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The Japanese language, in addition to to Standard Japanese, based on Tokyo speech, has dozens of geographic dialects.
Kansai dialect
- See main article: Kansai-ben
The most well-known dialect outside of Tokyo, Kansai-ben (関西弁 (http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/関西弁), ben dialect), also known as Osaka-ben, is a dialect spoken in the Kansai region of Japan, and most notably in the city of Osaka. It is characterized as being both more melodic and more "harsh" by speakers of the standard language.
Technically Kansai-ben is not a single dialect, but a group of related dialects of the region. Each major city represents a particular dialect with thousands of years of history. Thus there are specific dialects such as Kyōto-ben, Kobe-ben, Nara-ben, Wakayama-ben, etc. However, since Osaka is the largest city of the region, and since its speakers have gained the most media exposure in the last century, the typical Japanese person tends to equate the dialect of Osaka with the entire Kansai region. This of course grates on the nerves of speakers of non-Osakan Kansai dialects, but no particular effort is underway to correct the misassumption.
Since Kansai-ben is the most common atypical dialect of Japanese, it has become a favorite with Japanese authors, manga and anime artists, and the like as the choice for representing a somewhat "different" character from the norm. Most English translations of anime, when attempting to represent Kansai-ben speakers, often use as a substitute, either voice actors with American Southern accents, or occasionally Brooklyn accents. Neither is a particularly exact substitute, but the cross-language semantic differences are difficult to capture.
Kansai-ben is strongly associated with Manzai and comedy in general. Some believe this is because Yoshimoto Kogyo, one of the country's main comedy television production companies, is based in Osaka, and thus Kansai comedians are better promoted. In Azumanga Daioh, Ayumu Kasuga is called "Osaka" as a joke as she is not a typical quick witted Kansai-ben speaker.
Many common words in Kansai-ben are formed by contraction of Standard Japanese words. Two of the more prominent examples are chigau "to be different, wrong" which is contracted to form chau, and omoshiroi "interesting, funny" which contracts to omoroi. These contractions follow the similar inflection rules as their standard forms, so that chau is politely said chaimasu in the same way as chigau is inflected to chigaimasu.
In other cases, Kansai-ben uses different words entirely. The verb hokasu corresponds to Standard Japanese suteru "to throw away", and metcha corresponds to the Standard totemo "very".
Some Japanese words gain entirely new meaning when used in Kansai-ben. baka, which is used as "idiot" in most regions, becomes "complete fool" and a stronger insult than aho. Most Kansai-ben speakers cannot stand being called baka but don't mind being called aho.
Common phrases famous as Kansai dialect include:
- akan - a mild expletive, also used in place of Standard dame
- aho - idiot, fool; used affectionately
- baka - idiot; not used affectionately, stronger than aho
- doaho - idiot; stronger than baka
- donkusai - stupid, clumsy, inefficient, lazy; literally "stupid-smelling"
- honnnara - in that case, if that's true; also used to indicate leaving as with Standard de wa or ja
- tanomu - please; contrast Standard tanomu "to help"
- ya - copula, equivalent to Standard da
- yaru - to give; considered a vulgar form of "to give" or "to do" in Standard Japanese
- naa - sentence final particle, meaning varies depending on tone
- nan ya - "what?" or "what's going on?"; also meaning "me?" or "did you call my name?"; approximately equivalent to Standard "nani?"
- nan ya nen - "what are you doing?" or "what are you saying?"
- nande ya nen - "you gotta be kidding!"
- nen - equivalent to Standard sentence final particle ne
- shindoi or shindo - tired, exhausted
Fukui dialect
Fukui-ben is the dialect of Fukui prefecture. Speakers of Fukui-ben tend to talk in an up and down, sing songy manner.
Examples of Fukui-ben include:
- hoya hoya, meaning hai (yes) or so desu yo (that is true)
- mmmmm-do, instead of ee-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."
Speakers of Kansai-ben and Kanto-ben tend to look down on Fukui-ben as being hopelessly provincial, or inaka (of the country). A rough analogy would be an American from deep Alabama or Mississippi talking with someone from the West Coast or East Coast.
Hakata dialect
Hakata-ben is the dialect of Fukuoka. To natives of Tokyo, Hakata-ben sounds provincial and uneducated, much the same as Fukui-ben, though the dialect is entirely different. Throughtout 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.
Examples of Hakata-ben include:
- asoban instead of asoboo "let's have fun"
- batten instead of demo, kedo "but"
- da ken instead of da kara "therefore"
- yokaroomon instead of ii deshoo "good, don't you think?"
- bari instead of totemo "very"
- shitootchan instead of shiterunda "I'm doing it"
- ~shitookiyo instead of shite kinasai "please do ~; used with children"
- yokka yokka instead of soo desu ne "yeah; is that so?"
Most other dialects in Kyushu share much in common with Hakata-ben, but the dialect of Kagoshima is strikingly different from other Kyushu dialects.
Other dialects
- Hokkaido-ben
- Tohoku-ben is widely considered to be a slow and "clumsy" dialect famous for dawdling.
- Kawachi-ben
- Tosa-ben in Kochi prefecture.
- Toyama-ben is spoken in Toyama prefecture. Instead of the standard, shitte imasuka? or colloquial shitteru? for "Do you know?" Toyama-ben speakers will say, shittorukke? Other regional distinctions include words like kitokito for fresh and delicious.
- Nagoya-ben is a dialect spoken in and around the city of Nagoya. It is Kanto in accent, Kansai in intonation, archaic in vocabulary and Nagoya in grammar.
- Kobe-ben is a variation on Kansai-ben, most notable for conjugating verbs with an ending -ton (nani shite iru? "What are you doing?" becomes nani shiton?)
- Kyoto-ben is a very soft and melodic Kansai dialect variation. Where Kobe dialect would say -ton, Kyoto dialect uses -taharu or -teharu (e.g. nani shitaharu no?). The sentence endings -yasu and -dosu are also common in Kyoto.
- Satsuma-ben, the dialect of Kagoshima prefecture, is often called "unintelligible" because of distinct conjugations of words and significantly different vocabulary. It is rumored that Satsuma people deliberately used obsolete or quirky words to prevent spies from knowing what they talked about. Instead, as the furthest place from Kyoto, it is likely that divergences in dialect were accumulated in Satsuma making it oddly strange.
Dialects or Languages?
There are also other, very distinct, dialects (or languages) spoken in the remote southern parts of Japan.
The most famous example is Okinawan.
Some linguists believe these should be grouped together as a sub-group to Japonic languages, known as Ryukyuan languages, while others claim that they are basically different dialects of Japanese.
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