Listing of Japanese Dialects

[Emoni]

Hello everyone.

Right now I'm trying to find information of Japan's major and minor dialects. I've checked online and various locations, but for the most part have come up with very limited information.

So far I have information regarding the following 3 dialects.

Kantoben: Main standard base for the Japanese language, and spoken around the Kanto plains area around Tokyo, Yokohama and such.

Kansaiben: The second largest dialect in Japan used around Oosaka and the Kyoto area.

Hogen: The dialect spoken in Okinawa and many of the surrounding Ryukyu islands. Extremely different than standard "Kantoben" Japanese. Starting to slowly die off due to standard Japanese use.

There is of course, a great deal more information connected with the origins, locations, and current use of these dialects. However, I am mostly trying to formulate a list right now for further research afterwards. I'm aware of other dialects such as Akitaben and dialects in Kyushu which are impossible for typical Japanese to understand (let alone me!). However, I have very limited information on these and others. Any information, especially known websites would be extremely helpful.

Thank you.

 

[xerxes99]

Where I live the Izumo Dialect is common.

 

[Erik]

The only thing that comes to mind is the indigenous people of Hokkaido called the Ainu. A place that used to be called Ainumorishi many years ago was invaded by the mainland Japanese in what they called "conquest of the land of Ezo." After many years of fighting during the Meiji Era , the mainland Japanese completely occupied the land, without any treaty exchanged with the Ainu (no such cases exist in other countries). The name of their land was changed to Hokkaido. Like the indigenous people of many other countries, the Ainu have been robbed of their lifestyle, culture, language and rights, forced to assimilate. In so-called the "Ainu hunting," the mainland Japanese treated the Ainu as slaves, and called them barbarians. Deep-rooted discrimination against the Ainu has brought about and still exists today in my opinion.

Sorry, I got a little side tracked

 

[J C]

Well,

Every area in Japan seems to have it's own dialect - slight change of intonation and some strange words, grammar, etc.

In the town I stayed at, the locals claimed that there were differences in the way people from different neighbourhoods in town spoke (this is in a town of a few thousand people) - made me think of "My Fair Lady".

I'm not surprised there isn't a lot of information in English about Japanese dialects, but there's an abundance of it in Japanese. For example, this site:

全国方言コンバータ

will convert words in standard Japanese into the dialect from the select prefecture.

This one has a list of sayings for each prefecture:
全国方言WEB ほべりぐ

This was after a brief search for 方言 in goo's search box.

Just did a Wikipedia search and there's a wealth of knowledge in English here:
Japanese dialects - Wikipedia

But nowhere near as comprehensive as the information in Japanese.

 

[nice gaijin]

well, dialects were kind of borne from the limited movement of folk back in the feudal era: people of one town would not have very extensive interaction with their neighbors, and pretty much no interaction with faraway cities. This led to the development of the different dialects which varied greatly as these geographical differences were reflected in speech patterns.

Even today, dialects can be split into groups as nuanced as individual cities or even sub-sections thereof. The textbook dialect, Hyoujungo, is specifically based around the dialect from the Yamanote district of Tokyo. Kantouben is a really broad term, because there are several very distinct dialects within the Kantou region. Even within individual prefectures there are separate dialects spoken. Although the decision on a "standard" dialect (which I think was really more about standardizing the writing system than speaking) was meant to diminish these communication problems, I recently saw a TV show where a girl speaking heavy Touhokuben proved to be pretty unintelligible to the hosts and the Japanese people I watched it with.

As for Hokkaido , it's not especially well known for having a specific dialect, but it does have some special vocabulary that is specific to that region. The Ainu have a language that is separate from Japanese and does not affect the dialects to my knowledge, nor does the forced submission/integration of the Ainu have anything to do with this discussion...

Give this a look, it's pretty comprehensive
方言辞典・辞書・用語のリンク集

this claims to be a map of hougen, but isn't organized too clearly
方言文法全国地図 資料一覧

and some comparisons between east and west
岐大･教育･国語〜東西方言対立語一覧〜

 

[epigene]

Since other posters have already given a good explanation of Japanese dialects, I'll just add something I noticed in the OP's post.

"Hougen" simply means dialect in Japanese. The Okinawan dialect (can even be regarded a "language" considering its very clear distinctiveness vis-a-vis others) is called "uchinaa-guchi."

Just for your information!

 

[Davey]

I love Kansai ben, here is a link LET'S STUDY KANSAI BEN

My favorite Kansai ben word is : NANDEYANEN

 

[Hachiro]

Wow, in Okinawa there are, let's see, Hokubu-ben or Yanbaru-ben, Chubu-ben, Nambu-ben, Shuri-ben, Yaeyama-ben, Ishigaki-ben, Miyako-ben and Yonaguni-ben. Plus there are a smattering of others as well. Most of the "dialects" of Okinawa's main island are understandable to others but the hogen spoken by people on the outer islands is not.

 

[Emoni]

Thank you very much for the large load of information and links, they are extremely helpful. I've been trying to find some sort of outline to begin with.

Despite living in Japan currently, it is actually very difficult for a beginner to distinguish any minor dialect differences between kantouben in the immediate region. At least speaking for myself, it is extremely difficult to distinguish between just common used slang that I am not familiar or with pronunciations that differ by person and that of an actual different subset of a dialect used in the kantou area.

As for Hokkaido , during my stay I didn't really notice many differences in the language compared to Tokyo. I covered the southern regions and didn't travel farther up north to areas like Wakanai, however it seemed very close. I thought maybe there would be influence from the Ainu, but there didn't seem to be any. I'm sure some words were different, but no major differences from what I saw. At least around the southern region. Hokkaido isn't exactly small, so I'm sure there may be other areas where dialects could be quite varied. As for the subject of Ainu, Nice Gaijin is correct in that it belongs in another thread entirely. However, it would be a fairly good thread I'm sure.

I haven't had much time to study much about the different dialects in my stay, but I will be traveling through the southern and mid regions of Japan for 3 and a half weeks, so I wanted to at least give myself a heads up before going there. Not that I can prepare for any of the dialects I would run into in the amount of time I have, nor am I at the level in Japanese to be able to handle any major differences yet. That takes a great deal of time.

Thank you very much for all the help! I'm surprised I missed the section on dialects in Wikipedia, I had checked but didn't come up with anything.

 

[Hachiro]

Thank you very much for the large load of information and links, they are extremely helpful. I've been trying to find some sort of outline to begin with.
Despite living in Japan currently, it is actually very difficult for a beginner to distinguish any minor dialect differences between kantouben in the immediate region. At least speaking for myself, it is extremely difficult to distinguish between just common used slang that I am not familiar or with pronunciations that differ by person and that of an actual different subset of a dialect used in the kantou area.
As for Hokkaido, during my stay I didn't really notice many differences in the language compared to Tokyo. I covered the southern regions and didn't travel farther up north to areas like Wakanai, however it seemed very close. I thought maybe there would be influence from the Ainu, but there didn't seem to be any. I'm sure some words were different, but no major differences from what I saw. At least around the southern region. Hokkaido isn't exactly small, so I'm sure there may be other areas where dialects could be quite varied. As for the subject of Ainu, Nice Gaijin is correct in that it belongs in another thread entirely. However, it would be a fairly good thread I'm sure.
I haven't had much time to study much about the different dialects in my stay, but I will be traveling through the southern and mid regions of Japan for 3 and a half weeks, so I wanted to at least give myself a heads up before going there. Not that I can prepare for any of the dialects I would run into in the amount of time I have, nor am I at the level in Japanese to be able to handle any major differences yet. That takes a great deal of time.
Thank you very much for all the help! I'm surprised I missed the section on dialects in Wikipedia, I had checked but didn't come up with anything.

aran shimusa! Good Luck!

 

[J C]

aran shimusa! Good Luck!

え、わからへん。何を言うとんか

 

[Hachiro]

え、わからへん。何を言うとんか

aran shimusa! Literally translated, don't worry about it, or no big deal, practical translation is "Your welcome".

One thing about the Okinawan dialect is that there are no words or phrases that would equate with a separation or finishing. What I mean is that in Japanese people might use "Sayonara" or "Do Itashimashite" and the conversation would be finished or a person would leave.

However in Okinawan hougen or "Uchinaa-guchi" as another poster noted about the name of the Okinawan language, these phrases don't exist, as the language is a part of the culture here and the people would not want to be so impolite, for lack of a better term, to say good bye or your welcome, as these phrases mean a finish or ending.

In Uchinaa to say good bye one might hear the phrase "Ja mata" or "Mata acha ya", meaning "later" or "see you tomorrow", with the underlying meaning of we will see each other again. Which is also a part of the culture here, that people wish to see you again.


btw where does うとんか come from? Is that Kansai-ben?

 

[J C]

...
btw where does うとんか come from? Is that Kansai-ben?

Yeah - the へん ending meaning ない and 言うとんか meaning 言っているのですか are both kansai-ben. It's a bit rough-sounding - strictly spoken Japanese from Osaka as far as I can tell.

 

[Glenn]

I have a question about dialect "translations": why is it that whenever something is put something into 標準語 it invariably goes to です/ます?

 

[nice gaijin]

That's probably because, as I mentioned earlier, hyoujungo is the "textbook" dialect. Although it is considered the standard, it is not really spoken by anybody in the casual sense... the closest to a real "standard" language that is actually spoken widely is keigo, of which the desu/masu forms (teineigo) are a part.

 

[Glenn]

Yeah, but it gives the impression that dialects are always polite, at least to me. Now, I know I'm no expert on this, but as far as I know there aren't any polite forms in Kansai-ben. For instance, you get 行く, 行かへん, 行った (not sure about this one; I suppose it could be 行いた), and 行かへんかった, but I'm not aware of any formal version. These would all be put in 標準語 like 行きます, 行きません, 行きました, and 行きませんでした. I'm just wondering why they wouldn't use 行く, 行かない, 行った, and 行かなかった.

Like you said, the 丁寧語 is a part of 標準語, not the whole thing. Speaking of keigo, why wouldn't they use いらっしゃる, etc. for those verbs (let's ignore for now that it's also used for 来る and いる)? Either they're just ignoring the formality or I don't know enough about the dialects and their levels of formality (which is highly likely).

 

[J C]

I always figured that the whole idea of dialects is that they developed informally in spoken language only, so it makes sense there is no "formal" form with them. Seeing them written down is a bit weird, I think. It's like reading "Trainspotting" where they have thick Scottish accents and use all sorts of weird sayings - making it very difficult to read at first.

Am definitely no expert on this sort of thing - just fun to learn a few bits and pieces and then throw them into conversation to see what sort of reaction I get.

 

[nice gaijin]

well, 行く、行かない、行った etc are hyoujungo in the sense that they are the casual forms of the standard "textbook" dialect. Remember, hyoujungo is based on a dialect of tokyo, so it's usually mislabeled.

when it comes to keigo (which basically consists of teineigo, kenjougo, and sonkeigo), the words and sentence structures themselves are basically a standard set. The pronunciation, however, is what differs greatly from a speaker of one dialect compared to another. So the same polite sentence can still identify a speaker of, say, kansaiben, just by the way they say it.

so for the actual words themselves, only the casual forms seem to carry these special modified vocabularies for dialects. But in formal situations, one's pronunciation can still give away their hometown, so to speak.

 

[Glenn]

That seems to be a better reason to NOT use the です/ます form when they list equivalents. If they're informal then why not use the informal versions of the standard dialect? I wasn't addressing pronunciation, either: mostly morphology (i.e. へん = ない, へんかった = なかった, あらへん = ない, etc.). Although, what would you say the standard form of Kansai-ben や is (as in 変やな)? です? I think of it as だ.

 

[nice gaijin]

I'm sorry there seems to be a miscommunication here... there is no "equivalent" for the です／ます form in dialects; the dialect-specific vocabulary is only for the casual forms (だ、行く、行かない etc). Indeed, the や at the end of sentences in Kansai-ben is the equivalent to だ in standard Kantou dialects. However, this would become "です" in a non-casual situation, no matter what dialect you speak.

です／ます is 丁寧語, which is a part of 敬語. It is not informal, neither is it the most formal way to say things. For the most part, the words in any formal sentence (丁寧語、謙譲語、尊敬語) will be the same no matter where the speaker is from (ie no matter what dialect they speak). The noticeable difference in formal speech will be the intonation the speaker uses rather than their region-specific vocabulary.

 

[Glenn]

Alright, but I'd still like to know why when dialects are put into the standard language they invariable become です/ます form. According to what you're saying it shouldn't happen at all, which is what I suspected from the outset: hence my confusion.

 

[nice gaijin]

I suppose the です／ます form is more universally recognized, and it's always better to err on the side of politeness anyways. I'd have to see some examples of things going from casual Kansai-ben to the です／ます form to try to really explain it though.

 

[Glenn]

Hmm, I wonder if I wasn't thinking of just sites in English.... Anyway, from what I remember most of what I've seen has done it that way, but I did find counter-examples: 宮城北部弁ですます文法一覧 has some of the standard versions in formal form, but is mostly informal, and 宮城方言 has them almost exclusively in informal form (the only exception I found was the one with ください). I guess I overstated the situation.

By the way, set encoding to Shift-JIS to view the pages properly, if it isn't your browser's default encoding.