Japanese Dialects?
- Thread starter opr1945
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hoshin1600
Senior Master
From what I understand, there are dialects but like American English which has dialects but we understand each other fine for the most part.
isshinryuronin
Senior Master
There are recognizable regional accents just as in the US. As far as different dialects (in part a different language) I know of two: There is one on Hokkaido Island amongst the Ainu, a racially distinct population. And certainly, Okinawans have theirs as sometimes seen in Okinawan karate terminology.
Gyakuto
Senior Master
One of my teachers is from Kyoto and uses a very specific dialect to that region. I can barely understand what he’s saying when he uses it!
Also in Kansai region, they don’t say ‘arigato’ for thank you, but ‘okini’. Adding ‘metcha‘/’homma’ before an adjective is like adding ‘very’ or ‘really’ to the phrase (it’d be ‘totemo’ in Tokyo).
Also in Kansai region, they don’t say ‘arigato’ for thank you, but ‘okini’. Adding ‘metcha‘/’homma’ before an adjective is like adding ‘very’ or ‘really’ to the phrase (it’d be ‘totemo’ in Tokyo).
Xue Sheng
All weight is underside
China has 8 main dialects with multiple sub dialects and you are correct, many cannot understand one another, good example you supplied, Mandarin speakers and Cantonese speakers cannot understand each other. However they all share the same writing system. However these days in China, most speak Mandarin, it is the national language, but they also speak there local dialect as well.
I know Japan has multiple dialects and I do believe some of those cannot understand one another.
mograph
Master of Arts
When I was stationed on Okinawa, the native tongue spoken by elders was referred to as hogun, and it wasn't a dialect of Japanese but a separate language as I was informed. I am no expert.
It could be a separate language in practice, whether or not is officially recognized. I think most people assume that "dialect" is an objective distinction that refers to variations within a single language, something akin to the term "accent" but more extreme.
In practice, however, the distinction is often heavily colored by political and cultural considerations. In the case of China, I've been told that as the Beijing government has a very strong interest in promoting the vision of a single, unified China, they officially promote the term dialect to describe what many Western linguists would classify as distinct Sinitic languages.
As the linguist Max Weinreich famously quipped, A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.
Hyoho
2nd Black Belt
It's not just a dialect but almost a completely different language in some areas. For example Kagoshima ben is incomprehensible to those from over the river. Some new Kindergarten kids join speaking just a dialect as most have spent a considerable time with grandparents at home. In my area Watakushi desu "Its me" becomes "Oi batenga". The very words my brain surgeon friend would use with me but he changed into standard Japanese when talking to patients as do most business people.
Hyoho
2nd Black Belt
Yes it totally different. I had an Okinawan friend that used to lapse into it after few drinks.
