kokoro,kukuru , yoru, yuru , kydai,kyd , kaeru, kyunor, , kin , aoi, san
Okinawan dialects contain a lot of archaic Japanese words and grammar. For example, the consonant 'H' in standard Japanese is pronounced as '' or 'p' in Okinawan dialects in the same way as ancient Japanese spoken in the Nara or Kyoto in the Muromachi period. Standard Japanese MiyakoYaeyama dialect /ha/ /pa/
In some areas some consonants before and after the consonant /i/ palatalize.
The consonant /k/ palatalizes to be consonant /ch/e.g., iki, ichi. The consonants /g/, /t/, /d/ are pronounced as /z/, /ch/, /zj/, respectivelye.g., ginowanji:no:n. Ryukyuan languageRyukyuan dialects /chi/
The syllable 'ri' is pronounced as 'i'. The syllables 're' and 'ri' are, however, pronounced the same as in standard Japanese when they appear before the vowel /i/. Japanese Ryukyuan languageRyukyuan dialect /ri/ /i/
/iri/ /iri/
The consonant 'w' between vowel 'a' is not pronouncede.g. "", awamori "", a:mui).
In this way, Okinawa is pronounced uchina:. There is great diversity within Japanese, and even greater diversity within Ryukyuan. Many native speakers from one area of Japan can find the speech of another area virtually unintelligible. There has also developed in the Rykys a dialect called Okinawan Japanese which is close to standard Japanese, but which is influenced by Ryukyuan languages. For example, "deeji" may be said sometimes instead of "taihen", or "haisai" instead of "konnichiwa".
Suppression
See also: Ryukyuan languages#Modern history From the 19th century into the 1960s,[citation needed] Japan had an official policy of suppression certain dialects and the Ryukyuan languages in schools. The language of instruction was Standard Japanese, and the punishment for using a language other than Standard Japanese (either a dialect or other Japonic language; these were not distinguished) was to wear a necklace with a dialect card (?), stating that the child had spoken in dialect and was a bad student. This was used particularly in Okinawa, and in the Thoku region, among others.[citation needed] Though deemed a linguicide by some, this policy was often supported by parents,[citation needed] who hoped that it would assist their children in gaining employment. This specific punishment was taken from the 19th French language policy of Vergonha,[citation needed] especially by Jules Ferry, where the regional languages such as Occitan (Provenal), Catalan, or Breton were suppressed in favor of French; see also Welsh Not, for a similar system in Wales. Compare also the language policies of Korea under Japanese rule.