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Western Japanese - 7x.nl




Japanese
Geographic
distribution:		 Japan
Genetic
classification:		 Japonic
 Japanese
Subdivisions:
Hachijō
Eastern Japanese
Western Japanese
Kyūshū
Satsugū
Zones map of copula "da" "ja" "ya"

Japanese dialects (方言 hōgen?) comprise 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" 大阪弁 means "Osaka dialect") and sometimes also called -kotoba (言葉,ことば, ex. "Kyo-kotoba" means "Kyoto dialect").

From the 19th century into the 1960s, some dialects and other Japonic languages were suppressed, as detailed below.

Contents

Eastern Japanese

Hokkaidō dialect

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. 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.

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, so that ichigo 'strawberry' is pronounced [ɨzɨŋo].

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. So some linguists insist that Eastern Kantō dialect(such as the Ibaraki dialect and the Tochigi dialect) should be classified as the 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

Main article: 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.

  • Kyoto dialect (southern Kyoto Prefecture, especially the city of Kyoto)
    • Gosho dialect (old Kyoto Gosho dialect)
    • Muromachi dialect (old merchant dialect in central area of the city of Kyoto)
    • Gion dialect (geiko dialect of Gion)
  • Osaka dialect (Osaka Prefecture)
    • Semba dialect (old merchant dialect in the central area of the city of Osaka)
    • Kawachi dialect (eastern Osaka Prefecture)
    • Senshū dialect (southern Osaka Prefecture)
  • Kobe dialect (city of Kobe)
  • Nara dialect or Yamato dialect (Nara Prefecture)
    • Oku-yoshino dialect or Totsukawa dialect (southernmost Nara Prefecture)
  • Tamba dialect (central of Kyoto Prefecture, and eastern Hyōgo Prefecture)
    • Maizuru dialect (city of Maizuru, Kyoto Prefecture)
  • Banshū dialect (southwestern Hyōgo Prefecture)
  • Shiga dialect or Ōmi dialect (Shiga Prefecture)
  • Wakayama dialect or Kishū dialect (Wakayama Prefecture and southern Mie Prefecture)
  • Mie dialect (mainly Mie Prefecture)
    • Ise dialect (central Mie Prefecture)
    • Shima dialect (eastern Mie Prefecture)
    • Iga dialect (western Mie Prefecture)
  • Wakasa dialect (southern Fukui Prefecture)

Chūgoku dialect

Chūgoku dialect is separated into two groups by copula.

Although Kansai dialect uses copula ya (や), Chūgoku dialect uses ja (じゃ) or da (だ). Chūgoku dialect uses ken (けん) or kee (けえ) instead of kara (から) meaning because. けん is also used in Umpaku dialect, Shikoku dialect and Kyūshū dialect. In addition, Chūgoku dialect uses yoru (よる) in progressive aspect and toru (とる)　or choru (ちょる)　in perfect aspect. For example, "taro wa benkyo shi yoru" (太郎は勉強しよる) means "Taro is studying",and "taro wa benkyo shi toru" (太郎は勉強しとる)　means "Taro has studied" while standard Japanese speakers say "taro wa benkyo shi te iru" (太郎は勉強している)　in both situations. ちょる 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 (Eastern of Shimane)
  • Yonago-ben (Western of Tottori)

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 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:

Shikoku dialect has many similarities to Chūgoku dialect in grammar. Shikoku dialect uses ken (けん)　instead of kara (から), and よる in progressive aspect and とる or ちょる　in perfect aspect. Some people in Kōchi Prefecture uses kin (きん),kini (きに),　or ki (き)　instead of けん, yoo (よー)　or yuu(ゆう) instead of よる, and choo (ちょー)　or chuu　(ちゅう) instead of とる or ちょる.

The largest difference between Shikoku dialect and Chūgoku dialect is in pitch accent. Shikoku dialect uses Kyoto-Osaka-type accent, but Chūgoku dialect uses Tokyo-type accent. So accent in Shikoku dialect is similar to Kansai dialect.

Kyūshū

Hōnichi dialect

Hōnichi-ben is found in a region encompassing Buzen (Eastern Fukuoka and Northern Oita), Bungo (Southern Oita) and Hyuga (Miyazaki).

Sub-dialects of Hōnichi-ben include:

Miyazakidialect 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 Kyūshū dialects similarities such as: と (to) replacing the question particle の (no).

Hichiku dialect

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

Types of Hichiku dialect include:

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. For example, the yotsugana (ジ, ヂ, ズ, ヅ), which are pronounced as 2 different phonemes in most dialects, are 4 separate phonemes in the Kagoshima dialect.

Tsushima-ben is a Kyūshū 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 Korean derivation Standard Japanese English gloss
ヤンバン
yanban		 양반(兩班)
yangban		 金持ち
kanemochi		 Rich person
(Note that in Korean yangban is a Korean elite class)
チング, チングィ
chingu, chingui		 친구(親旧)
chingu		 友達
tomodachi		 Friend
トーマンカッタ
tōmankatta		 도망(逃亡)갔다
tomang gatta		 夜逃げ
yonige		 Escaping at night (or running from debt)
(Note that the Korean source, tomang 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
  • Morokata (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

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A small group of dialects are 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

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 (Ryūkyū hōgen 琉球方言) or Southern Island dialect (Nantō hōgen 南島方言) 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 language（Ryukyuan dialects）
え /e/ い /i/
お /o/ う /u/
あい /ai/、あえ /ae/ えー /e:/
あう /au/、あお /ao/ おー /o:/

As an example of Ryukyuan dialects, the Shuri dialect pronounces the following words as such:

  • 雨（あめ, ame）→アミ, ami
  • 船（ふね,fune）→フニ, funi
  • 心（こころ, kokoro）→ククル,kukuru
  • 夜（よる, yoru）→ユル, yuru
  • 兄弟（きょうだい, kyōdai）→チョーデー,kyōdē
  • 帰る（かえる, kaeru）→ケーユン, kēyun（or, ケーイン, kēin）
  • 青い（あおい, aoi）→オーサン, ōsan

Okinawan dialects contain a lot of archaic Japanese words and grammar. For example, the consonant 'H' in standard Japanese is pronounced as 'φ' or 'p' in Okinawan dialects in the same way as ancient Japanese spoken in the Nara or Kyoto in the Muromachi period.

Standard Japanese Miyako・Yaeyama dialect
は /ha/ ぱ /pa/
ひ /hi/ ぴ /pi/、ぴぅ /pï/
ふ /fu/ ぷ /pu/、ぴぅ /pï/
へ /he/ ぴ /pi/
ほ /ho/ ぷ /pu/

In some areas some consonants before and after the consonant /i/ Palatize.

  • The consonant /k/ palatizes to be consonant /ch/（e.g.「息, iki」→「イチ, ichi」）.
  • The consonants /g/, /t/, /d/ are pronounced as /z/, /ch/, /zj/, respectively（e.g.「宜野湾, ginowan」→「ji:no:n」）.
Standard Japanese Ryukyuan language（Ryukyuan dialects）
き /ki/ ち /chi/
いか /ika/、いた /ita/ いちゃ /icha/
ぎ /gi/ じ /zji/
いが /iga/、いだ /ida/ いじゃ /izja/

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 language（Ryukyuan dialect）
り /ri/ い /i/
いり /iri/ いり /iri/

The consonant 'w' between vowel 'a' is not pronounced（e.g. "泡盛", awamori → "アームイ", a:mui).

Japanese Ryukyuan language（Ryukyuan dialect）
あわ /awa/ あー /a:/

In this way, Okinawa is pronounced ウチナー 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 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".

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 (方言札?), stating that the child had spoken in dialect and was a bad student.

This was used particularly in Okinawa, and in the Tōhoku 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 (Provençal), 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.

See also

Yotsugana, the differing pronunciation of the ジ, ヂ, ズ, and ヅ kana in different regions of Japan.

Search Wikibooks The Wikibook Japanese has a page on the topic of
Search Wiktionary Look up Category:Regional Japanese in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

References

query op Western Japanese
op Western_Japanese of iets anders z o e k e n/s e a r c h on e.g. Western_Japanese: type & <ENTER>



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