Heaven's Key @neverback48 - Tumblr Blog

Japanese Dialects Masterpost

Dialects can be fun and offer cultural insight. They may be useful to learn, though usually only if you have geographical links to a specific area of Japan- perhaps you have family there, personal heritage there, you live there, or are going to do a language exchange in a specific area. Linguists may also be interested just because they are really interesting.

In almost all instances for non-Japanese people learning to understand a dialect when it’s spoken/written (rather than produce it in your own speech) would suffice for communication. As far as I can see the best reason to learn to actually speak a dialect is because you want to communicate with elderly people from that region specifically; most young people have had far more media exposure so they can easily use ‘standard Japanese’/ Tokyo dialect.

If a non-native Japanese speaker learns a dialect and can’t speak standard Japanese, they may find they are seriously limited in conversations and people will inevitably find it weird. They might just find they are incomprehensible:

’I spent three years living in Nemuro, the easternmost town in Hokkaido. […] Hokkaido-ben is often misunderstood outside Hokkaido, Nemuro-ben can’t be understood even in the next town over. So it’s basically useless unless you’re planning a trip to Nemuro (which I would recommend.) However, it does show how many variations there are in dialect, even within one island.’ [Tofugu, my emphasis]

Someone with a low communicative ability in English who could only speak using Cockney rhyming slang, but didn’t know standard English unfortunately would sound ridiculous to natives of that area. It would seem crazy to know ‘You’re ‘aving a bubble mate!’, but not ’You must be joking!’. They’d sound odd and in many instances their language would sound antiquated. Be aware that you may well get a similar reaction if you pepper your speech with regional dialect as a non-Japanese person without being conversationally fluent in standard Japanese. I’m not saying don’t learn dialects, please do if they interest you, learning to understand them when you hear them, rather than necessarily use them in your own speech, is a great idea. If you want to speak in them, please try to do it all in good time and in a respectful way that is not accessorizing the language and culture.

For beginners:

Many of the resources here will be only in Japanese, as this post is aimed at higher intermediate and advanced learners. The section below is in mostly English and will give you a general overview if you’re interested:

lingualift article (scroll down past their email sign up stuff to read)

FluentU will teach you a few basic phrases in a variety of dialects

Wikibooks has links to a few examples of phrases in different dialects

The wikipedia article will give you an informative introduction

Tofugu has a few articles on dialects: Hokkaido | Tohoku | Kansai

Japan Times article on dialects

For intermediate and Advanced learners:

I’ve organised this by prefecture, but it’s worth noting that some prefectures contain several dialects and I’m by no means an expert, I hope the Tumblr Japanese learning community can contribute to and help improve this post. General:

Dictionary for dialects in EVERY prefecture

Short animations about various dialects　

Women from every prefecture saying I love you in their regional dialect

Japanese dialect Wiki

There tend to be Line stickers on sale for dialects, as people think they’re cute and want to show local pride, try searching the Line sticker store for the dialect you want and you can use them in conversations, which will give you a little practise.

Big Weblio guide to all prefectures’ dialects

方言で話そう on Twitter will show you phrases in a variety of regional dialects from around the country

Project Guttenburg article which gets more into the linguistics of Kansai ben

I made a post on Kansai ben a while back and @similarjapanesewords made a post about it before too

video comparing local variations of the same phrase spoken by native speakers 1 2

This Youtube channel has a lot of different dialect tutorials (all Japanese)

There’s another Youtube channel here too (all Japanese)

hougen-japan

ALC dialect quizzes

The Japanese Wikipedia page has a lot more detailed information than the English page, naturally.

Kansaibenkyou

Maps of where some dialects are spoken

Wikipedia has a lot of basic introductory information on dialects, there are almost certainly dialects I’ve missed from this list, if you search for the prefecture or geographical location and the word 弁 or 方言 then you’re likely to find a dialect, even if it isn’t simply called [place name]弁.

Hokkaidō | Hokkaidō ben dictionary | Hougen.u-biq | Tofugu introducation to Hokkaido ben

Aomori | Goo Aomori ben dictionary | Japanesepod101 1 2 3 4 5 | animation about Aomori ben | Kindle book written in Aomori ben

Iwate | Phrase guide | dialect dictionary

Miyagi | Hougen.u-biq | Vocabulary | Introduction to Miyagi ben | Sendai ben

Akita | Akita ben course | How to use け in Akita ben | How to use こ in Akita ben

Yamagata | A few introductory phrases | Yamagata ben phrases | Yamagata ben dajare | Yamagata ben grammar

Fukushima | Fukushima ben Dictionary | Usage guide

Ibaraki | Ibaraki ben dictionary | Learn Ibaraki ben phrases

Tochigi | Tochigi ben guide to pronunciation and expressions | Tochigi ben dictionary |

Gunma | Five page vocabulary guide | 7 lesson course in speaking Gunma ben

Saitama | North Saitama dialect vocabulary | Phrases | More vocabulary | Saitama ben dictionary on Goo

Kanagawa | 10 phrases | Yokohama and Kanagawa dialect dictionary | Kanagawa ben on chaku wiki

Niigata | Niigata ben dictionary | Japanesepod101 1 2 3

Ishikawa | Ishikawa ben Dictionary on Goo | Wikibooks Ishikawa dialect guide | Kanazawa ben guide | English book on Kanazawa ben

Fukui | Fukuiben.com | Hokuriku dialect (spoken in several prefectures)

Yamanashi | Koshu Dialect Laboratory | Koshu ben dictionary | Yamanashi ben on Goo | There are a couple of posts here in English

Nagano | Goo Nagano ben dictionary | Nagano prefecture guide to Nagano dialect | Matsumoto dialect page

Shizuoka | Page with links to several local dialects found in Shizuoka | Shizuoka ben version of a commerical | 10 funny phrases

Aichi | Hougen.u-biq | Nagoya ben website

Mie | phrase guide | features of Mie ben

Shiga | large word and phrase list | vocabulary list

Kyoto | Hougen.u-biq | vocabulary list | More vocabulary

Osaka | Hougen.u-biq | video tutorial | Kansai ben/Osaka ben word list

Hyōgo | vocabulary list | Hyogo ben on chaku Wiki |

Nara | Nara dialect on Chaku Wiki | Video discussing the subtelties of Nara dialect within Kansai ben | vocabulary list

Tottori | dictionary | large word and phrase list | another vocabulary and phrase list

Shimane | Izumo-ben 出雲弁 | Izumo ben in detail

Okayama | large word and phrase list | Okayama ben corner | Interesting Okayama ben

Hiroshima | Hougen.u-biq | Hiroshima dialect

Yamaguchi | Yamaguchi ben | Vocabulary | quiz

Tokushima | Awa ben video tutorial | vocabulary list | large phrase and vocabulary list

Kagawa | vocabulary and phrase list | phrase list

Ehime | Some Iyo vocabulary | Iyo dialect guide

Fukuoka | series of videos on how to use Hakata ben | video tutoiral | verb conjugations

Saga | Saga ben dictionary | Goo Saga ben dictionary

Nagasaki | Nagasaki ben resource with recordings of sample dialogues | Goo Nagasaki ben dictionary | A story book written in Nagasaki ben (available on Kindle)

Kumamoto | How to use Kumamoto ben | Kumamoto ken vocabulary, a lot of these seem rough/rude

Ōita | video | Goo Ōita ben dictionary

Miyazaki | Miyazaki ben explanation | vocabulary and explanation

Kagoshima | Vocabulary | big word list | More vocabulary and phrases

Okinawa | Traveller’s guide to Okinawan dialects | Huge list of Ryukyuan vocabulary | Uchinaguchi dictionary

There are books on dialects, typically designed for native speakers, such as this dialect dictionary, or this Tosa ben guide available in Japan, but you’d need some very advanced Japanese to be able to access them, in which case I doubt you’d be following my blog.

Beyond regional dialects there are also many languages that are native to Japan that are not Japanese. If you’re interested in learning Ainu, one of the Ryukyuan languages, Japanese sign language, or another language from Japan that is not standard spoken Japanese then this Tofugu article may interest you. Many of these languages are endangered. Thanks to these bloggers who helped contribute to this post:

@suzustarlight @tomatograffiti @grapefruitcake Disclaimer: There are a massive number of regional dialects in Japan, I am neither Japanese, nor an expert, so inevitably I will miss some off this list. If you want to share information about a dialect from a part of Japan you’ve visited or lived in please reblog and add some information or resources, so that we can get this post to a point where it’s as comprehensive as possible. Many thanks!

purplepaprika

Many people take pride in their culture and dialect, and can get angry if you talk in an incomplete or broken dialect. Not saying all people are like that, and there are people more accepting toward it, but if you are interested and want to use it in real life you should study real hard. And like any other dialects, watch out for people stereotyping u by which dialect u speak in.

nihongogogo

@purplepaprika I agree- it’s very important to make sure people don’t feel you’re mocking them or accessorising their language and culture, which is why cultural sensitivity is key. I hope I stressed that thoroughly enough in my original post. Thanks for your comment. Japanese people often don’t show their anger in ways that people from English speaking countries may be familiar with, particularly people who smile when angry can confuse people from other cultures. However, I don’t think people would typically react angrily or with offence to those trying to understand their dialect, rather than mimic it in their own speech, so learning to just understand what you hear and respond in standard Japanese is a good starting point that’s quite a low risk strategy if you want to build more cultural bridges and expand your knowledge.