JIC: Japan Infomation Communication

Japanese Kanji

The kanji is the Japanese version of the Chinese words.  Kanji was descended from Chine thousands years ago.  Now it varied for modern Japanese culture.  Therefore, Chinese people can understand most of Japanese kanji but they can't understand some. 

Before the introduction of Chinese characters, no Japanese writing system existed. When adopting the characters, the Japanese did not only introduce the characters' original Chinese pronunciations, but also associated them with the corresponding, native Japanese words and their pronunciations.

Between 5,000 and 10,000 Chinese characters, or kanji, are used in written Japanese. In 1981 in an effort to make it easier to read and write Japanese, the Japanese government introduced the jōyō kanji hyō (List of Chinese Characters for General Use), which includes 1,945 regular characters, plus 166 special characters used only for people's names. All government documents, newspapers, textbooks and other publications for non-specialists use only the these kanji. Writers of other material are free to use whatever kanji they want.

Japanese children are expected to know all of the jōyō kanji by the end of high school but to read specialist publications and ordinary literature, they need to know another two or three thousand kanji.　　Therefore there are many kanji that even adults don't know.  In nowadays TV shows which question different kanji are increased. 

The pictograms are typically much more complex than kana ( "kana" refers collectively to hiragana and katakana) and, furthermore, have different readings and meanings depending on how they're combined with other kanji. They represent ideas or words rather than syllables, although of course hiragana or katakana could be used to spell out the pronunciation. 

It's not uncommon to see a kanji with its reading spelled out in very small kana, written just above it. Kana used in this way, to show you how to pronounce a kanji, are known as "furigana".

Kanji are ideograms, i.e. each character has its own meaning and corresponds to a word. By combining characters, more words can be created. For example, the combination of "electricity" with "car" means "train". There are several ten thousands of characters, of which 2000 to 3000 are required to understand newspapers. A set of 1945 characters has been officially declared as the "kanji for everyday use".

Kanji are used for writing nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs. But unlike the Chinese language, Japanese cannot be written entirely in kanji. For grammatical endings and words without corresponding kanji, two additional, syllable based scripts are being used, hiragana and katakana, each consisting of 46 syllables.

Also, the same kanji can often be read in different ways. For example, the kanji sei(生) can be read as sei when in "sensei(先生)" (teacher), or as u in "umareta(生まれた)" (I was born), or nama in "nama biiru(生ビール)" (draft beer).

一 one ichi

二 two : ni

三 three : san

四 four : shi

五 five : go

六 six :roku

七 seven :shichi

八 eight : hachi

九 nine :kyu

十 ten : ju

山 mountain :yama

川 river : kawa

林 woods :ki

田 rice paddy : ta

空 sky :sora

雨 rain :ame

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese_kanji.htm

http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2046.html

http://www.kanjisite.com/html/wak/wak4.html

http://www.manythings.org/kanji/q/

http://www.neverland.to/kanji/

posted by Mami Furukawa

Japanese Dialect in Northeast

  The Japanese dialects spoken in the six prefectures (Aomori, Akita, Iwate, Miyagi, Yamagata and Fukushima) of Japan's Tohoku (Northeast) Region are collectively called the Tokoku-Ben (Tohoku Dialects).   Tohoku-ben dramatically differs from standard Japanese.  It is considered by some to be a slow and "clumsy" dialect with connotations of dawdling or idleness.

Every now and then, some people in the northeastern are interviewed by a TV program in Tokyo.  Though they speak at least Japanese, it has subtitiles, because it seems that people in Tokyo can't understand them. 

These sounds are pronounced the same; "e" and "i", "shi" and "su", "ji" and "zu," and "chi" and "chu." therefore, "Miso-shiru(miso soup)" is said "Miso-suru".

Grammatically, the Tohoku-Ben uses "sa" to mean the directional particle such as in "Tokyo sa iku" (go to Tokyo), "bee" to mean a will to do, such as in "Tokyo sa ikubee" (let's go to Tokyo). Lexically, it uses such unique Tohoku words as "beko" (cow or ox), "shigako" (ice).  "Ba" expresses an object putting after the object, such as "zasshi ba katta" (bought a magazine).  "De ne" is used instead of "ja nai" (means not ), such as "hima de ne" (don't have time).

The Tohoku dialects can be divided into two: the Northern Tohoku Dialects spoken in the areas including Aomori, Morioka, Akita and Sakata Cities; and the Southern Tohoku Dialects spoken in the area including Sendai, Yamagata, Aizu-Wakamatsu and Fukushima Cities. The Tsugaru-Ben among the northern dialects, the Satsuma-Ben and the Okinawa-Ben, are said to be the most difficult Japanese dialects.

The southern Tohoku dialects in addition have such features as: "shi," "su" and "shu" are pronounced the same: likewise with "ji," "zu" and "ju"; "chi," "chu," and "ju"; the regular Japanese high-low tonal accent is lacking; etc. The heroine in NHK's TV drama series "Oshin" in 1983, whose screen script was written by Sugako Hashida, probably spoke the combined northern and southern Tohoku-Ben acccents of Yamagata Pref. in her girlhood days, moving from Ginzan Spa down the Mogami River to Sakata City.

In reality, the Tohoku Region now consists of rich rice fields and orchards, and high-tech cities. Traditionally, however, it is considered a poor farmland, so that the poor farmers' words in the Japanese literature have always been told in the Tohoku-Ben and that the soutern accents of the Blacks in the American literature, in the Japanese-translated edition, always have appeared in the Tohoku dialects. Because of its sound, the Tohoku-Ben is also called "the Zuzu-Ben." The Zuzu-Ben is, however, spoken elsewhere in Japan, such as in the Izumo region of Shimane Pref., which became famous as it was described in Seicho Matsumoto's mystery, "Suna no Utsuwa" (1961).

In addition, all unvoiced stops become voiced intervocalically, rendering the pronunciation of the word "kato" (trained rabbit) as [kado]. However, unlike the high vowel neutralization, this does not result in new homophones, as all voiced stops are pre-nasalized, meaning that the word "kado" (corner) is roughly pronounced [kando].

http://www.threeweb.ad.jp/logos/japanese.html#dialect

http://www.japaneselifestyle.com.au/japanese_language/japanese_dialects.htm

http://www.stanford.edu/dept/linguistics/qp-fest/2005/abstracts/AbstractGreene.rtf

http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/publications/WPL/99papers/nasukawa.pdf

http://hougen.u-biq.org/sendaiben.html

posted by Mami Furukawa

Dialect of Kansai Region

Welcome to "Kansai dialect" world!!

Now, I will talk about one of the Japanese dialect called "Kansai dialect". It is used by kansai area including Oosaka, Kyoto, Nara and other prefecture. This is very different from Japanese standard language so I can say that it is like foreign language. I think you will be interested in it. I'm going to explain it dividing some categories, for example grammar, history, word, and more.

Right then, let's begin introduction of "Kansai dialect".

Particular explanation of "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 more "harsh" by speakers of the standard language.

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., with 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 more witty 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. 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 variations, and this 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. Others include Nara-ben, Wakayama-ben, Shiga-ben, Mie-ben, Banshu-ben and so on.

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. Thus chigau "to be different, wrong" becomes chau, yoku "well" becomes you, and omoshiroi "interesting, funny" becomes omoroi, to name a few more 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.

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 including the spoken Standard Japanese.

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^?) ending -ku to simply -u, yielding such forms as 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, and desu or dasu is used for the polite (keigo) copula. Dasu is used in Kansai-ben, not in Standard Japanese, and is sometimes shortened to da, confusingly the same as the Standard Japanese non-keigo copula.

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.

Phonological and morphological differences

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.

Oddly, in direct opposition to the shortening of long vowels in inflections, Kansai-ben shows a recurring tendency to lengthen vowels at the end of monomoraic nouns. Common examples are kii for ki "tree", and too for to "door".

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 suffices than in core vocabulary. This process has produced the Kansai -han for Standard -san, -mahen for -masen, and -mahyo for -mashō, among other examples. 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.

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 "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 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 -chau of Tokyo speech. Thus 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 -chatta: wasurechatta ("I forgot [it]") in Tokyo speech is wasuretemōta wasureteshimota in Kansai-ben.

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 softening or soft exclamatory particle which is used exclusively in feminine speech. 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 (noda > noya > neya >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 dame da. 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.

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 Tokyo-jin.

Some Japanese words gain entirely different meaning when used in Kansai-ben. Another widely recognized Kansai term is 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 phrases famous as Kansai dialect include:

• akan (あかん) or akimahen (あきまへん) - used in place of Standard dame and ikenai ; also a mild expletive akin to Standard shimatta
• aho (アホ) - silly, idiot, fool ; used affectionately
• donkusai (どんくさい) - stupid, clumsy, inefficient, lazy ; literally "stupid-smelling"
• honnara (ほんなら) or hona (ほな) - in that case, if that's true ; also used to indicate leaving as with Standard de wa or ja
• honma (ほんま) - true, real ; Standard: hontō (本当)
• metcha (めっちゃ) - very ; most of "metcha" user is young people ; Standard: totemo (とても)
• shibaku (しばく) - to beat somebody (with a hard, long object)
• ya (や) - copula, equivalent to Standard da
• yaru (やる) - to give ; in Standard Japanese only used when referring to giving to somebody well "under" the speaker, such as giving food to a dog
• nā (なぁ) - sentence final particle (equivalent to standard nē) ; meaning varies depending on context and voice inflection
• nande ya nen (なんでやねん) - "you gotta be kidding!" or "Why/What the hell?!" (it also can mean "what for" in a less formal way.)
• nen (ねん) - sentence final particle, equivalent to standard no da
• shindoi (しんどい) - tired, exhausted
• mōkarimakka (もうかりまっか) - archaic, but famous greeting which literally means "making any money?"
• bochi bochi denna (ぼちぼちでんな) - usual response to mōkarimakka which literally means an optimistic "so so"
• ōki ni (おおきに) - "thanks" (equivalent to arigatō) ; Arigatō is also used, but the pitch accent falls closer to the end of the word than in Standard Japanese.
• makudo (マクド) - Mickey D's; abbreviation of "Makudonarudo" (McDonald's' Japanese pronunciation), almost all non-Kansai Japanese refer to McDonald's as, "makku" (Mac).
• shōmonai (しょうもない) - dull, unimportant, uninteresting
• shānai (しゃあない) - san fairy ann ; Standard: Shōganai (しょうがない)
• kettai (けったい) - strange
• egetsunai (えげつない) - wicked, vicious, obnoxious
• gyōsan (ぎょうさん) or yōke (ようけ) - a lot of ; Standard: takusan (沢山)
• hannari (はんなり) - elegant, splendor
• nambo (なんぼ) - how much, no matter how ; Standard: ikura (幾ら)
• maido (まいど) - commercial greeting ; original meaning is "thank you for your continued patronage"
• gotsui (ごつい) - whoppong ; abbereviation form gottsu (ごっつ) means "very" (a bit rough)
• ee (ええ) - good, proper, all right ; Standard: yoi (よい) or ii (いい)
• uchi (うち) - the first-person of girls
• wate (わて) - the first-person (archaic)
• wai (わい) - the first person of men (archaic)
• yan (やん) - copula, equivalent to Standard jan (じゃん)
• sakai (さかい) - because, equivalent to Standard kara (から) or node (ので) ; somewhat archaic
• waya (わや) - going for nothing, fruitless

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

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 word denna is a contraction of desu na. The Tokyo contraction would be more likely ssu ne.)

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".

Another Osaka-specific term is gottsui which can be equivalent to the Standard totemo as well as the adjective ookii. Used for emphasis, this has slowly been replaced by mutcha or metcha which is more widespread throughout the Kansai area, but is still used conversationally in the Osaka region. The final -i can be dropped as with adjectives. Used by a speaker who habitually uses metcha or mutcha, this term implies a greater emphasis. It can also be used alone to mean a large size, as in gottsui ki "huge tree".

Kyoto-ben

Kyoto-ben (京都弁) is characterized by its reliance on politeness and indirectness. The -haru conjugation of verbs, considered keigo throughout the rest of the Kansai region, is an essential form in casual speech in Kyoto. As in other parts of Kansai, -haru has a certain level of politeness above the base or informal form of the verb, and it falls somewhere between the informal and the -masu conjugations. However in Kyoto its position is much closer to the informal than it is to the polite, due to its widespread use. The Osaka phrase "Nani shiten nen?", equivalent to the standard "Nani shite iru no?", would in Kyoto be said "Nani shiteharu no?" (and sometimes "Nani shitaharu no?") using the -haru conjugation for an informal question.

The verb conjugation suffix -nahare can be used in place of the standard construction -nasai to indicate a request, compare to standard Japanese "-nasare" (archaic).

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.

The negative verb endings -hen found throughout the Kansai region are pronounced -hin in Kyoto when the previous consonant of -hen is "i".

Kobe-ben

Kobe-ben (神戸弁) is the dialect of Kobe. It is quite similar to Osaka-ben.

A feature different from other Kansai dialect is that "-te(i)ru" or "-shite(i)ru" ("be -ing" in English) change "-tou" or "-shitou". For example, "ame ga futteiru" ("It is raining.") becomes "ame ga futtou".

Ise-ben

Ise-ben is a dialect of Mie Prefecture. It uses the normal kansai-ben intonation system (keihanshiki accent) but the vocabulary is largely affected by southern Tokai dialects and also the dialects of Nagoya. For example, Kansai-style sentence final particle "na" or "ni" are often used, but instead of "attakai" for warm they have Nagoya-style "nukutai" or "nukutoi". Similarity to Nagoya-ben becomes more pronounced in the northerly parts of the prefecture; the dialect of Kuwana, for instance, could be considered far closer to Nagoya-ben than Ise-ben. In and around the city of Ise itself, 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."

Japanese Grammar Forum

If you don’t know what other Japanese dialects are like, it’s hard to understand why people say that it isn’t such a good idea to study other than standard Japanese. I’m here to list several differences between the Kansai dialect and standard Japanese, and to show you guys why it might confuse you.

Pitch Accent
Pitch Accent differs almost entirely in the Kansai dialect and standard Japanese.  Since there aren’t many grammatical differences between the two, this is what makes the dialect distinctive.

(● for HIGH)
　　　　　KANSAI　　　　　　　　　　　　               STANDARD
あめ　雨　○●　雨は　○●○　　　　　　　       あめ　雨　●○　雨は　●○○　
あめ　飴　●●　飴は　●●●　　　　　　　       あめ　飴　○●　飴は　○●●
はし　箸　○●　箸が　○●○　　　　　　　       はし　箸　●○　箸が　●○○
はし　端　●●　端に　●●●　　　　　　　       はし　端　●○　端に　●○○
はし　橋　●○　橋が　●○○　　　　　　　       はし　橋　○●　橋が　○●○
なに　何　○●　何が　○○●　　　　　　　       なに　何　●○　何が　●○○

名前（なまえ）●●●　名前は　●●●●　　 名前（なまえ）○●●　名前は　○●●●
言葉（ことば）●●○　言葉は　●●○○　　  言葉（ことば）○●●　言葉は　○●●○
頭（あたま）●○○　頭が　●○○○　　　　    頭（あたま）○●○　頭が　○●○○
後ろ（うしろ）○●○　後ろは　○●○○　　    後ろ（うしろ）●○○　後ろは　●○○○
兎（うさぎ）○○●　兎が　○○●●　　　　     兎（うさぎ）○●●　兎が ○●●●

パソコン　○○○●　　　　　　　　　　　　          パソコン　○●●●
アメリカ　●●●●　　　　　　　　　　　　           アメリカ　○●●●
カナダ　　○●○　　　　　　　　　　　　　           カナダ　　●○○
カナダじん　○○●○○　　　　　　　　 　　      カナダじん　○●●○○
神戸（こうべ）　●○○　　　　　　　　　　          神戸（こうべ）　●○○
神戸市（こうべし）　●●●○　　　　　　　       神戸市（こうべし）　○●●○　

おはようございます　○○○○●●●●●　   おはようございます　○●●●●●●●○
あいうえお　かきくけこ　　　　　　　　　　            あいうえお　かきくけこ
●●○●○　●●○●○　　　　　　　　　　       ●●●●○　●●●●○
いまなんじぃ？　○●○●○▼　　　　　　　      いまなんじ？　●○●○●？
見てみい　○○●○　　　　　　　　　　　　         見てみろ　　　●○●○
見てみぃ　○●○○　（連用形命令文）　　　   見てごらん　　●○○●●


The patterns of the ウ euphonic change for verbs and adjectives.
The patterns for verbs and adjectives are the same in the Kansai dialect.

        VERB                                         Adjective
1.     a + u ⇒ o +u                            a + i ⇒ o + u
Kansai    買う (kau) ⇒ こうた (kouta)　　    高い (takai) ⇒ たこうなる (takou naru)
Standard 買う (kau) ⇒ 買った (katta)    　高い (takai) ⇒ 高くなる (takaku naru)   　

2. i + u ⇒ yu + u                                    i + i ⇒ yu + u
Kansai    言う (iu)  ⇒ ゆうた (yuuta)       欲しい (hoshii) ⇒ 欲しゅうなる (hoshyuu naru)
Standard 言う (iu)  ⇒ 言った (itta)       　 欲しい (hoshii) ⇒ 欲しくなる (hoshiku naru)

3.    u + u ⇒ u + u                           u + i ⇒ u + u
Kansai   食う (kuu) ⇒ くうた (kuuta)        寒い (samui) ⇒ 寒うなる (samuu naru)
Standard 食う (kuu) ⇒ 食った (kutta)     寒い (samui) ⇒ 寒くなる (samuku naru)

4. o + u ⇒ o + u                                    o + i ⇒ o + u
Kansai  追う (ou) ⇒ 追うた (outa)           遅い (osoi) ⇒ 遅うなる (osou naru)
Standard 追う (ou) ⇒ 追った (otta)        遅い (osoi) ⇒ 遅くなる (osoku naru)
------------------------------------------------

Grammatical differences
Probably, the biggest difference between the two is the way to negate verbs.  Traditionally, the dialects in western Japan (including Nagoya dialect and Okinawa dialect) use the ん auxiliary to negate verbs, whereas the ない auxiliary in eastern Japan.

Negating verbs with the ん and へん auxiliary　
The ん attaches always to the 未然形 of any verbs, whereas the へん to the 未然形 of the 五段活用verbs and to the 連用形 of other types of verbs.
Also when the へん follows the vowel i, it becomes ひん.　

　　　　　　Kansai　　　　                     　　　　　　　　　　　Standard
　　　　　   ん　　　　　      へん　　　　　　　　　　　　　           ない　
読む　　　 読まん　　　   読まへん　　　　　　　　　　　     読まない　　　
書く　　　  書かん　　　   書かへん　　　　　　　　　　　    書かない　
見る　　　 見ん　　　　    見ぃひん　　　    　　　　　　      見ない　
食べる　　食べん　　　  食べへん　　　　　　　　　　　     食べない　
する　　　  せん　　　　   しぃひん or しやへん　　　　　 しない
来る　　　 来ん（こん）　 きぃひん or けぇへん　　　　   こない

The ん auxiliary came directly from the ぬ auxiliary, whereas the へん auxiliary from 「は ～ せぬ」.
For instance, 読まぬbecame 読まん, and 読みはせぬ became 読まへん. 
Strictly speaking, the ん auxiliary is for absolute negation, while the へん for not so much, but the distinction has been vague over the last 50 years or so, except for the よう～ん construction.

Two ways to express ‘impossible to do something’.
1. Negating the potential form with the ん or へん auxiliary.
This is used when you are unable to do something because of circumstantial factors.
For instance,
（電気が暗ぁて）読めへんわ。 I can’t read (because the light is too dark).
（まだ問題見てへんから）答えられへんわ。 I can’t answer that (because I haven’t read the question yet).

2. The よう adverb + verb + ん
よう～ん, the remnant of Classic Japanese 得(え)～ず, is used when you cannot do something because of the lack of ability or willingness.
For instance,
そんな難しい字、よう読まんわ。　I can’t read such a difficult word.
そんなんよう答えんわ。　　I cannot answer that (because I don’t feel like, or I don’t have the ability).

Grammatically, you cannot use へん with よう, so よう読まへん is a misuse.
-------------------------------------------------
The degree of the imperative form
Strongest    　  Very Strong        　Little bit Strong      　  Weak      　 　Very Weak
命令形　　　　　      命令形+や　　　　　     連用形+や　　　　　　　    連用形命令　　　   連用形+やぁ
言え！　●○　　   言えや　●○○　　　    言いや　　●●○　　　　  言い　●●　  　  言いやぁ　●●●●
食べぇ！　○●　　食べや　○●○　　      食べぇや　○●●○　　　食べ　○●　　    食べやぁ　○○●●
待てぇ！　○●　　 待てや　○●○　　     待ちぃや　○●●○　　　 待ち　○●　　　  待ちやぁ　○○●●
寝え！　●○　　   寝えや　●○○　　　   寝えや　　●●○　　　　   寝ぇ　●●　　　  寝えやぁ　●●●●
来い！　●○　　   来いや　●○○　　　   きいや　　●●○　　　　   きぃ　●●　　　   きいやぁ　●●●●
せえ！　●○　　   せえや　●○○　　　   しいや　　●●○　　　　   しぃ　●●　　　    しいやぁ　●●●●　

The Standard Japanese VS the Kansai dialect

The Japanese taught as a foreign language is what we call “Standard Japanese.” Descriptively speaking, the Standard Japanese is the variety used in the Tokyo area. The original ‘Standard Japanese” was in large part the product of political considerations during the last half of the Meiji era (1868 -1912) under the Genbun itchi (the unification of the spoken and written language) movement, a movement dedicated to present a united face to the world so that Japan would be perceived as a civilized nation. Standard Japanese, based on the dialect of Tokyo Yamanote area, has personified prestige and power since the Meiji government adopted it as the national language and began standardizing language education in schools. Although the situation has not been the same since WWII, Standard Japanese is still used as the representative Japanese language on public occasions.

However, this does not mean that the regional dialects have disappeared. Japan is a small island country, yet people from different regions of the country speak differently even nowadays. Differences among dialects can be found in phonetic (sounds), accentual, lexical (words), morphological (word formation), or morpho-syntactic (word conjugation in sentences) properties or any combination of them. The Kansai dialect in Japan is considered to be a “powerful” dialect historically and culturally, spoken by dozens of millions of people who live or used to live in the Kansai area, including major cities such as Osaka and Kyoto. In fact, the modern Kansai dialect has inherited and still holds many characteristics of classical Japanese, which is the origin of the modern Kansai dialect and was the most powerful language when Kyoto and Nara were at their respective times the seat of Japan’s early capitals and the center of Japanese politics, economy and culture. Tokyo dialect was integrated as a result of a change from the ancient Kansai dialect and gradually became powerful as the political power in the Edo (Tokyo) increased.

The Kansai dialect is thought to symbolize the strong local identity of the people within the Kansai domestic culture. They tend to think of their dialect as the “opposite” of the standard Japanese, rather than merely one of the regional dialects in Japan. They are proud to be of the Kansai people, and of the Kansai local culture. If you go to bookstores in Japan, you will be surprised to find so many books deal with the topic of Kansai – Tokyo rivalry. The Kansai people seem to prefer local midnight TV shows in which the Kansai dialect is spoken to other nationwide night shows. As a matter of fact, the Kansai dialect cannot be separated from the local identity of the Kansai people. The dialect is irreplaceable in some cases because of the strong connection to its culture. For instance, the Kansai comedians retain and even take advantage of the accent to express a sense of humor originating in the Kansai identity and its culture. Even if it is the same joke, we could never laugh if it was said in Standard Japanese!

As you know, all language experiences some changes as time goes by, and so has Kansai dialect. The Kansai dialect nowadays is different from what it used to be a decade ago. Young people nowadays tend to use what is called “neo-dialect” (the dialect affected by the Standard Japanese). However, it still belongs to the Kansai dialect as long as it retains the typical Kansai intonation pattern.

It is also true that some Kansai dialect speakers acquire Standard Japanese through public education (usually through written materials), through media, through employee training in corporations, during migration, from friends who speak the Standard, or by themselves out of necessity. However, this does not mean they stop using the dialect. They become “bidialectals,” having the Kansai dialect as a “we code,” or as a code which represents their local identity.

Therefore, if you live in or visit the Kansai area and want to belong to the Kansai people, you should try to greet them in their own language - - i.e. to use their “we code.”

This time, I introduced "Kansai dialect". Can you understand it a little? I hope you will have interest by reading my Blog. I think perhaps it is good Idea that you are going to examine it. I feel this dialect and many other Japanese dialect are important part of Japanese culture because there are peculiar culture to each area which has own dialect.

Hyper Links

http://www.answers.com/topic/kansai-dialect

http://www2g.biglobe.ne.jp/~gomma/ajiten.html

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2231

http://llarc.mit.edu/kansai/1.Characteristics/Standardvskansai.html

http://compsoc.net/~gemini/kansai_ben/study.html

Okinawa dialect

Okinawa is located at the southernmost edge of the Japanese archipelago and the influence of the mainland culture from China is quite strong. The area used to be called the Ryuukyuu Islands (Ryukyu 琉球諸島) until the establishment of Okinawa prefecture in 1879. With its many idyllic islands and balmy climate it is now a favorite holiday resort area.
Okinawa is special for geography and culture, and it is remote from mainland. Therefore, the words which spreadd once didn't change and remained different from mainland. So, in Okinawa dialect, Japanese ancient words is included. I'll introduce some Okinawa dialect.

Greeting

• Haisai...Hi!
• Haitai...Hello!
• chagannzyu...How are you?
• wassaibi-n...sorry
• ukimiso-chi-...good morning
• guburi-sabira...good bye
• yukuimiso-re-...good night
• menso-re...welcome
• nife-de-biru...thank you

Food

• mu-chi-...rice cake
• na-be-ra-...sponge cucumber
• suba...buckwheat
• munu...rice
• ma-san...delicious
• shitimitimun...breakfast
• asaban...lunch
• yu-bann...dinner
• ma-su...salt
• sa-ta-...suger
• naimun...furuit
• ti-ti-...milk

Family

• duzi...wife
• mu-ku...husband
• waraba-...child
• nmaguwa...grandchild
• chakusi...son
• annma-...mother

Character

• ga-tyu-...stubbornness
• yunnta-ku...talkative
• hazikasan...ashamed
• ussan...happy
• hatarachu...bee
• huyu-sa-...idler
• tanncha-...passionate
• ganmari...mischief

http://www.uchinajoho.com/okinawa/okinawabunka/hougen/janle/seikaku.html

http://www.mugisha.net/hougenhusigi.html

http://www.mugisha.net/hougen.html

http://www.amie.or.jp/daruma/Okinawa.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maynard/104125797/

posted by Emi Hiruma

Introduction of Japanese 'kana'

Introduction of Japanese

Before Japanese adopted Chinese characters, called ‘Kanji’, Japanese had their own language, although they did not have a written language then. Ancient Japanese started to use Chinese characters as a mean for writing down Japanese pronunciation. Hence Chinese characters were adopted as phonetic signs, which is the origin of ‘kana’s (Japanese alphabets) of Japanese now. Since endless series of phonetic signs (‘kana’s) is hard to read even with punctuation marks, Chinese characters are mixed (retaining their own meanings) with the ‘kana’s in present-day Japanese. Note that it does not mean that the meaning of a Chinese character in Japanese is the same as that in China. Japanese writing is either from left to right or from top to bottom. Old writing sometimes show going from right to left.  Ex)あ(a)←安

Japanese Alphabets ‘kana’

     There are two types of ‘kana’s: ‘hiragana’ and ‘katakana’.

hiragana Hiragana are one of the two Japanese scripts based on sound. The earliest written form of Japanese was phonetic, but based on kanji used for their pronunciation rather than meaning. This system is known as man'yōgana. Kana characters were invented as a simplification of this complicated system. Each katakana and hiragana character is a simplification of a man'yōgana kanji.The hiragana were based on a highly stylized form of the character using sōsho calligraphy. Katakana (片仮名, fragment or partial kana), were based on parts of the kanji.

Katakana  In modern Japanese, katakana are most often used for transcription of words from foreign languages (gairaigo). For example, "television" is written terebi (テレビ). Similarly, katakana is usually used for country names and foreign place and personal names. For example America is written アメリカ Amerika and John is written ジョーン (Jōn). Katakana are also often used for transcription of Japanese company names. For example Suzuki is written スズキ,and Mitsubishi is written ミツビシ, Katakana are also used for emphasis, especially on signs, advertisements, and hoardings. For example, it is common to see ゴミ gomi (trash) or メガネ megane (glasses), and words to be emphasized in a sentence are also sometimes written in katakana.

http://www.syogei.com/hiroba/kana.htm

http://www2s.biglobe.ne.jp/~DGP/gjk-02.html

http://www.informe.co.jp/useful/character/character5.html

http://www.sljfaq.org/w/Historical_kana_usage

http://www.kek.jp/RSO/guide/cultural/Intro_japa_L.html

                                                                                                                             Posted by Rie CHIBA

Dialect of Kansai region

Welcome to Kansai's dialect world!!

Now then, I would like to show you about "DIALECT OF KANSAI REGION" in Japan. It is not too much to say that  this dialect is far different from the standard language in Japan. It also can say the dialect is another Japanese language. I even don't know particular content of it so I think it should examine this deeply as Japanese people.

Right then let's talk about Kansai's dialect.

Japanese Grammar Forum

If you don’t know what other Japanese dialects are like, it’s hard to understand why people say that it isn’t such a good idea to study other than standard Japanese. I’m here to list several differences between the Kansai dialect and standard Japanese, and to show you guys why it might confuse you.

Pitch Accent
Pitch Accent differs almost entirely in the Kansai dialect and standard Japanese.  Since there aren’t many grammatical differences between the two, this is what makes the dialect distinctive.

(● for HIGH)
　　　　　KANSAI　　　　　　　　　　　　               STANDARD
あめ　雨　○●　雨は　○●○　　　　　　　       あめ　雨　●○　雨は　●○○　
あめ　飴　●●　飴は　●●●　　　　　　　       あめ　飴　○●　飴は　○●●
はし　箸　○●　箸が　○●○　　　　　　　       はし　箸　●○　箸が　●○○
はし　端　●●　端に　●●●　　　　　　　       はし　端　●○　端に　●○○
はし　橋　●○　橋が　●○○　　　　　　　       はし　橋　○●　橋が　○●○
なに　何　○●　何が　○○●　　　　　　　       なに　何　●○　何が　●○○

名前（なまえ）●●●　名前は　●●●●　　 名前（なまえ）○●●　名前は　○●●●
言葉（ことば）●●○　言葉は　●●○○　　  言葉（ことば）○●●　言葉は　○●●○
頭（あたま）●○○　頭が　●○○○　　　　    頭（あたま）○●○　頭が　○●○○
後ろ（うしろ）○●○　後ろは　○●○○　　    後ろ（うしろ）●○○　後ろは　●○○○
兎（うさぎ）○○●　兎が　○○●●　　　　     兎（うさぎ）○●●　兎が ○●●●

パソコン　○○○●　　　　　　　　　　　　          パソコン　○●●●
アメリカ　●●●●　　　　　　　　　　　　           アメリカ　○●●●
カナダ　　○●○　　　　　　　　　　　　　           カナダ　　●○○
カナダじん　○○●○○　　　　　　　　 　　      カナダじん　○●●○○
神戸（こうべ）　●○○　　　　　　　　　　          神戸（こうべ）　●○○
神戸市（こうべし）　●●●○　　　　　　　       神戸市（こうべし）　○●●○　

おはようございます　○○○○●●●●●　   おはようございます　○●●●●●●●○
あいうえお　かきくけこ　　　　　　　　　　            あいうえお　かきくけこ
●●○●○　●●○●○　　　　　　　　　　       ●●●●○　●●●●○
いまなんじぃ？　○●○●○▼　　　　　　　      いまなんじ？　●○●○●？
見てみい　○○●○　　　　　　　　　　　　         見てみろ　　　●○●○
見てみぃ　○●○○　（連用形命令文）　　　   見てごらん　　●○○●●


The patterns of the ウ euphonic change for verbs and adjectives.
The patterns for verbs and adjectives are the same in the Kansai dialect.

        VERB                                         Adjective
1.     a + u ⇒ o +u                            a + i ⇒ o + u
Kansai    買う (kau) ⇒ こうた (kouta)　　    高い (takai) ⇒ たこうなる (takou naru)
Standard 買う (kau) ⇒ 買った (katta)    　高い (takai) ⇒ 高くなる (takaku naru)   　

2. i + u ⇒ yu + u                                    i + i ⇒ yu + u
Kansai    言う (iu)  ⇒ ゆうた (yuuta)       欲しい (hoshii) ⇒ 欲しゅうなる (hoshyuu naru)
Standard 言う (iu)  ⇒ 言った (itta)       　 欲しい (hoshii) ⇒ 欲しくなる (hoshiku naru)

3.    u + u ⇒ u + u                           u + i ⇒ u + u
Kansai   食う (kuu) ⇒ くうた (kuuta)        寒い (samui) ⇒ 寒うなる (samuu naru)
Standard 食う (kuu) ⇒ 食った (kutta)     寒い (samui) ⇒ 寒くなる (samuku naru)

4. o + u ⇒ o + u                                    o + i ⇒ o + u
Kansai  追う (ou) ⇒ 追うた (outa)           遅い (osoi) ⇒ 遅うなる (osou naru)
Standard 追う (ou) ⇒ 追った (otta)        遅い (osoi) ⇒ 遅くなる (osoku naru)
------------------------------------------------

Grammatical differences
Probably, the biggest difference between the two is the way to negate verbs.  Traditionally, the dialects in western Japan (including Nagoya dialect and Okinawa dialect) use the ん auxiliary to negate verbs, whereas the ない auxiliary in eastern Japan.

Negating verbs with the ん and へん auxiliary　
The ん attaches always to the 未然形 of any verbs, whereas the へん to the 未然形 of the 五段活用verbs and to the 連用形 of other types of verbs.
Also when the へん follows the vowel i, it becomes ひん.　

　　　　　　Kansai　　　　                     　　　　　　　　　　　Standard
　　　　　   ん　　　　　      へん　　　　　　　　　　　　　           ない　
読む　　　 読まん　　　   読まへん　　　　　　　　　　　     読まない　　　
書く　　　  書かん　　　   書かへん　　　　　　　　　　　    書かない　
見る　　　 見ん　　　　    見ぃひん　　　    　　　　　　      見ない　
食べる　　食べん　　　  食べへん　　　　　　　　　　　     食べない　
する　　　  せん　　　　   しぃひん or しやへん　　　　　 しない
来る　　　 来ん（こん）　 きぃひん or けぇへん　　　　   こない

The ん auxiliary came directly from the ぬ auxiliary, whereas the へん auxiliary from 「は ～ せぬ」.
For instance, 読まぬbecame 読まん, and 読みはせぬ became 読まへん. 
Strictly speaking, the ん auxiliary is for absolute negation, while the へん for not so much, but the distinction has been vague over the last 50 years or so, except for the よう～ん construction.

Two ways to express ‘impossible to do something’.
1. Negating the potential form with the ん or へん auxiliary.
This is used when you are unable to do something because of circumstantial factors.
For instance,
（電気が暗ぁて）読めへんわ。 I can’t read (because the light is too dark).
（まだ問題見てへんから）答えられへんわ。 I can’t answer that (because I haven’t read the question yet).

2. The よう adverb + verb + ん
よう～ん, the remnant of Classic Japanese 得(え)～ず, is used when you cannot do something because of the lack of ability or willingness.
For instance,
そんな難しい字、よう読まんわ。　I can’t read such a difficult word.
そんなんよう答えんわ。　　I cannot answer that (because I don’t feel like, or I don’t have the ability).

Grammatically, you cannot use へん with よう, so よう読まへん is a misuse.
-------------------------------------------------
The degree of the imperative form
Strongest    　  Very Strong        　Little bit Strong      　  Weak      　 　Very Weak
命令形　　　　　      命令形+や　　　　　     連用形+や　　　　　　　    連用形命令　　　   連用形+やぁ
言え！　●○　　   言えや　●○○　　　    言いや　　●●○　　　　  言い　●●　  　  言いやぁ　●●●●
食べぇ！　○●　　食べや　○●○　　      食べぇや　○●●○　　　食べ　○●　　    食べやぁ　○○●●
待てぇ！　○●　　 待てや　○●○　　     待ちぃや　○●●○　　　 待ち　○●　　　  待ちやぁ　○○●●
寝え！　●○　　   寝えや　●○○　　　   寝えや　　●●○　　　　   寝ぇ　●●　　　  寝えやぁ　●●●●
来い！　●○　　   来いや　●○○　　　   きいや　　●●○　　　　   きぃ　●●　　　   きいやぁ　●●●●
せえ！　●○　　   せえや　●○○　　　   しいや　　●●○　　　　   しぃ　●●　　　    しいやぁ　●●●●　

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 more "harsh" by speakers of the standard language.^[1]

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., with 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.^{[citation needed]}

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 more witty than the average Tokyo-jin. Tokyo people even occasionally imitate Kansai-ben to provoke laughter or inject humor into a situation.^{[citation needed]}

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. 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 variations, and this 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. Others include Nara-ben, Wakayama-ben, Shiga-ben, Mie-ben, Banshu-ben and so on.

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. Thus chigau "to be different, wrong" becomes chau, yoku "well" becomes you, and omoshiroi "interesting, funny" becomes omoroi, to name a few more 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.

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 including the spoken Standard Japanese.

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^?) ending -ku to simply -u, yielding such forms as 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, and desu or dasu is used for the polite (keigo) copula. Dasu is used in Kansai-ben, not in Standard Japanese, and is sometimes shortened to da, confusingly the same as the Standard Japanese non-keigo copula.

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.

Phonological and morphological differences

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.

Oddly, in direct opposition to the shortening of long vowels in inflections, Kansai-ben shows a recurring tendency to lengthen vowels at the end of monomoraic nouns. Common examples are kii for ki "tree", and too for to "door".

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 suffices than in core vocabulary. This process has produced the Kansai -han for Standard -san, -mahen for -masen, and -mahyo for -mashō, among other examples. 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.

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 "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 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 -chau of Tokyo speech. Thus 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 -chatta: wasurechatta ("I forgot [it]") in Tokyo speech is wasuretemōta wasureteshimota in Kansai-ben.

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 softening or soft exclamatory particle which is used exclusively in feminine speech. 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 (noda > noya > neya >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 dame da. 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.

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 Tokyo-jin.

Some Japanese words gain entirely different meaning when used in Kansai-ben. Another widely recognized Kansai term is 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 phrases famous as Kansai dialect include:

• akan (あかん) or akimahen (あきまへん) - used in place of Standard dame and ikenai ; also a mild expletive akin to Standard shimatta
• aho (アホ) - silly, idiot, fool ; used affectionately
• donkusai (どんくさい) - stupid, clumsy, inefficient, lazy ; literally "stupid-smelling"
• honnara (ほんなら) or hona (ほな) - in that case, if that's true ; also used to indicate leaving as with Standard de wa or ja
• honma (ほんま) - true, real ; Standard: hontō (本当)
• metcha (めっちゃ) - very ; most of "metcha" user is young people ; Standard: totemo (とても)
• shibaku (しばく) - to beat somebody (with a hard, long object)
• ya (や) - copula, equivalent to Standard da
• yaru (やる) - to give ; in Standard Japanese only used when referring to giving to somebody well "under" the speaker, such as giving food to a dog
• nā (なぁ) - sentence final particle (equivalent to standard nē) ; meaning varies depending on context and voice inflection
• nande ya nen (なんでやねん) - "you gotta be kidding!" or "Why/What the hell?!" (it also can mean "what for" in a less formal way.)
• nen (ねん) - sentence final particle, equivalent to standard no da
• shindoi (しんどい) - tired, exhausted
• mōkarimakka (もうかりまっか) - archaic, but famous greeting which literally means "making any money?"
• bochi bochi denna (ぼちぼちでんな) - usual response to mōkarimakka which literally means an optimistic "so so"
• ōki ni (おおきに) - "thanks" (equivalent to arigatō) ; Arigatō is also used, but the pitch accent falls closer to the end of the word than in Standard Japanese.
• makudo (マクド) - Mickey D's; abbreviation of "Makudonarudo" (McDonald's' Japanese pronunciation), almost all non-Kansai Japanese refer to McDonald's as, "makku" (Mac).
• shōmonai (しょうもない) - dull, unimportant, uninteresting
• shānai (しゃあない) - san fairy ann ; Standard: Shōganai (しょうがない)
• kettai (けったい) - strange
• egetsunai (えげつない) - wicked, vicious, obnoxious
• gyōsan (ぎょうさん) or yōke (ようけ) - a lot of ; Standard: takusan (沢山)
• hannari (はんなり) - elegant, splendor
• nambo (なんぼ) - how much, no matter how ; Standard: ikura (幾ら)
• maido (まいど) - commercial greeting ; original meaning is "thank you for your continued patronage"
• gotsui (ごつい) - whoppong ; abbereviation form gottsu (ごっつ) means "very" (a bit rough)
• ee (ええ) - good, proper, all right ; Standard: yoi (よい) or ii (いい)
• uchi (うち) - the first-person of girls
• wate (わて) - the first-person (archaic)
• wai (わい) - the first person of men (archaic)
• yan (やん) - copula, equivalent to Standard jan (じゃん)
• sakai (さかい) - because, equivalent to Standard kara (から) or node (ので) ; somewhat archaic
• waya (わや) - going for nothing, fruitless

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

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 word denna is a contraction of desu na. The Tokyo contraction would be more likely ssu ne.)

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".

Another Osaka-specific term is gottsui which can be equivalent to the Standard totemo as well as the adjective ookii. Used for emphasis, this has slowly been replaced by mutcha or metcha which is more widespread throughout the Kansai area, but is still used conversationally in the Osaka region. The final -i can be dropped as with adjectives. Used by a speaker who habitually uses metcha or mutcha, this term implies a greater emphasis. It can also be used alone to mean a large size, as in gottsui ki "huge tree".

Kyoto-ben

Kyoto-ben (京都弁) is characterized by its reliance on politeness and indirectness. The -haru conjugation of verbs, considered keigo throughout the rest of the Kansai region, is an essential form in casual speech in Kyoto. As in other parts of Kansai, -haru has a certain level of politeness above the base or informal form of the verb, and it falls somewhere between the informal and the -masu conjugations. However in Kyoto its position is much closer to the informal than it is to the polite, due to its widespread use. The Osaka phrase "Nani shiten nen?", equivalent to the standard "Nani shite iru no?", would in Kyoto be said "Nani shiteharu no?" (and sometimes "Nani shitaharu no?") using the -haru conjugation for an informal question.

The verb conjugation suffix -nahare can be used in place of the standard construction -nasai to indicate a request, compare to standard Japanese "-nasare" (archaic).

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.

The negative verb endings -hen found throughout the Kansai region are pronounced -hin in Kyoto when the previous consonant of -hen is "i".

Kobe-ben

Kobe-ben (神戸弁) is the dialect of Kobe. It is quite similar to Osaka-ben.

A feature different from other Kansai dialect is that "-te(i)ru" or "-shite(i)ru" ("be -ing" in English) change "-tou" or "-shitou". For example, "ame ga futteiru" ("It is raining.") becomes "ame ga futtou".

Ise-ben

Ise-ben is a dialect of Mie Prefecture. It uses the normal kansai-ben intonation system (keihanshiki accent) but the vocabulary is largely affected by southern Tokai dialects and also the dialects of Nagoya. For example, Kansai-style sentence final particle "na" or "ni" are often used, but instead of "attakai" for warm they have Nagoya-style "nukutai" or "nukutoi". Similarity to Nagoya-ben becomes more pronounced in the northerly parts of the prefecture; the dialect of Kuwana, for instance, could be considered far closer to Nagoya-ben than Ise-ben. In and around the city of Ise itself, 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."

HYPER LINKS

http://www2g.biglobe.ne.jp/~gomma/ajiten.html

http://www.guidetojapanese.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=2231

Japanese proverb

Japanese proverbs are said "KOTOWAZA" in Japanese, which means a well-known phrase or sentence that gives advice or says something that is generally true.(from dictionary)  Many proverbs are from classical references from ancient Chinese to modern versions of English proverbs, all used in every aspect of the language.  proverbs seems to be usually used in daily life everywhere.  Almost all proverbs refer the obscure phrases that you can't relate the proverb to the true meaning, and they refer the morals and advices.

I put some examples here.

Inu mo arukeba bo ni ataru (犬も歩けば棒にあたる）・・・It directly means if a dog walk, sometimes a stick hit it.  This refers a person who is going to do something occasionally gets a mishap but an un expected lucky thing might occationally happen to him.  "A flying crow always gets something" is in English.

Aite no nai kenka wa dekinu(相手のいない喧嘩はできぬ）・・・You cannot have a fight alone; it takes two to tango.  It really means it is happy thing that you have a partner to fight, which is, you don't live alone.

Atama kakushite shiri kakusazu(頭隠して尻隠さず）・・・It directly means to hide the head but not the buttocks, really means to partly hide one's faults like an ostrich.

Nana korobi ya oki(七転び八起き）・・・Seven falls and eight rises.  It means never give up against many blunders. 

Kawaii ko niwa tabi wo sasero(かわいい子には旅をさせろ）・・・Let your pretty child travel alone.  It means raising a child with letting know hard life by setting off is better than raising a child with spoiling.

Kabe ni mimi ari syoji ni me ari(壁に耳あり障子に目あり）・・・the walls have ears, the paper doors have eyes.  It means you don't know where, when and who hears you.   

   

reference from

http://www.languagerealm.com/japanese/japaneseproverbs.php

http://www.thejapanesepage.com/kotowaza.htm

http://hilhorst.eu/kotowaza.org/en/lijst_EN.php

http://www.international.ucla.edu/eas/japan/lessons/proverbs.htm

http://www.netin.niigata.niigata.jp/english/proverbs1.html

posted by Mami Furukawa

Dead Language of Japan

Japan has many dead languages. Dead Language is  1,a word that took the world by storm  before.  2, Language not used in general language now life in language used in the past. Ancient Greek and old Latin, etc.  3,Vocabulary not used in general language now life in vocabulary used in the past. Archaic word.

Word not used feeling that young person sensitive to hot fad is already old. Then, a man and woman in middle and advanced age tends to begin to use it for a sarcastic thing.



Now let's talk about them. For example,

・"I am sorry higesory". It means I'm sorry. higesory is  shaving in English. It is very difficult.

・"Out of Ganchuu".  It means it ignore to person.

・"Akashingo, Minnadewatarebakowakunai". It means if a person will do with many people, it is not afraid   　   of everything.

・"Atsui atsui". It means man and woman is very loving each other.

・"Ikasu". It means it is cool.

・"Egui". It means It is tasteless.

・"Onew". It means it's new.

・"Obatarian". It means old women.

・Kurukurupa. It means fool.

And there are more dead languages in japan. It is a part of it.

'

・Hyper Links

http://www.orange.ne.jp/~kibita/dwd/dwdmain.html

http://www.orange.ne.jp/~kibita/dwd/dwddic11.html

http://www.interq.or.jp/classic/amedeo/sigo/bu/dic.html

http://shoebag.jp/ippuku/shigo/shigo.html

http://www.geocities.co.jp/Milkyway-Vega/8361/zasugaku/sigo.html

Katakana

Katakana ( literally: "fragmentary kana") is a Japanese syllabary, one of four Japanese writing systems (the others are hiragana, kanji and romaji).

In modern Japanese, katakana are most often used for transcription of words from foreign languages (gairaigo). For example, "television" is written terebi (テレビ). Similarly, katakana is usually used for country names and foreign place and personal names. For example America is written アメリカ Amerika and John is written ジョーン (Jōn).

Katakana are also used for onomatopoeia, letters used to represent sounds, for example hii (ヒー), meaning "sigh" would usually be written in katakana.

Technical and scientific terms, such as the names of animal and plant species and minerals are also commonly written in katakana.

Katakana are also often used for transcription of Japanese company names. For example Suzuki is written スズキ,and Mitsubishi is written ミツビシ, Katakana are also used for emphasis, especially on signs, advertisements, and hoardings. For example, it is common to see ゴミ gomi (trash) or メガネ megane (glasses), and words to be emphasized in a sentence are also sometimes written in katakana.

Pre-world war 2 official documents mix katakana and kanji in the same way that hiragana and kanji are mixed in modern Japanese texts, that is, katakana were used for okurigana and particles such as wa or o.

Telegrams are written in katakana, and before the introduction of multibyte characters in computer systems in the 1980s, computer output was entirely in katakana.

Although words borrowed from ancient Chinese are usually written in kanji, loanwords from modern Chinese which are borrowed directly rather than using the Sino-Japanese on'yomi readings, are often written in katakana.Katakana characters are characterized by squarish lines and are the simplest of the Japanese scripts.

I'll introduce some denizen from some foreign country.

From France

• Anti-ku(antique)
• obuje(object)
• kureyon(crayon):In France, it means pencil.
• baree(ballet)
• zubon(jupon):In France, it meanspetticoat.
• kafe(cafe)
• pi-mann(piment):In France, it means all kind of red pepper.

From Germany

• arubaito(arbeit)
• wakuchin(vakzin)

From Portugal

• pan(pao)

From Indonesia

• oranu-tan(Orang Utan): In Indonesia, it means forest's person.

From Holland

• gomu(gom)
• koruku(kurk)
• me-toru(metre)

From England

• pinchi(pinchi)
• meron(melon)
• terebi(television)

Reference from

http://www.jref.com/language/katakana.shtml

http://www.jref.com/language/non_english_foreign_words.shtml

http://www.dive2underwater.com/katakana.shtml

http://www.englishtreejapan.com/Central_Japan_Lifestyle/learning-katakana.htm

http://www.kirchner-inoue.de/katakana.jpg

Posted by Emi Hiruma

Vogue Words (gyarugo)

Gyarugo is mainly spoken by gyaru(who is from 15 to the low 20's in the gyaru fashion) after middle of 19907s in Shibuya. Most of the words are made in Shibuya. These are abbrebiation, internal translation in English or dialect of the any region. these words are changing very fast. some words become useless within a year. Now I'll intrduce some gyarugo.

・no-puro....omission of no probrem

・mi-tu...omission of meeting

・wannko...one call

・o-ru(all)...Not sleep all night

・FA...omission of final answer

・apiru...omission of appeal

・aiko...omission of ice coffee

・out of gantyu-...they are not interested in the opposite sex

・suru-(through)...to ignore

・chikin(chicken)...coward

・SM...omission of super 'mukatsuku' which means disgust

・okeru...to go to Karaoke

・MK5...before 5 second  for getting angry

・Ikemen...Nice guy

・gannmi...staring

・sebun...Seven-Eleven(convenience store)

・makku...Macdonald(fast food)

・kennta...Kentucky(fast food)

・misudo...Mr doughnut(doughnut shop)

These are only a part of the examples.Let’s check and use it!

http://http://fuckzapan.finito.fc2.com/gyaru.html

http://members.at.infoseek.co.jp/pontamiki/p4/p2.htm

http://www6.shizuokanet.ne.jp/kirameki/nougen/gal.htm

http://ameblo.jp/keiayu02/entry-10039027732.html

http://blog.goo.ne.jp/haisai_pink-love/e/ef5c6d73f3bd6c2ff91fcadce4118e37

Posted by Emi Hiruma