Hichiku dialect

Hichiku Japanese
Native to	Japan
Region	western Kyūshū
Native speakers	(no estimate available)
Language family	Japonic Japanese Kyūshū Japanese Hichiku Japanese
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Linguist list	jpn-hic
Hichiku dialect area (orange)

The Hichiku dialect (肥筑方言 Hichiku hōgen) is a group of the Japanese dialects spoken in the western Kyushu. The name Hichiku (肥筑) is constructed by extracting a representative kanji from Hizen (肥前), Higo (肥後), Chikuzen (筑前) and Chikugo (筑後), names of old provinces in there.

The Hichiku dialect is:

• Hakata dialect (western Fukuoka Prefecture, formerly known as Chikuzen Province, especially Hakata district in Fukuoka)
• Chikugo dialect (southern Fukuoka Prefecture, formerly known as Chikugo Province)
  • Ōmuta dialect (Ōmuta)
  • Yanagawa dialect (Yanagawa)
• Chikuhō dialect (central Fukuoka Prefecture such as Iizuka)
• Saga dialect (Saga Prefecture)
  • Karatsu dialect (northern Saga Prefecture centerd Karatsu)
  • Tashiro dialect (easternmost Saga Prefecture centered Tashiro)
• Nagasaki dialect (Nagasaki Prefecture)
  • Sasebo dialect (northern Nagasaki Prefecture centered Sasebo)
  • Hirado dialect (Hirado Island, west of Nagasaki Prefecture)
• Kumamoto dialect (Kumamoto Prefecture)
• Hita dialect (Hita, southwestern Oita Prefecture)
• Iki dialect (Iki Island of Nagasaki Prefecture)
• Tsushima dialect (Tsushima Island of Nagasaki Prefecture)
• Gotō dialect (Gotō Islands of Nagasaki Prefecture)