Dialects?

[Seppuku]

I know there have been threads about dialects but not about this question I think.

I've heard that in different parts of japanese there are different dialects, but i was wondering how different are they (for those who live in the USA) would it be like a northern person talking and a southern person or more like American english and British english?

 

[Buntaro]

I know from first-hand experience that the Tohoku Dialect (northern Japan) is practically a foreign language to the rest of Japan.

I have heard that the spoken dialects of Kyushu are also hard to understand. Can anybody verify that?

 

[neko_girl22]

yep. Kagoshima also has a very strong dialect. My husband is from Kobe and when talking with his workmates here he can only understand 70%! The older people are the hardest to talk to. It's like a whole new language.

I go to a doctor in Kumamoto-ken (north west of Kagoshima) and it's *very* hard to understand the doctor.... he has a very strong Kumamoto accent!
I feel like I am learning 3 whole languages, Kansai-ben, Kagoshima-ben and "standard" Japanese......

 

[NANGI]

Konnichiwa Seppuku-san!

I had heard Japanese common language and Kansai dialect are more different than between German and Dutch. But I don't know Dutch and I can not compare the two.

There is a lot of dialects in Japan, and most of all are different at a word and accent.

NANGI

 

[yokutoshi]

There are many dialects in the Japanese language. It all depends where you live. But I think the standard one is Kanto-ben. There's also Kansai-ben (Oosaka area) which is also popular.

 

[Elgin]

Alright I'm using this old thread for my question:

Hoping there`s someone who speaks Hyoojun-go here. Tell me what dialect sounds the most calm to the one that sounds the most rough?

 

[Ewok85]

You'll have to be a bit more specific there. How you speak (tone and body language) has more to do with 'roughness' than anything else.

 

[Elgin]

I speak Kansai-ben, well It`s hard to know my tone since it sounds normal where I live. Maybe if I go to Tokyo I would sounds loud? I'm not sure about body language.

 

[Foxtrot Uniform]

I speak Kansai-ben, well It`s hard to know my tone since it sounds normal where I live.

I also speak Kansai-ben, but since I live in Kobe not in Kyoto where they speak Kyoto-ben (that is where you live right?) I speak a different version, a mix of Kobe-ben and Osaka-ben, so we don't say stuff like "okini." (Kyoto version of thanks)

Hoping there`s someone who speaks Hyoojun-go here. Tell me what dialect sounds the most calm to the one that sounds the most rough?

Many people who are not from the Kansai area say that Kansai-ben sounds the most rough (espescially osaka-ben).

I did hear a story once about a middle aged lady who was from Osaka, and she moved to the Touhoku-area. She was threatened by some local gang or something, who of course spoke Touhoku-ben, but because she was from Osaka, their Touhoku-ben sounded ridiculous and not threatening, so when she got pissed off and started yelling at them, they where so frightened of her rough-sounding Osaka-ben that they ran off.

I don't know if this story is true but it was on TV and I found it slightly amusing.

 

[Elgin]

lol but I live on the border of Kyoto and Osaka, so I speak both and my host family speaks Osaka-ben.

There`s something not attractive about a women saying na! instead of ne?

 

[Ewok85]

Ne is just cute

 

[tha_rippa1be]

Konnichiwa Seppuku-san!

I had heard Japanese common language and Kansai dialect are more different than between German and Dutch.
But I don't know Dutch and I can not compare the two.

There is a lot of dialects in Japan, and most of all are differents at a word and accent.

NANGI

i speak duch and no german, and when a german would speak to me i would'n understand anything of it. maybe some words wich sound the same you could translate, but to understand a conversation ... not really

sometimes it's even hard to understand some dutch dialects!
like in holland: they have regular dutch, but also a dialect called fries (not sure if it's written right) and it sounds like a totally different language.