ćē“°ććę„ę¬čŖć³ć¼ćć¼ć é¢č„æå¼åć£ć¦ćæććļ¼ kansai-ben crash course!
since @onigiriforears ćć's seitokai bookclub will be reading å
ćę»ćć å¤ for spooky season, i thought i'd do an introductory post on é¢č„æå¼! hikaru is definitely tricky if you don't know any é¢č„æå¼, so i hope this will be a helpful intro for anyone reading/watching the series for the first time. ć»ććććč”ćć§ćļ¼
n.b.: i think the manga uses äøéå¼, and i know more about åęå±±å¼ and 大éŖå¼, so forgive me if anything isn't exactly representative of how they talk in hikaru!
ćé¢č„æå¼ćć£ć¦ē„ć£ćØććļ¼
in japanese class, we generally learn standard japanese, or ęØęŗčŖ(ć²ćććć
ćć), which is spoken in tokyo and in higher social registers, like at work. kansai japanese is spoken locally in kansai! the kansai region is on the island of ę¬å· (honshu) and is usually said to contain these prefectures:
these prefectures all use a noticeably similar variety, aka ę¹čØ/"dialect", of japanese, though there are definitely differences across the region.
just to cover my linguistic bases: "dialect" can be a charged or derogatory term in english. when i use the word "dialect", i use it as a neutral synonym for "variety", meaning a type of some given language (including a regional type, a social type, a historical type, etc.). for this reason, i use "variety" much more often, but ę¹čØ in japanese does literally translate to "dialect". no linguistic variety has any inherent moral, societal, or scientific worth.
as with any non-standard variety/ę¹čØ, usage of é¢č„æå¼ tends to be heavily context-dependent. for example, teachers in the region may use é¢č„æå¼ with each other in the staff room but ęØęŗčŖ during class with older students. similarly, someone using ę¬čŖ (honorific language) will probably not combine it with ę¹čØ. if you speak a non-standard variety of any language, you have probably had similar experiences.
anyway, let's finally get into some of the concrete differences between ęØęŗčŖ and é¢č„æå¼!
*kyoto and osaka here refer to the prefectures (= åŗ "borough"), not the cities, which of course are contained in their respective prefectures.
é¢č„æå¼ is famous for certain vocab items (kind of like how "pop" is considered a great lakes regionalism in the us). some words from ęØęŗčŖ are just entirely different words in é¢č„æå¼:
some words are pronounced differently, or are old-fashioned:
ćć ā ć (sometimes)
ćć ā ćć** (including in the ćć¦ form)
or, some words are frequently abbreviated:
ććććć ā ćććć
not all of these are é¢č„æå¼-exclusive, but they're all very common in é¢č„æå¼!
*remember, ę¹čØ doesn't usually get combined with ę¬čŖ or äøåƧčŖ, so forms like ćć tend to show up only in the plain form, like čØć£ć ā ćć£ć, but not čØćć¾ćć ā āććć¾ćć.
**eagle-eyed readers may notice ćć is the equivalent of ćć in č¬č²čŖ (humble language). as it turns out, ćć is just the old-fashioned version of ćć which, in other places in the country, only stuck around as a hyper-formal form. neat!
conversational (i.e., non-grammatical*) particles may be different, too!
ćććŖćļ¼ ā ć”ććļ¼
ććć** ā ćććććććććć (rough)
ć®ļ¼ ā ćļ¼ (pronunciation allowing, e.g. ā ē„ćććļ¼)
these particles are all optional, but they're some of the most noticeable things about é¢č„æå¼ in my mind. when you're listening to/reading them all the time, you can get used to them really quickly!
*though many varieties of japanese differ in their usage of grammatical particles as well, e.g., ć® as ć and vice-versa.
**see below for more details on what happens to the copula!
lots of grammatical forms
famously, there are lots of negative verb endings in é¢č„æå¼. in ęØęŗčŖ we learn the ććŖć form (and the ćć form, which used to be a fully independent verb form!), but in é¢č„æå¼, the most common negative is famously ććøć.
but there are others! the following are just some possible negatives!
ććććŖć ā ćććććććććøć
ććććŖćć£ć ā ćććććć£ććććććøććć£ć
č¦ćŖćć§ ā č¦ćććØćć¦*
ććŖćć§ ā ććććććØćć¦*
also, conditional forms from ęØęŗčŖ often get abbreviated:
ćććć ā ććć
ćććåø°ćć = if i fall over, i'm going home (real quote from my co-teacher having sat on a broken chair)
å®ććŖććć° ā å®ććŖ
äŗ¤éć«ć¼ć«ćå®ććŖććć = we have to obey traffic laws
čµ°ć£ć¦ćÆ ā čµ°ć£ć (cf. standard čµ°ć£ć”ć)
čµ°ć£ćććć = no running
and as stated above, the ćć¦ćć form uses ćć instead:
ē„ć£ć¦ć ā ē„ć£ćØć
ććē„ć£ćØććŖ = you really know your stuff
the ćć¦ćć¾ć form also gets abbreviated, kind of like ćć”ćć in ęØęŗčŖ:
č”ć£ć”ćć ā č”ć£ć¦ć¾ć
č”ć£ć”ćć£ć ā č”ć£ć¦ć¾ć£ććč”ć£ć”ć¾ć£ććč”ć£ć¦ććć
lastly, the negative ć-adjective form (including the declined ććć form, etc.) is also frequently abbreviated by deleting the ć:
ęććŖć ā ęćŖć
ę©ććŖć ā ę©ćŖć
č”ććććŖć ā č”ćććŖć
*eagle-eyed readers may notice that the ććØćć¦ ending looks like a conjugation of ćć¦ćć, and they're right! the ćć¦ćć form is used very liberally in é¢č„æå¼, including in the negative command form as above, but also just all over the place in regular speech.
the term "copula" refers to ć in ęØęŗčŖ, but in é¢č„æå¼, the copula is ć! this even affects copula contractions such as (what would be) ććć*.
ććć ć ā ćććŖ
ććć ćć ā ćććć
ććć ć£ććć ā ćććć£ććć
ę±ŗć¾ć£ć¦ćććć ā ę±ŗć¾ć£ćØććć
because of the types of consonants that ć and ć are,** i sometimes find myself using the ć forms just because they're quicker/easier to say!
*just in case you needed a refresher, ćććŖć comes from ć§ćÆćŖć, where ć§ is a copular form.
**specifically, plosive vs. glide. the closure for a plosive requires more work from your articulators.
the pitch accent in tokyo is famously very "flat", but in kansai, it's much more "musical". in particular, most* words in ęØęŗčŖ start on a low pitch and go up (ļ¼æā), but in é¢č„æå¼, it's much more common to start on a high pitch and go down (ļ¼æā).
ćāćć«ć”ćÆ ā ćāćć«ć”āćÆ
ćāćāććØć ā ćāććāćØāć
ćµāć¼ć·ć£ ā ćµāć¼ć·ć£ (my name lol)
now, my personal opinion is that the best way to learn pitch accent is to actually hear and reproduce it, so if these janky arrows don't make any sense to you, please feel free to ignore them! but if you're comfortable with dissecting pitch accent, be sure to pay attention when you next listen to speech in é¢č„æå¼.
here are some common phrases you hear a lot in é¢č„æå¼!
ē„ćććć© = not sure though
č”ćććč”ć = i'll go if i can (but i don't really want to/probably won't)
ć¾ćććć = ć¾ćććć
ć»ććć = ććććććććļ¼ććć§ćÆ
like with the vocab items, these are not necessarily é¢č„æå¼-exclusive, but they show up very frequently or are associated with the region.
ę„½(ćć®)ćććć”ććļ¼ćććŖć«ćććŖććććļ¼ćæććŖćććŖćć ćčććććØććććØć§ćęć£ć¦ćććććŖćé¢č„æå¼ć®é¢ē½ćē¹ććć®ä»ć«å±±ć»ć©ćććććććććććčćåć£ććčŖćæåć£ćććć¦ćæć¦ććļ¼
lastly, if i can, i'd love to be a point-person for fielding é¢č„æå¼ questions while the bookclub reads this series, so please reach out to me with any questions! if i can't provide help/answers just from experience, i'll definitely try and look up all the ē“°ćć (nitty-gritty) details. ć»ććććć¾ććŖļ¼
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