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 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.
[edit] Eastern Japanese[edit] Hokkaidō dialect 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. [edit] Tōhoku dialectThe 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:
[edit] Kantō dialectThe 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:
[edit] Tōkai-Tōsan dialectThe Tōkai-Tōsan dialect is separated into three groups: Nagano-Yamanashi-Shizuoka, Echigo and Gifu-Aichi. [edit] Nagano-Yamanashi-Shizuoka
[edit] Echigo
[edit] Gifu-Aichi
[edit] Western JapaneseThe 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. [edit] Hokuriku dialectMain article: Hokuriku dialect Types of Hokuriku dialect:
[edit] Kinki (Kansai) dialectMain article: Kansai dialect The Kansai dialect is a dialect spoken in the Kansai region. The dialect features a number of regional differences.
[edit] Chūgoku dialectTypes 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. [edit] 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-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. [edit] Shikoku dialectTypes of Shikoku dialect:
[edit] Kyūshū[edit] Hōnichi dialectHōnichi-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:
Miyazaki-ben 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 か (ka). [edit] 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 is often unintelligible to speakers of standard Japanese, but can be understood by speakers of other Kyūshū dialects. Due to historical international exchanges and the geographical proximity of Korea, Tsushima-ben has borrowed several words from Korean.
[edit] Satsugū dialect"Satsugū" means "Satsuma (Western of Kagoshima) and Osumi (Eastern of Kagoshima)" Types of Satsugū 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. [edit] Hachijō Island[edit] Hachijō dialectA 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. [edit] RyūkyūMain 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 (Ryukyu hogen 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 be noted that there is no clear demarcation of language and dialect in linguistics and many old Japanese dialects are often intelligible and would be classified as languages by European standard. Moreover, within the East Asian languages, especially Chinese, many dialect would be classified as languages and are often associated with regional nationalism as is the case in Europe. Furthermore, it should be noted that Japanese word for dialect, hogen is a shortened form of chihō gengo, meaning "regional language". There is great diversity within Japanese, and even greater diversity 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". [edit] SuppressionSee 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. [edit] See alsoYotsugana, the differing pronunciation of the ジ, ヂ, ズ, and ヅ kana in different regions of Japan.
[edit] References
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