Local dialects of Japan
Hey guys! How have you been? Have you ever heard about Japanese a local dialect? According to Wikipedia, Japan has over 100 hundred local dialects. Do you know that? If you have known this topic, you are the master of Japanese culture. Today, I’m going to introduce some major local dialects of Japan.
What is “ben”?
In fact that Japanese call local dialect for area name with “ben” You can see some types of local dialect’s name such as Aomori ben, Niigata ben, Kansai ben, Okayama ben, and Kyushu ben.
What is a difference between national Japanese and ben?
Many local dialects have completely different pronunciation, accents, and words. Basically, all Japanese have learned the main island’s Japanese style when they are going to kindergarten to elementary school. This is because the main island’s Japanese doesn’t have specific pronunciation, accents, and words. That is why main island’s Japanese has been used by all most all TV program. However, if he or she is living in a local area, he has not had to use the main island’s Japanese opportunities in their daily life. The reason being around people such as parents, relatives, friends, teachers of learner don’t use common Japanese, just using their local dialect. Rather than they don’t need to use common Japanese in their usual life. Can you imagine that you are living in a local area? Also, if your friend uses another area’s dialect, what do you feel? In my case, I would feel wired or creepy. Moreover, the person who speaks another area’s local dialect goes to a different area’s town, he may embarrass in there because other area’s people don’t understand his speaking.
Which local dialect is the most difficult in Japan?
I’m from Aomori which has the most difficult and different local dialect of Japan. This is not kidding that all Japanese except my hometown’s people need to subtitle and translator if many Japanese want to communicate with the local. Usually, we call that “Tsugaru-ben”. Actually, I already mention embarrassing topic above paragraph, that is my real experience when I moved to Tokyo. Therefore, I had to get used to using the main land’s Japanese.
This is my personal opinion that I’m really proud of my hometown’s local dialect even though no one understands it because it is the area’s traditional culture. Every local dialect has long history and memories in there. I want to keep it ever. And, next time, I’ll explain a detail of how differences between my local dialect and common Japanese.