Talk:Tōhoku region

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Japan To-do:

[edit] Accent

I've heard that the Tohoku accent is quite strong, so much so that I was warned against traveling there as a novice student of the language. I couldn't tell anything unusual about their speech patterns, but can anyone else confirm or elaborate on this? --Feitclub 05:25, Nov 1, 2004 (UTC)

The most notable trait is a habit of turning all "s" and "sh" into "z" (ie. voicing them), hence the Japanese nickname zūzū-ben. Not very common among younger folk in NHK-ized Japan, but zome older folkz ztill zound like thiz. Jpatokal 09:37, 1 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Yeah. A few other traits: "shi" and "su" sound the same as well, generally like either "su" or "zu," depending on whether the person also has the "zu-zu" trait. Also sometimes a trait for the vowels "i" and "e" to sound the same, especially when short. Compare that to the US Southern Accent, where "pen" and "pin" famously sound the same.
Also see Japanese dialects Fg2 00:23, 17 September 2005 (UTC)
I asure you as a fellow student studying in Japan, the dialect is of no problem, never had any problem hearing what they was saying and never any z sounds where unappropiate as far as I could hear. Lord Metroid 20:32, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
I've seen television news shows display subtitles when interviewing people who are speaking in the regional accent. I take this as an indication that the broadcaster expects many people in their audience to have difficulty understanding some speakers. Fg2 20:58, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
As a Tōhoku gaijin, I can't make a judgement here (a person never thinks that those around him an accent–it is only those people from other places); but, if saying we have an accent will keep people from moving up and further crowding up the place, then I'm all for it. Tōhoku-ben is impossible to understand. And, we have bears too.  :-) - Neier 21:46, 21 November 2006 (UTC)
Now, now. The accent is really only that bad among older people (in tsugaru, for instance). Granted, it is kinda funny to hear old ladies refer to themselves as ore, but all in all, the dialect isn't all that bad. I've spent my first three months ever in Japan in Sendai, also as then a novice student, and it doesn't reflect bad on my Japanase. I hope :)
It is a great place though. I may be biased because my first Japanese expiriences are linked to Tohoku, but I still think it's a great region, all in all. I've traveled there a number of times. Great people, not too crowded... ... ... Actually, yeah, Neier's right. The accent is terrible, there are bears and, and... And well, don't go there :) TomorrowTime 17:19, 18 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Page name

It seems that I nearly made a royal mess of things, due to a newbie mistake in September of moving Tohoku region to Tōhoku Region. The R should be an r, and halfway through redirecting the articles that point here this week, I remembered that little fact. Compounding it with putting a macron in the title when they are not agreed on yet, I think it is best to put this page back at Tohoku region where it was, before it got in the way of my bumbling around learning the ropes. (Of the other regions, only Kantō has the macron title. Chubu, Kyushu, etc do not.) Fixing the double redirects now, and I'll wait a few days for comments before moving everything to point to Tohoku region in case anyone really feels strongly that it should be Tōhoku region instead. Neier 01:46, 6 January 2006 (UTC)

Scratching out the last comment, as macrons are now proliferating. Neier 21:47, 21 November 2006 (UTC)