Kansai dialect

The Kansai dialect (関西弁, Kansai-ben^?) is a distinct group of related Japanese dialects found in the Kansai region of Japan. They are typified by the speech of Osaka, which is referred to specifically as Osaka-ben. It is characterized as being both more melodic and harsher by speakers of the standard language.^[1] Until the mid-Edo period, when the dialect of Edo (now Tokyo) came to exert a stronger influence on literature and learning, an old form of Kansai-ben had been the de facto standard Japanese.

Background

A division of Kansai-ben proposed by Okumura Mitsuo. The orange zone is the Middle Kansai-ben, the blue one is the North Kansai-ben, the brown one is the West Kansai-ben, the yellow one is the East Kansai-ben, the green one is the South Kansai-ben.

Technically, Kansai-ben is not a single dialect, but a group of related dialects of the region. Each major city represents a particular dialect, such as Kyoto-ben, Kobe-ben, Nara-ben, Wakayama-ben, etc. Kansai-ben has over one thousand years of history. Since Osaka is the largest city of the region, and since its speakers have gained the most media exposure in the last century, non-Kansai-ben Japanese speakers tend to associate the dialect of Osaka with the entire Kansai region. Thus anyone habitually saying akan or honma to a Tokyo-jin (someone from Tokyo) is probably going to be labelled as an Osaka-ben speaker and probably an Osaka-jin (someone from Osaka) whether they are from Osaka or not.

Since Kansai-ben is the most widely known nonstandard dialect of Japanese, it has become a favorite with Japanese authors, manga and anime artists, and the like, as the choice for representing a somewhat "different" character from the norm. The use of Kansai-ben is closely associated with manzai and comedy in general throughout most of non-Kansai Japan. This is due both to the prevalence of comedians from Osaka in Japanese media as compared to people from other cities and regions (which is in turn due at least in part to the Yoshimoto Kogyo agency, based in Osaka), and to the willingness of Osaka comedians to use their own dialect while on stage. Because of this association, speakers of Kansai-ben are often viewed as being more humorous or wittier than the average Tokyo-jin. Tokyo people even occasionally imitate Kansai-ben to provoke laughter or inject humor into a situation.

Historically, nearly every village in the Kansai area had a style of speech which differed somewhat from its neighbors; it was once possible for well-travelled people to identify the particular area from which a speaker came – as in the character Henry Higgins in the play Pygmalion. Due to the increasing influence of the Tokyo and Kantō dialects over the last four hundred years, the intraregional differences have been declining across all of Kansai. Nevertheless, citizens of each major city and prefecture still take some pride in their particular dialectical variation, and this pride has preserved a number of differences between each area in the region.

The primary dialects of Kansai-ben can be roughly divided into cities. There is Osaka-ben, the most famous and well known. Following it are Kyoto-ben, known for its indirectness and politeness, and Kobe-ben known for its -tō/-ton verb conjugation.

General differences from Standard Japanese

Many words in Kansai-ben are produced by contractions of the Classical Japanese equivalent. They sometimes seem to be contractions of the Standard Japanese equivalent, simply because it is unusual to contract words this way in Standard Japanese. Chigau "to be different, wrong" becomes chau, yoku "well" becomes yō, and omoshiroi "interesting, funny" becomes omoroi, to name a few common examples. These contractions follow the similar inflection rules as their standard forms, so that chau is politely said chaimasu in the same way as chigau is inflected to chigaimasu. Common contractions in Standard Japanese are replaced by specific Kansai-ben variations. The korya and sorya contractions of kore wa and sore wa heard in relaxed speech in Tokyo are instead kora and sora throughout the Kansai region.

Phonological and morphological differences

In terms of phonological, Kansai-ben is characterized by strong vowels. It is contrastive to Tokyo speech which is characterized by strong consonants and frequent vowel reduction. For example, fi̥rɯ̥mɯ̥ desɯ̥ "It's a film" in Tokyo, fuirumu desu in Kansai. Kansai-ben shows a recurring tendency to lengthen vowels at the end of monomoraic nouns. Common examples are kī for ki "tree", and tō for to "door".

The geminated consonants found in Standard Japanese verbal inflections are usually replaced with long vowels in Kansai-ben. Thus, for the verb iu "to say", its past tense in Standard Japanese itta or yutta "said" becomes yūta in Kansai-ben. This particular verb is a dead giveaway of a native Kansai-ben speaker, as most will unconsciously say yūte instead of itte or yutte even when well practiced at speaking in Standard Japanese. Other examples of geminate replacement are waratta "laughed" becoming warōta, and moratta "received" becoming morōta or even mōta.

The -te shimau verb gerund + auxiliary form (to finish something, or to do something in unintentional / unfortunate circumstances) found in Standard Japanese exists in Kansai-ben, but is contracted to -temau rather than the -chimau or -chau of Tokyo speech. Thus shichimau or shichau becomes shitemau. Furthermore, as the verb shimau is affected by the same sound changes as in other verbs ending in -au, the past tense of this form is rendered as -temōta or -temota rather than -chimatta or -chatta: wasurechimatta or wasurechatta ("I forgot [it]") in Tokyo speech is wasuretemōta or wasuretemota in Kansai-ben.

Oddly, long vowels in inflections of Standard Japanese are typically shortened in Kansai-ben. This is particularly noticeable in the volitional conjugation of verbs. For instance, ikō "let's go" is shorter in Kansai-ben as iko; shō, the contracted form of shiyō "let's do" in Standard Japanese, is simply sho in Kansai-ben. The common phrase of agreement, sō da "that's it", is said so ya in Kansai-ben.

A frequent occurrence in Kansai-ben is the use of h in place of s in suffices and inflections. Some palatalization of s is apparent in most Kansai speakers, but it seems to have progressed further in morphological suffixes than in core vocabulary. This process has produced the Kansai -han for Standard -san "Mr.-, Ms.-", -mahen for -masen (formal negative form), and -mahyo for -mashō (formal imperative mood), among other examples.

Accent

The accent of Kansai-ben is greatly different from Standard Tokyo accent, so non-Kansai Japanese can recognize Kansai people easily from only their accent. Kansai-ben's accent is called the Keihan-shiki accent (京阪式アクセント, Kyoto-Osaka style accent) and spoken in and around most of Kansai, Shikoku and part of Hokuriku region. In Kansai accent, the first mora and second mora are sometimes same pitch. That is one of the most apparent feature of Kansai accent as against Tokyo accent (in Tokyo accent, the first and second are always different). Kansai accent has the most pitch patterns, so some Japanese linguists advocate that Kansai accent is the most hereditary accent and all Japanese accents, even Tokyo, were simplified accents from an old Kansai accent.

Adjectives

The stem of adjective forms in Kansai-ben is generally the same as in Standard Japanese, excepting regional vocabulary differences. The -i ending can be dropped and the last vowel of the adjective's stem can be stretched out for a second mora, sometimes with a tonal change for emphasis. By this process omoshiroi "interesting, funny" becomes omoshirō, and atsui "hot" becomes atsū. This usage of the adjective's stem, often as an exclamation, is common throughout the entire history of the Japanese language; it is seen in old literature in Classical Japanese, as well as many dialects of modern Japanese (Some dialects including Kantō are more likely to elide the adjectival ending into the last vowel of the stem, yielding omoshirē and atsī or achī for the above examples).

Furthermore, the same process that reduced the Classical Japanese terminal and attributive endings (-shi and -ki, respectively) to -i, also has reduced the adverbial (連用形, ren'yōkei^?)(-masu stem) ending -ku to simply -u, yielding such forms as hayō (contraction of hayau) for hayaku ("quickly"). Dropping of the consonant from the final mora in all forms of adjective endings has been a frequent occurrence in Japanese over the centuries (and is the origin of such forms as arigatō and omedetō), but Kantō speech preserved -ku while reducing -shi and -ki to -i, thus accounting for the discrepancy in the standard language.

Copula

The Standard Japanese copula da is replaced by the Kansai-ben copula ya. The inflected forms maintain this difference, giving yaro for darō, yatta for datta. It should be noted that ya is only used informally, the same as the Standard da, while the Standard desu is by and large used for the polite (keigo) copula. Kansai-ben has its own keigo copulas: dosu in Kyoto and dasu in Osaka, but both are now rather archaic because the Standard desu became dominant. Dasu was also sometimes shortened to da, not to be confused with the Standard non-keigo copula.

• ja is still used slightly in acrid speech. Now ja is commonly used in western Japanese areas like Hiroshima. It is also used for the stereotype of old men in fiction.

Politeness

Historically, extensive use of keigo was a feature of Kansai-ben, while Kantō-ben, from which Standard Japanese developed, formerly lacked it. Keigo in Standard Japanese was originally borrowed from Kansai-ben. However keigo is no longer considered a feature of the dialect since the Standard Japanese also has it. Even today keigo is used more often in Kansai-ben speech than in the other dialects except for the Standard Japanese, to which people switch in formal situations. Traditional Kansai-ben keigo has gone out of use, but haru, a transformation of nasaru, is often used for showing reasonable respect without formality.

Sentence final particles

The sentence final particles (終助詞, shūjoshi^?) used in Kansai-ben differ widely from those used in Standard Japanese. The most prominent to a Tokyo-ben speaker is the use of wa by men. In Standard Japanese this is a particle with the same meaning of the yo of Standard Japanese, but that is used exclusively by women, so it is said to sound softer. In Kansai-ben however it functions in almost the exact same manner as yo does in Standard Japanese, and is as such used equally by both men and women in many different levels of conversation.

Another difference in sentence final particles which strikes the ear of the Tokyo-ben speaker is the nen particle. This is much the same as the Standard Japanese no da or n'da (no da = no ya > ne ya > nen).

The emphatic particles zo and ze heard so often in the mouths of Tokyo men are nowhere to be heard in the Kansai region. Instead, the particle de is used, especially in the phrase akan de, equivalent to Tokyo's ikenai yo. It probably arose from the same variation which gave rise to the Western Japan replacement of z- with d- in words such as denden for zenzen "never, not at all". However, despite the similarity with ze, the Kansai de does not carry nearly as heavy or rude a connotation, influenced by the lesser stress on formality and distance in the Kansai region.

Negative form

In casual speech, the negative verb ending, which is -nai in Standard Japanese, is often expressed with -hen, as in ikahen "not going", which is ikanai in Standard Japanese. Etymologically speaking, this is not simply a replacement of standard nai with a different suffix onto the negative stem, but the result of the form ren'yōkei + wa senu, altered by contraction and phonological change (as illustrated below). The conjugation before -hen has some varieties. Most common conjugation is -ahen like ikahen, but -ehen like ikehen is also used in Osaka. -Hen are pronounced -hin when the vowel before -hen is i especially in Kyoto.

• Kōhen, mixed keehen or kiihin with konai, is also used lately by young people.

Imperative form

Kansai-ben has two imperative forms. One is the standard meireikei, inherited from Middle Japanese. The other is a somewhat soft form which uses ren'yōkei. The end of the soft imperative form is often elongated and generally followed by ya or na. The -ro form for monograde verbs in Standard Japanese was only used in Kantō by nature, so the -ro form is much rarer in Kansai. In the negative imperative mood, Kansai-ben also has the somewhat soft form which uses ren'yōkei + na, abbreviation of ren'yōkei + nasaruna. Na sometimes changes to naya or naina (naina is archaic now). Ren'yōkei + na is the same as the informal imperative mood in Kantō Japanese, an abbreviation of ren'yōkei + nasai. Kansai speakers can recognize the difference by shades of accent, but Tokyo speakers are sometimes confused by a command not to do something, which they interpret as an order to do it.

Vocabulary

In some cases, Kansai-ben uses different words entirely. The verb hokasu corresponds to Standard Japanese suteru "to throw away", and metcha corresponds to the Standard Japanese slang chō "very". chō, in Kansai-ben, means "a little", as a contracted form of "chotto." Thus the phrase e.g. chō matte, "wait a minute" in Kansai-ben, sounds very strange to a person from Tokyo.

Some Japanese words gain entirely different meaning or are used in different ways when used in Kansai-ben. One such usage is of the word erai (usually used to mean "great" or "high-status" in the standard language) in the sense of "terrible," e.g. erai kotcha (< *koto ya), "it is a terrible/difficult thing/matter". The Standard equivalent would be taihen na koto da.

Another widely recognized Kansai-specific usage is of aho. Basically equivalent to the Standard baka "idiot, fool", aho is both a term of reproach and a term of endearment to the Kansai speaker. Baka, which is used as "idiot" in most regions, becomes "complete fool" and a stronger insult than aho. Where a Tokyo citizen would almost certainly object to being called baka, being called aho by a Kansai person is not necessarily much of an insult. Being called baka by a Kansai speaker is however a much more severe criticism than it would be by a Tokyo speaker. Most Kansai-ben speakers cannot stand being called baka but don't mind being called aho.

Well-known Kansai-ben vocabulary and phrases

Common words and phrases famous as part of the Kansai dialect include

Specific dialects

Since Kansai-ben is actually a group of related dialects, not all share the same vocabulary, pronunciation, or grammatical features. However, all have the characteristics described in the discussion of general differences above. Each dialect has its own specific features which are discussed individually here.

Osaka-ben

See also: :ja:大阪弁

A number of terms which are considered by most Japanese to be characteristic of Kansai-ben are actually restricted to Osaka and its environs, not actually used throughout the entire Kansai region. Perhaps the most famous is the term mōkarimakka?, roughly translated as "How's business?", and derived from the verb mōkaru (儲かる), "to be profitable, to yield a profit". This is supposedly said as a greeting from one Osakan to another, and the appropriate answer is another Osaka phrase, mā, bochi bochi denna "Well, so-so, y'know".

The idea behind mōkarimakka is that supposedly Osakans are all engaged in some sort of mercantile activity, since Osaka was historically the center of the merchant culture throughout the Edo era and earlier. Certainly the phrase developed among shopkeepers, and today can be used to greet a business proprietor in a friendly and familiar way, but it was probably never a universal greeting and certainly is not today. It can however be used in a joking manner with any Osakan, and will at least result in a smile and a few laughs, along with the mā, bochi bochi denna response.

The latter phrase is also specific to Osaka, in particular the term bochi bochi. This means essentially "so-so", i.e. getting better little by little or not getting any worse. Unlike mōkarimakka, bochi bochi is used in many situations to indicate gradual improvement or lack of negative change. For the foreigner used to the repetitive question "Can you really understand Japanese?", responding with bochi bochi ya nā is sure to astound and amuse listeners. Also, bochi bochi can be used in place of the Standard Japanese soro soro, for instance bochi bochi iko ka "It's about time to be going".

The southern Osaka-ben, Senshū-ben(泉州弁) and Kawachi-ben(河内弁), are famous for their harsh locution, especially Kawachi-ben is recognized as the acridist dialect in Kansai.

Kyoto-ben

See also: :ja:京言葉

Kyoto-ben is characterized by softness and an adherence to politeness and indirectness. The verb inflection -haru is an essential part of casual speech in Kyoto. In other parts of Kansai, -haru has a certain level of politeness above the base (informal) form of the verb, putting it somewhere between the informal and the more polite -masu conjugations. However, in Kyoto, its position is much closer to the informal than it is to the polite mood, perhaps owing to its widespread use. The Osaka phrase "Nani shiten nen?" equivalent to the standard, "Nani shiteru no?", would in Kyoto be said, "Nani shiteharu no?" (and sometimes "Nani shitaharu no?") using the -haru conjugation for an informal question.

In Kyoto-ben, the honorific suffix -san, which in Standard Japanese is reserved for people (and other animate objects in children's speech), can be used for well-known inanimate locations as well.

Kobe-ben

See also: :ja:神戸弁

Kobe-ben is a dialect of Kobe. Kōbe-ben is notable among Kansai dialects for conjugating the present progressive with the verb ending "-ton" or "-tō" for "-ing". For example, while the phrase "What are you doing?" in standard (and casual) Japanese would be "Nani shiteru no?" in Kōbe-ben it would be "Nani shiton?" or "Nani shitō?". Like Ōsaka-ben, Kōbe-ben uses the inflectional ねん ("nen") to add emphasis, such that "Nani ittendayo" ("What (the heck) are you saying?") of standard Japanese could become "Nani yuuton'nen" in Kōbe-ben.

Banshū-ben

See also: :ja:播州弁

Banshū-ben is a dialect of Banshū, which is west of Kobe. Banshū-ben is notorious for being an acrid dialect, similar to Kawachi-ben. For example, the famous Kansai-ben phrase nande ya nen becomes nandoi ya in Banshū. Such patterns sometimes sound violent to other Kansai-ben speakers. -tō, a sentence-ending particle in Kobe-ben, is also used in Banshū; in fact, -tō was originally a development of Banshū-ben.

Ise-ben

See also: :ja:伊勢弁

Ise-ben is a dialect of northern Mie Prefecture and also called "Mie-ben". It uses the normal kansai-ben intonation system (Keihanshiki accent) but the vocabulary is largely affected by southern Tokai dialects and especially Nagoya dialect. For example, Kansai-style copula ya and yanka are often used, but instead of mochiageru(to lift up something) for warm they have Nagoya-style tsuru. Similarity to Nagoya-ben becomes more pronounced in the northerly parts of the prefecture; the dialect of Kuwana (northern of Mie), for instance, could be considered far closer to Nagoya-ben than Ise-ben.

In and around the Ise city (midsouth of Mie), some variations on typical Kansai-ben vocabulary can be found, mostly used by older residents. For instance, the typical expression ōkini for "thank-you" is sometimes pronounced ōkina in Ise. Near the Isuzugawa River and Naikū shrine, some old men use the word otai in place of the first-person personal pronoun washi.

Wakayama-ben

See also: :ja:紀州弁

Wakayama-ben is a dialect of Wakayama Prefecture and also called "Kishū-ben". The most famous feature of Wakayama-ben is that the consonant sound z changes to d. For example, zenzen (at all) becomes denden and zōkin (dustcloth) becomes dōkin. This feature is especially used in Tanabe (southern of Wakayama) and its perimeter.

Another famous feature of the dialect is the negative verb ending -yan, which is used instead of Kansai-ben's standard -hen. For example, dekehen or dekihen in Osaka becomes dekiyan in Wakayama.

Shiga-ben

See also: :ja:近江弁

Shiga-ben is a dialect of Shiga Prefecture and is also called "Ōmi-ben" or "Gōshū-ben". Being that Shiga is the eastern neighbor of Kyoto, Shiga-ben is similar in many ways to Kyoto-ben. For example, Kyoto-ben's characteristic -haru is also commonly used in Shiga.

Of course, there are differences between Kyoto and Shiga. In Nagahama, people often use the friendly-sounding copula -yansu. For example, "Nani shite yansu n?" means "What are you doing?". In Hikone, the emphatic final particle hon can be heard. For example, "Ashita wa hareru hon" means, "Maybe tomorrow('s weather) will be fine".

See also

References

• Palter, DC and Slotsve, Kaoru Horiuchi (1995). Colloquial Kansai Japanese: The Dialects And Culture of the Kansai Region. Boston: Charles E. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 0-8048-3723-6.
• Tse, Peter (1993). Kansai Japanese: The language of Osaka, Kyoto, and western Japan. Boston: Charles E. Tuttle Publishing. ISBN 0-8048-1868-1.
• Shinji Sanada, Makiko Okamoto, Yoko Ujihara (2006). Kiite oboeru Kansai Ōsaka-ben nyūmon. Tokyo: Hituzi Syobo Publishing. ISBN 978-4894762961.
• Isamu Maeda (1965). Kamigata Gogen Jiten (The dictionary of etymology in Kamigata). Tokyo: Tokyodo Publishing.
• Takahashi, Hiroshi and Kyoko (1995). How to speak Osaka Dialect. Kobe: Taiseido Shobo Co. Ltd. ISBN 978-4-88463-076-9

External links

• The Kansai and Osaka dialects
• Kansai Japanese Guide - Kansai-ben teaching texts and videos made by Ritsumeikan University students)
• Kansai Dialect Self-study Site for Japanese Language Learner
• (Japanese) 日本語資料 ("Japanese resources") - Texts about Osaka dialect in the Edo Period
• (Japanese) Kyo-Kotoba (The Language of Kyoto)
• (Japanese) The National Association for the Promotion of the Osaka Dialect