Japanese dialects

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"Hogen" redirects here. For the Japanese era, see Hōgen (era).
Zones map of copula "da" "ja" "ya"
Zones map of copula "da" "ja" "ya"

Japanese dialects (方言 hōgen?) are comprised of many regional variants. The lingua franca of Japan is called hyōjungo (標準語, lit. "standard language") or kyōtsūgo (共通語, 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 (弁, 辯, ex. "Osaka-ben" means "Osaka dialect") and sometimes also called -kotoba (言葉,ことば, ex. "Kyo-kotoba" means "Kyoto dialect").

Some casual pronunciation is common to most dialects of Japanese. Much as English has unofficial contractions such as going to becoming gonna, Japanese has fairly standard ways to create less formal pronunciations. Such as -ai or -oi becoming -ee (eg. dekinai becoming dekinee or sugoi becoming sugee); this is most commonly used with -nai words. Another common contraction is R absorption: wakaranai becoming wakannai (or wakannee, by the previous rule).

Contents

Eastern Japanese

Hokkaidō dialect

Map of Japanese dialects and Japonic languages
Map of Japanese dialects and Japonic languages

The residents of Hokkaidō are (relatively) recent arrivals from all parts of Japan, and this combination of influences has resulted in a set of regionalisms sometimes called Hokkaidō dialect (北海道弁 Hokkaidō-ben). The Hokkaidō dialect appears to have been influenced most significantly by the Tōhoku dialect (東北弁 Tōhoku-ben), not surprising due to Hokkaidō's geographic proximity to northeastern Honshū. Characteristics of the Hokkaidō dialect include speech that contains fewer gender-specific differences, a rich vocabulary of regionalisms, and alternatives to desu (です). There is a tendency toward rapid, abbreviated speech patterns, as is not uncommon in other rural areas of Japan. Overall, the Hokkaidō dialect is not dramatically different from what is called standard Japanese. Most native speakers of Hokkaidō dialect can easily switch to standard Japanese when the situation calls for it. However, the Hokkaidō dialect is different enough that the prepared ear has an advantage in understanding it.

Tōhoku dialect

The Tōhoku dialect is spoken in Tōhoku Region, the northeastern region of Honshū. Toward the northern part of Honshū, the Tōhoku 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 Tōhoku 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 Tōhoku dialect speakers to draw out their vowels, that the Tōhoku dialect is somewhat pejoratively referred to as "Zūzū-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.

The types of Tōhoku dialect can be broken down geographically:

Kantō dialect

The Kantō dialect (関東弁 Kantō-ben) has some common features to the Tōhoku dialect, such as "-be" (～べ) and "-nbe" (～んべ) being used to end sentences. Eastern Kantō dialect is especially similar to Tōhoku dialect. Tokyo and the suburbs' local dialects are steadily declining because standard Japanese started spreading in Kantō earlier than in other areas.

Types of Kanto dialect include:

Tōkai-Tōsan dialect

The Tōkai-Tōsan dialect is separated into three groups: Nagano-Yamanashi-Shizuoka, Echigo and Gifu-Aichi.

Nagano-Yamanashi-Shizuoka

Echigo

Gifu-Aichi

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 (おる) instead of iru (いる), ja (じゃ) or ya (や) instead of da (だ), and the negative form -n (～ん) as in ikan (行かん "don't go") instead of -nai (～ない) as in ikanai (行かない). These features are sometimes derived from Old Japanese.

Hokuriku dialect

Types of Hokuriku dialect:

Kinki (Kansai) dialect

Main article: Kansai dialect

The Kansai dialect is a dialect spoken in the Kansai region. The dialect features a number of regional differences: to draw a broad generalization, the Osaka dialect can be considered "brash", the Kyoto dialect "lilting" and the Kobe dialect "melodious".

Chūgoku dialect

Types of Chūgoku dialect include:

The Hiroshima dialect is regarded as a very manly sounding dialect.[citation needed] That is to say, tough and hard. Common variations include ja (じゃ) instead of da (だ), no (の) instead of ne (ね), and, like Kyushu, it uses ken (けん) instead of kara (から). Putting them together, jakenno (じゃけんの) is often applied to the end of sentences instead of da, even though the meaning of jaken (じゃけん) is literally dakara (だから).

The Yamaguchi dialect contains more yōons and diphthongs compared to other dialects in Japan. Above all, the consonant "ch" is frequently used. The ending -choru (～ちょる) is often used instead of -te iru (～ている) in standard Japanese, and -cha (～ちゃ) is also used instead of the standard da.

Umpaku dialect

"Umpaku" means "Izumo (Eastern of Shimane) and Hoki (Western of Tottori)".

Types of Umpaku dialect include:

  • Izumo-ben (Eastern of Shimane)
  • Yonago-ben (Western of Tottori)

Izumo-ben, unique from both southern Shimane's Iwami-ben and Tottori-ben 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 だんだん ("dan-dan") to mean thank you, ちょんぼし　("chonboshi") in place of すこし ("sukoshi") and 晩じまして ("banjimashite") as a greeting used an hour before or after sunset. けん ("ken") is used in place of から ("kara"), even by younger speakers. ごす ("gosu") is used in place of くれる ("kureru") and おる ("oru") is used in non-humble speech as in much of western Japan.

Shikoku dialect

Types of Shikoku dialect:

Main article: Iyo dialect

Kyūshū

Hōnichi dialect

"Honichi" means "Buzen (Eastern of Fukuoka and Northern of Oita), Bungo (Southern of Oita) and Hyuga (Miyazaki)".

Types of Hōnichi dialect include:

Miyazaki is most noted for its intonation, which is very different from that of standard Japanese. At times it can even seem to employ the opposite (inverse) pattern of intonation. Miyazaki dialect shares similarities with other Kyūshū dialects such as: と ("to") replacing the question particle か ("ka")

Hichiku dialect

"Hichiku" means "Hizen (Saga and Nagasaki), Higo (Kumamoto), Chikuzen (East Fukuoka) and Chikugo (South Fukuoka)"

Types of Hichiku dialect include:

Main article: Saga dialect

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 shitōtō?" 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 Kyūshū share much in common with Hakata-ben, but the dialect of Kagoshima is strikingly different from other Kyūshū dialects.

Tsushima-ben is a Kyūshū dialect spoken within the Tsushima Subprefecture of Nagasaki Prefecture. Tsushima dialect is often unintelligible to speakers of standard Japanese, but can be understood by speakers of other Kyūshū dialects. Due to historical reasons and the geographical proximity of Korea, Tsushima-ben has borrowed many words from Korean.

Korean loanwords in Tsushima dialect
Tsushima dialect Korean derivation Standard Japanese English gloss
ヤンバン
yanban		 양반(兩班)
yangban		 大地主
ōjinushi		 Landlord, land-owner
(Note that in Korean yangban is a Korean elite class)
チング, チングィ
chingu, chingui		 친구(親舊)
chingu		 友達
tomodachi		 Friend
トーマンカッタ
tōmankatta		 도망(逃亡)갔다
domang gatta		 夜逃げ
yonige		 Escaping at night (or running from debt)
(Note that the Korean source, domang gatta, is actually a verbal phrase meaning "ran away; escaped")
ハンガチ
hangachi		 한가지
hangaji		 ひとつ
hitotsu		 One (item)
(Note that the Korean word actually means "one kind, one type, a sort (of)")
チョコマン
chokoman		 조그만
jogeuman		 小さい
chiisai		 Small
バッチ
batchi		 바지
baji		 ズボン
zubon		 Pants

Satsugū dialect

"Satsugū" means "Satsuma (Western of Kagoshima) and Osumi (Eastern of Kagoshima)"

Types of Satsugū dialect include:

  • Satsuma-ben
  • Osumi-ben
  • Morogata (Southwesternmost of Miyazaki)

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.

Hachijō Island

Hachijō dialect

A small group of dialects spoken in Hachijōjima and Aogashima, islands south of Tokyo.

Usually Hachijō 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.

Ryūkyū

Linguists 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 Kyūshū. 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 Ryūkyūs 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".

References

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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_dialects"

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