Saga dialect

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The Saga dialect (佐賀弁, Saga-ben^?) is a dialect of the Japanese language widely spoken in Saga prefecture and some other areas, such as Isahaya. It is influenced by Kyushu dialect and Hichiku dialect. Saga-ben is further derived into dialects that encompass individual towns.

Contents 1 Characteristics 1.1 これ, それ, あれ, どれ Series 2 Vocabulary 3 Trivia 4 See also

[edit] Characteristics

Many of Saga's dialectical properties are variants, in particles or conjugations, of regular Japanese.

• Words are often repeated three times.
• The sentence-ending particle "よ" becomes "ばい" or "たい".
• The contrastive conjunction "ばってん" (somewhat equivalent to English's "however") replaces standard Japanese equivalents.
• The operative particle "を" is replaced with "ば".

Ex.:手紙ば書いた=Wrote [a] letter.

• The particle "が", when referring to other people, is replaced with "の".

Ex.:黒君の書いた=Kuro-kun wrote [it].

• Traditional masu-form keigo is replaced by the suffix "～しんさっ", "～しんさる", "～しよんさっ", or "～しよんさる".

Ex.:手紙をかきよんさった=Wrote [polite] [a] letter.

• The direction particles "に" and "へ" are replaced with "さい".

Ex.:学校さい行く=Go to school.

• The explanatory "の" it replaced by "と".

Ex.:手紙を書いたと？= Wrote [a] letter [explanation request].

• The continuative conjugation "～ている" becomes "とっ".

Ex.:書いとっ=[Someone is] writing.

• In the passive conjugation of a verb, "れ" is taken out and "る" becomes a long vowel, or doubles the next consonant.

Ex.:書かれる (writing; passive voice) becomes replaced with 書かるう or 書かるっ.

• I-adjectives have their "い"s replaced with "か"s.

Ex.: cold (寒い, cold^?) becomes 寒か.

• Na-adjectives sometimes have a か added on, reminicent of the above characteristic. This seems to happen more in the south.

Ex.: じょうず becomes じょうずか.

• Pronunciation is similar to Hakata ben in the following: "sa, shi, su, se, so" become "sha, shii, shu, she, sho". In addition, Saga-ben also has the unique pronunciations of "za, zu, ze, da, ga," and "na" rendered as "jya, jyu, jye, jya, gya," and "nya", respectively. "Nya" sounds particularly cat-like.
• "～ない" conjugations become "ん" (the "ない" adjective itself becomes "なか"). This refects the negative rude/casual conjugation in normal Japanese. For example, where as 食べん would be rude in most of Japan, in Saga-ben it is standard.

Ex.:分からない becomes 分からん

• I-adjectives' "い"s become "さ" in when the speaker wants to add strong emphasis.
• I-adjectives' continuative form's "く" becomes a modifying "う" that elongates and possibly changes the vowel of the character before it.

Ex.:interesting (continuative) (おもしろく, interesting (continuative)^?) becomes "おもしろう"fun (continuative) (楽しく, fun (continuative)^?) becomes 楽しゅう.

[edit] これ, それ, あれ, どれ Series

The Demonstrative series is uniquely pronounced in Saga-dialect.

• The normal これ, それ, あれ, どれ series in Japanese (this, that, yon, and which respectively) has it's れ sounds replaced with い. 俺 also follows this pattern, and becomes おい. Indeed, many words follow this pattern; even 誰 becomes だい.
• The related words どう, こう, and そう become どうがん, そうがん, and こうがん, respectively. An even more rustic conjugation set of these words is どうぎゃん, そうぎゃん, and こうぎゃん.

[edit] Vocabulary

Saga-ben contains lots of characteristic vocabulary. Examples are included (with standard Japanese, where applicable) in the following table:

Saga-ben vocabulary

Saga-ben	Standard Japanese	English gloss
おばっちゃん	おばちゃん	granny
いわじいにゃ	言わないのよ	I'm not saying
おねぇさま	お姉さま	big sister/miss (honorative)
きんしゃ	来る	Come
あばかん	/	Too small, and cannot be fit into
がばい	すごく	Terribly; extremely
～ごた	のようだ	It's that way
うーか	多い	Many
うすか	怖い	Scary
くさい	だ！;だよ！	(copula; affirmative particle)
こまか	小さい	small
しぎーのする	しびれる	Fall asleep (of a limb)
じゃーた	出した	came out
すらごと	ぞらごと	Falsehood
とっとっと	取っているの	taken/reserved (w/explanation particle)
～とけ	なのに	despite~
～のごと	みたいに	(do/look) like
ふうけもん	バカ	idiot
みたんなか	みっともない	shameful; extremely
きゃーないた	疲れた	tired
ぎゃーけした	風邪をひった	caught a cold
～やろー	〜なんでしょう;〜だろ	I guess; probably (rhetorical)
～やん	〜じゃん	ain't it (affirmative).
えいくろった	酔っ払った	inebriated
ひやがいーめし	昼食	lunch
いっちょん	全く	completely
やぐらしい	うるさい	annoying
あちゃこちゃ	あちこち	here and there

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

• Saga-ben was heavily spoken in the 2006 film, and now television series, "Gabai bā-chan" (lit. fantastic grandma). The title itself is in Saga-ben.
• A popular urban legend has it that two Saga-ben speakers met up in Tokyo and bystanders mistook their dialect for Chinese.

[edit] See also

Japanese dialects