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.
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[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?) 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?) becomes "おもしろう"fun (continuative) (楽しく?) 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 | 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.