Useful Notes / Japanese Dialects

Sometimes, when you watch Japanese series or anime or play video games, you notice that some of the characters speak in an unusual dialect. The impression that the Japanese language has only one dialect is untrue. See also http://hougen.u-biq.org/.

The reason behind such notion is that like many other countries, the language has a standard form which is based on Tokyo speech. Also, the pervasive influence of media from Tokyo to other prefectures had caused resentment from the latter, and their accents are mocked as rough or crude. Here is a generalized but not exhaustive breakdown of Japanese dialects.

Tokyo Dialect

There are actually basically two dialects; namely, Yamanote and Shitamachi. Yamanote was spoken by officials and upper-class people during the Meiji period; it is essentially the basis for Standard Japanese. The Shitamachi dialect on the other hand, is associated mainly with the lower class neighborhoods and merchants. It is also called the Edo-ben after the old name for Tokyo.

The traits of Shitamachi include:

• confusion of hi and shi (ex. shichi "seven" becomes hichi and hito "person" becomes shito)
• the fronting of the diphthong ju from standard Japanese tends to become ji. (ex. Shinjuku becomes Shinjiku)
• [ɽ] becomes a trilling R.
• ai, oi frequently becomes ee. (ex. wakaranai "not know" becomes wakaranee or wakan'nee)
• ri sometimes becomes n, so okaerinasai "Welcome home" becomes okaen'nasai.
• The phrases teyandee "What are you talking about!?" and beraboome or beranmee "You bloody fool!"

While Yamanote is one of the basis of Modern Standard Japanese, it has its own distinct quirks:

• like Shitamachi, hi and shi can be confused.
• There are nasal sounds before g.
• Honorifics are the most developed and complete in Japanese.
• Usage of Gokigen-you (meaning are you good today?) as greeting.
• Usage of za-a-masu instead of de arimasu by women.

Yamanote dialect is characterized as the dialect of bureaucrats and the wealthy, and can be seen as pretentious, though when used by women, they can also denote refinement and gracefulness. In English, Yamanote can be translated to British English as RP; American equivalent is Prep School, Boston Brahmin, or Mid-Atlantic. Shitamachi/Edo dialect on the other hand, is associated with working-class Tokyoites. An English-language equivalent might be a Bronx, Joisey or Cockney accent.

Examples:

• Kuroko Shirai from A Certain Magical Index speaks in a Yamanote accent.
• Sumire Kanzaki from Sakura Wars speaks in a Yamanote accent to accentuate her background as a well-off family.
• Suneo's mother from Doraemon speaks exaggerated Yamanote dialect.
• Higeoyaji from Astro Boy speaks typical Shitamachi dialect.
• Shinichi of Case Closed speaks in Shitamachi dialect. According to his creator, this was directly inspired by Tomorrow's Joe below.
• Kankichi Ryotsu from Kochikame is a typical Shitamachi character and speaks Shitamachi dialect.
• Marii from Joshiraku speaks Shitamachized accent although she is not from Tokyo.
• Cat Ninden Teyandee has the aforementioned "teyandee" in the show's title. Given the Edo-based setting, Yattarou and many other characters naturally display this dialect.
• Hatsuho Shinonome from Sakura Wars (2019) speaks in Shitamachi dialect, given that she was born there.
• Midori Asakusa from Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! sometimes slips into Shitamachi dialect, most notably during her impassioned rant towards the student council when the Eizouken is trying to get approved as a club (during that rant, she uses "teyandee" and "beraboome" quite a lot).
• Joe from Tomorrow's Joe speaks Shitamachi dialect.

Kansai dialect

In Japanese, Kansai-ben. Accent commonly associated with the Kansai region of Japan. Since most anime is made in Tokyo this is usually very thick and exaggerated. It's also usually the first variation to pop up. The Kansai region generally consists of Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Wakayama, Mie, Nara and Shiga Prefectures, and sometimes the surrounding region (Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori Prefectures). While the dialects generally get lumped together as Kansai dialect because of their general similarities, there are distinctions between them. In English, this is viewed the same way as a Deep South accent, or a Brooklyn Rage accent. See more possible dub accent translations in The Idiot from Osaka, a stereotype based around Kansai people.

A few quick tips for catching a character speaking Kansai dialect:

• More focus on the vowels than the consonants of the language. Single-syllable words get stretched out an extra beat, and the copula desu is pronounced in full rather than Tokyo's clipped "des". This also makes Kansai-accented English that much harder to understand to native English-speakers compared to Tokyo-accented English (loanwords are generally spelled with Tokyo pronunciation in mind, after all).
• Pitch accent with a greater tonal range (sometimes described as "living" or "overly-emotional"), and often significantly different patterns from Standard.
• If a female, look for the use of uchi instead of atashi. Meanwhile if male, look for the use of washi instead of ore and boku.
• Replacement of desu and da with ya (or, in Kyoto dialect dosu for desu), ne with na, and yo, zo and ze with de. For example, ikuzo versus ikude (lit. let's go!)
• Contraction of certain words, like chau instead of chigau.
• Using donai instead of do. (Instead of "doshita?", a Kansai speaker will ask "donaishita?")
• The use of the -hen ending, instead of -nai, in the negative present forms of verbs, as in wakarahen versus wakaranai (lit. "don't know"). Nai, the negative form of aru is arahen in Kansai dialect. Alternatively, -hin (dekihin) is also used if the preceding vowel is i.
• The use of the -haru ending as an intermediate between plain style and the formal Keigo style.
• -han instead of -san as an honorific.
• The use of the wa sentence-final particle by all age and sex while it is used mainly by women in standard Japanese.
• Using the word aho instead of baka ("idiot"; "silly"). The stereotype is that baka is a much more serious insult to a Kansai native, and is rarely used by one except in deadly earnest, akin to a Precision F-Strike.
  • In real life, some dialects just have their own word for this.
• Using the word akan instead of dame ("No way"). It is also used as -tara akan ("must not do") and -na akan ("must do").
• Saying se ya na instead of so da ne OR so da na OR so ne ("I know, right?"; "I agree."; "totally")
• -taru (shortening of -te yaru) for -te ageru E.g., Yondaru ("I'll read it for you"). (In standard, using yaru in this way towards equals is considered rude.)
• Using meccha (not that mecha, the "ch" is soft like "Charles") instead of totemo as an intensifier. In specific Kansai dialects (Wakayama, Kobe, Osaka, etc.) words like gottsu (Osaka dialect) may be used. As traditional dialectal forms mutate or die off, some modern youth use forms such as sugee, which is Kanto/Tohoku pronunciation for sugoi.
• Referring to the McDonald's fast-food chain as "Makudo", and regarding the term "Makku" exclusively as a computer brand.^note Luckily (or deliberately?) enough, there’s a McDonald’s location right next door to the Apple Store in Osaka, so hapless visitors from outside Kansai won’t get too lost if they ask a local where the nearest “Mac” is.

Examples:

• The actor Mako, being from Hyogo originally, naturally spoke with this accent. It can be heard in his roles in Samurai Jack and Avatar: The Last Airbender in the way his 's' sounds frequently become 'sh' sounds and how 'j' sounds are softer.

Tohoku dialect

The Tohoku Regional Accent is spoken in the northeast region of the Japanese island of Honshu, mainly in Akita, Aomori, Fukushima, Iwate, Miyagi and Yamagata prefectures. Not as often heard as the Kanto or Kansai dialects in anime and manga, when it does show up you can be sure the character in question is a hick from the boonies and will not likely be taken seriously. The accent also carries the stereotype of laziness or clumsiness, as Tohoku speakers are known for slurring and not opening their mouths very much. The rather negative nickname for the dialect is zuuzuu-ben, "zuuzuu" being the sound that a Kanto speaker hears when a Tohoku speaker neutralizes and drags their vowels. Because of the negative stereotypes, when speaking with Tokyo-ites, Tohoku speakers tend to hide their accents and speak in Tokyo dialect. The accent only shows up when talking to family or when stressed. However, ever since the smash-hit daily NHK drama Ama-Chan aired in 2013, appreciation has grown for Tohoku culture in Japan; so much that "jye-jye-jye", roughly the equivalent of "whoa!" in English, has become a Real Life Memetic Mutation.

Most prominent features of the dialect include:

• Saying waa instead of watashi, and ora instead of ore (the latter even among women)
• Saying kero instead of kudasai/kure
• using da after verbs, considered a mistake in other parts of Japan
• Using be in place of darou or the equivalent verb conjugation (with a variety of particles even farther from the norm in localized areas). The slogan "ganbarou" ("let's hang in there"), ubiquitous since the earthquake on 11 March 2011, is "ganbappe" (or even "keppappe") in the dialect of the disaster area.
• Drawing out vowels, which makes speech sound "lazy" or "slow".
• Pronouncing both /i/ and /u/ as an identical, in-between vowel (/ɨ/) after /s/ and /z/ (and sometimes /t/ and /d/ as well). "Sushi", susu (soot), and shishi (lion) all sound the same.
• Slurring vowel diphthongs together (a feature also common to Shitamachi tough-talkers in Tokyo): /ai/, /ei/, /oi/ and /ae/ come out as a prolonged [eː] (omee instead of omae, wagannee for wakaranai). The speakers themselves are said to be able to hear the difference between /ai/ and /ei/ regardless, but to people from Tokyo, they sound identical.
• Voicing of unvoiced consonants in the middle of words, especially /k/ to /g/ and /t/ to /d/. For example, suki datta (I liked it) becomes sugi dadda. It's also why the name of Ibaraki Prefecture (technically part of Kanto, but on the border with Tohoku) is frequently misspelled as "Ibaragi".

To an English speaker, these vowel and consonant mutations make it sound somewhat like Tohoku-ben speakers are talking through a bad cold. It must be those harsh winters up north.

On top of these features, individual dialects are also prone to preserving certain traits of old Japanese that are no longer present in the Standard language, for example:

• Being able to distinguish between two types of long /oː/ from the historical /au/ and /ou/ diphthongs (one is /ɔ:/, the other /o:/)
• Preserving the distinction of /ka/ and /kwa/, /ga/ and /gwa/ in Chinese-derived words
• Pronouncing the entire /h/-row of kana as /ɸ/ ("f" with upper and lower lip, not teeth), which is only done for the "fu" syllable in Standard Japanese. This is actually how the /h/-row was historically pronounced in Middle Japanese.
• Pronouncing /e/ as "ye" ([je])
• Distinguishing /o/ and /wo/ (both [o] in Standard)
• Pre-nasalization of voiced consonants, which sounds like inserting an /n/ sound immediately prior to the affected letter. For example, mado (window) becomes mando, and mago (grandchild) sounds like mang-o (the /g/ ends up assimilating, so the <ng> there is like English

When a Tohoku accent is translated, expect to hear something like a hillbilly drawl remniscent of Cletus the Slack-Jawed Yokel.^note Oddly enough, in the Japanese-dubbed version, he doesn't speak in Tohoku-ben (or any local dialect) and he speaks using the stereotypical Japanese anime tough guy-style of voice instead.. Otherwise it can be translated as akin to Upper Midwest or Northern Plains accent.

Examples

• Megumi Tadokoro from Food Wars! will slip back into her accent if she's especially flustered or angry enough. Soma remarks on it (he's usually the source of her irritation or flustering).
• The protagonist of Homunculus slips into his Tohoku accent when he's stressed or talking to himself.
• Ogiue from Genshiken is also prone to slipping into her accent when she panicks.
• Goku and his wife Chi-Chi from Dragon Ball both speak with downplayed versions of this accent. Goku exhibits some of the vowel mutations (particularly the trouble with diphthongs, which is actually exaggerated in the anime), but none of the other phonological or grammatical changes. Meanwhile, Chi-Chi has some of the grammatical features ("da" after verbs and adjectives, "be" as a particle) but the phonological ones mostly vanish after her first appearance. They also both use "ora" as their "I" pronoun. The "hick" connotations are definitely present, because they've both spent most of their lives in seclusion, though this doesn't really come across in the English translations and dubs. Interestingly, their sons Gohan and Goten both speak dictionary-perfect, polite Japanese (Chi-Chi the Education Mama is likely responsible).
• Yume from Someday's Dreamers slips into her native Tohoku accent when she gets excited.
• Interestingly, in the You're Under Arrest! this brogue gets assigned not to the hick character, but to The Ace. Visiting Minnesota Fats (and Natsumi's Love Interest) Shouji Tokairin is from Akita and doesn't even try to hide it — he's cool enough to not to care.
• Keiji, Kei and Chinatsu's father in Flying Witch talks with a very thick Tsugaru accent that Makoto needs a translator to understand even the simplest sentences whenever she talks to him. In fact many of the old folks characters in the anime talks in the almost indecipherable dialect.
• Hetalia: Axis Powers:
  • Sweden speaks in a Tohoku dialect, despite being quite sophisticated. (Hidekaz Himaruya himself is from Fukushima) It's probably just because he's tall and outwardly intimidating. In English Scanlations, it's often rendered as truncated words with occasionally missing vowels.^note Though after Flanderization in Fan Works, it often turns him into The Unintelligible with him sp'k'ng l'k' th's. His fellow Nordics Norway and Denmark speak in the Tsugaru and Ibaraki dialects, respectively, while Iceland also speaks in the Tsugaru dialect. While Norway and Iceland's usually don't show up in scanlations, Denmark's speech is usually rendered as more casual, and his accent heard in both the anime and his character song Let’s Enjoy! Let’s Get Excited! Cheers!
• Mousse in Ranma ½ speaks in Tohoku, despite being from China.
• Jin from YuYu Hakusho speaks with the Tohoku accent (this somehow became an Irish accent in the dub), which is kind of a subversion of the stereotype, seeing as he kicks ass.
• Duval from One Piece also slips into this accent when he gets mad. The scanlations translated it as an odd semi-southern accent. It was translated into a redneck accent provided by David Vincent.
  • Tama, an impoverished girl in Wano, uses the pronoun "ora" and ends most of her sentences with "deyansu".
• A chapter of Rookies has a female student who's so shy she almost never speaks. When super-teacher Kawato tries to get her to come out of her shell, he discovers it's because she's so ashamed of her Tohoku accent. He gets her to help out with the baseball team a bit, and it turns out her fears of mockery are entirely unfounded — the guys end up falling all over themselves over how cute her accent is.
• Averted in Yoroiden Samurai Troopers as Seiji (Sage), the only one from Tohoku, does not speak with the accent and is arguably the smartest character. In the CD Drama Tenkuu Den, he and Touma (Rowan) banter back and forth about airports (as Touma is from Osaka) in a Northern Hillbilly vs. Southern Hillbilly sort of way.
• Haruo Hattori and her fellow Akita denizens from Club 9 are portrayed talking with extremely thick "country yokel" accents in the English translation. Her accent is commented on numerous times by people in Tokyo where she moves. While she is told to "watch the accent", Haruo always is portrayed talking in a thick accent.
• Mutsuko of Sunset On Third Street (Sanchoume no Yuuhi) talks this way, especially at the beginning where, newly arrived in Tokyo from Aomori, she expects to become a secretary at Suzuki Motor Corporation. Turns out, out she's been hired as a mechanic at Suzuki Auto Repair.
• Kamameshidon in Anpanman. To emphasise not moving his mouth as much, his mouth is always shown just as moving teeth rarely being opened. His attire also emphasizes a lower class. A few other characters also have a Tohoku accent, like Tanuki-Oni and Uncle Negi (who drops it as Naganegiman).
• The villagers in Only Yesterday, since most of the film takes place in Yamagata. The old ladies have particularly strong ones.
• Asuka in A Town Where You Live moved to Tokyo from Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture. She hardly talked to anyone during her first year because she was so ashamed of her dialect, and she still slips into it when angry.
• Youhei Sunohara from CLANNAD has this accent, as he hails from rural Tohoku.
• Himouto! Umaru-chan: Nana Ebina is from Akita and naturally speaks with this dialect. She learned Tokyo dialect when she decided to go to high school in Tokyo, but her accent slips when she lets her emotions get carried away. The subtitles translate it as a Southern hillbilly drawl with Southern colloquialism.

Kyushu dialect

This dialect is spoken in Kyushu, the southwestern island, composed of Fukuoka, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Oita, Miyazaki and Kagoshima. It is also regarded as a typical rural accent as well as Tohoku dialect, but Kyushu speakers are often viewed as rough, dynamic and stubborn. New England dialects are the closest equivalents.

In general, Kyushu dialect is characterized by these features:

• adjective ends -ka instead of -i in Standard Japanese. (ex. yoi "good" becomes yoka and samui "cold" becomes samuka)
• the conjunctive particle batten "however" instead of dakedo or shikashi in Standard Japanese.
• the emphasis particles bai and tai is used in end of sentences.
• the case-marking particle ba instead of o in Standard Japanese.
• the emphasis and interrogative particle to or tto instead of no in Standard Japanese. (ex. Nani o shiteiru no? "What are you doing?" becomes Nan ba shotto?)
• the polite copula gowasu is used in Kagoshima.
• the first-person pronoun oi or oidon for men instead of the standard ore.

Examples:

• Hosaku Samon from Kyojin no Hoshi speaks Kumamoto dialect.
• Touken Ranbu:
  • As his name suggests, Hakata has a heavy Fukuoka accent.
  • Buzen, Kuwana and Matsui lapse into Kumamoto dialect in fits of aggression.
• Roka Tokukomi from Bungo to Alchemist slips back into Kumamoto dialect when super worked up about something. Sunao Tokunaga has a permanent dialect.
• Shogo Ban from Bambino! speaks Fukuoka dialect.
• Megumi Noda from Nodame Cantabile sometimes speaks Fukuoka dialect.
• Natsumi from Sketchbook speaks Fukuoka dialect.
• Muromi from Muromi-san speaks Fukuoka dialect.
• Marika Tachibana from Nisekoi usually speaks very polite standard Japanese, but slips into her native Fukuoka dialect when she's flustered or excited (though in the original manga, she speaks Tosa dialect instead; the change was likely made since Kana Asumi, Marika's voice actress, is a Fukuoka native).
• Sapphire from Pokémon Adventures speaks in a heavy Fukuoka dialect. Hoenn, the region she hails from, is heavily based on Kyushu.
• Similarly, Sasha Blouse from Attack on Titan usually speaks with a very polite accent, because she's overcompensating to hide her natural accent (which sounds like a Kyushu accent). She's from a relatively isolated village of hunters deep in the woods, so when she joined the military she tried to hide her accent so everyone won't think she's a dumb hick. The English dub doesn't emphasize it much with her, but a bit more with her family: they talk like hardy, stubborn, resourceful frontiersmen from the western USA (as opposed to an exaggerated hillbilly accent - her people aren't clumsy or lazy, it's not as if they have a Tohoku accent!).
• Yuri Katsuki from Yuri!!! on Ice is originally from Saga and both his parents speak with this dialect; Yuri himself usually speaks standard Japanese, but slips back into Saga dialect when talking to his parents or when he gets drunk. There's also Kenjiro Minami, who speaks Fukuoka dialect.
• Tsukimi Kurashita from Princess Jellyfish is from Kagoshima and sometimes slips into Kagoshima dialect when she gets upset.
• Tina Foster from Ai Yori Aoshi is American, but was raised in Hakata and thus speaks Fukuoka dialect. In English, this is translated as a cornpone Southern accent.
• Otonoshin Koito from Golden Kamuy slips into his natural Kagoshima dialect when he loses his calm.
• Zombie Land Saga takes place in Saga prefecture, so most characters speak the dialect to varying degrees.
• Come On 285 Enemies has Edmond, whose usual Verbal Tic is "gowasu", implying he's from Kagoshima in particular. Word of God does confirm that Edmond actually is from Kagoshima.

Hiroshima dialect

Hiroshima-ben is a typical dialect of the Chugoku region, the west of Kansai region.

Features of Hiroshima dialect are:

• Standard Japanese uses a copula da, but Hiroshima dialect usually uses ja.
• -teiru in verbs of progressive aspects becomes -yoru in Hiroshima.
• The conjunctive particle kara "because" in Standard becomes ken or kee ^note Pronounced like "keh." in Hiroshima.
• The first-person pronoun is washi for men and boys, while uchi is for women instead of the standard ore, boku, and watashi respectively.

Unfortunately, this along with Kansai have earned the reputation of being seen as the Yakuza dialect due to a 1970s film named Yakuza where people speak in that accent. Hiroshima speakers are stereotyped as Large Hams with No Indoor Voice, combative, and looking for a fight. On the flip side though, whenever there are works set after the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima, this dialect is commonly used. Equivalent in American English is Chicago or Detroit, the former due to their respective regions' former association with with the meat-packing industry.

Examples:

• Manami Supernova Yamagishi from Akiba Maid War speaks with a heavy Hiroshima dialect, which is fitting since she's a Meido who's also a ruthless crime boss and the series is a parody of Yakuza works.
• Barefoot Gen is set in Hiroshima and thus the characters usually employ this dialect.
• Mako Someya is raised by her grandfather from Hiroshima and picked up the accent.
• Akainu from One Piece has a heavy Hiroshima dialect despite the lack of an actual Japan.
• Nobuyuki Hiyama is from Hiroshima and would employ this dialect whenever a work needs him for it. With his character, Yutaka "Panties" Itazu of Eden of the East as one of the best examples of him showcasing this dialect.
• Stella from Arakawa Under the Bridge speaks Hiroshima-ben whe she gets angry.
• In This Corner of the World takes place in Hiroshima prefecture (mainly in Kure), so all the characters speak with this dialect. The English translation of the manga adapts this by giving everyone American southern-style dialogue.
• Mima from Perfect Blue switches to Hiroshima dialect when she speaks on the phone with her mother.
• Miyu Matsuki (hailing from Kure, Hiroshima) voiced Chimo in in Tamayura and speaks in that dialect, but she is far from the usual boisterous stereotype. In fact, most of her other characters depicted from Hiroshima are usually soft-spoken at best, a contrast from Nobuyuki Hiyama's.
• Gamabunta from Naruto speaks in this dialect, alongside yakuza-like style of dress and mannerisms.

Nagoya dialect

This dialect is spoken in and around the city of Nagoya, the third-largest urban region between Kansai and Kanto areas. As such, it has the characteristics of both dialects while having its own distinctive accent.

In general, Nagoya dialect is characterized by these features:

• ai and ae in Standard Japanese becomes æ (like the 'a' in 'cat' but longer) in Nagoya-ben. To Standard ear, this sounds like -ya. (ex. omae "you" becomes omyaa and nai "not exist" becomes nyaa)
• The particle yoo instead of sa in Standard Japanese.
• The particle gaya or gane is used for emphasis in sentences when surprised. gaya becomes gyaa in the exaggerated mimic Nagoya-ben.
• Using doeryaa or dera instead of Standard totemo for an intensifier. (ex. doeryaa umyaa "very yummy")
• The auxiliary verb mai or myaa is used for emphasis volitional forms. (ex. Issho ni iko! "Let's go about together!" becomes Issho ni ikomyaa!)

To outsiders, their way of adding words with -myaa or nyaa, being similar to the cat onomatopoeia "nyaa", made them think Nagoya dialect speakers are speaking like cats. Akira Toriyama was born Nagoya, so he often includes characters speaking Nagoya-ben in his works. Equivalent to West Coast accents in American English.

Examples:

• In the original version of Digimon Adventure 02, Armadimon speaks in Nagoya-ben in all his forms. It was adapted into a southern US accent in the dub.
• Yajirobe from Dragon Ball speaks in Nagoya-ben to emphasize his wild nature.
• King Nikochan from Dr. Slump speaks in Nagoya-ben.
• Chikako Awara from GA: Geijutsuka Art Design Class speaks Chubu-ben, a fictitious dialect based on Nagoya accent and Kansai grammar. The story happens in Fukui, which is economically associated with the former.
• Poland of Hetalia: Axis Powers speaks in Nagoya-ben, and in scanlations it's often rendered as Valley Girl speech.
• Kai Mikawa from My Bride is a Mermaid speaks in Nagoya-ben.
• Mr. 3 from One Piece also speaks in Nagoya-ben. In English, this was adapted to a slight British accent.
• Spencer Hoko, an American baker from Yakitate!! Japan, lived in Nagoya and picked up the accent.

Hokkaido dialect

Hokkaido people's accent is usually close to Standard Japanese because most of them are descended from settlers in the modern age. In early settlements, some people spoke a peculiar accent close to Tohoku dialect.

Hokkaido is the largest region in Japan and there are many large farms, so Hokkaido dialect tends to be associated bighearted and easygoing farmers. If rendered in English they might be rendered as Canadian or Alaskan.

In general, Hokkaido dialect is characterized by these features:

• Using be as well as Tohoku dialect.
• Standard desho becomes ssho. (ex. anta mo ikussho? "You will come, won't you?")
• The phrase shitakke "then" instead of Standard jaa
• Using namara instead of Standard totemo for an intensifier.

Examples:

• Saikano is set in Hokkaido and main characters speak the Hokkaido dialect.
• In a Case Closed case, the Detective Boys meet an old man who speaks in Hokkaido dialect. They just think he speaks oddly, but Conan identifies the accent itself. The old man has kidnapped and put detective Takagi in a cruel Death Trap... set somewhere in Sapporo, the capital of Hokkaido.
  • Prior to that, the Detective Koshien arc featured one-shot teen detective (and Asshole Victim) Junya Tokitsu as the Hokkaido representative. Unlike the above instance, only the fact that he "talks funny" is relevant to the plot, so the English translation takes the... questionable tack of having him speak in Leet Lingo.

Okinawan "dialect(s)" (Ryukyuan languages)

Prior to the 19th century, Okinawa was the center of the independent Ryukyu Kingdom, and practically each island in the Ryukyu Archipelago had its own unique language, which was related to Japanese but became less mutually intelligible with Standard Japanese as the distance from the main four islands increases. The Ryukyuan people have unique surnames from the mainland Japanese (Yamato people), different mythologies, a distinctive genetic profile, and think of themselves as their own ethnic group...but this is not recognised by the Japanese government. The differences between the Ryukyuans and Yamato, and colonization of the Ryukyu islands by the latter; means that many Ryukyuan people, particularly those from the diaspora do not really identify themselves as "Japanese". The Japanese language and Ryukyuan languages constitute the two extant branches of the Japonic language family with the Ryukyuan branch having a far greater amount of diversity despite its far fewer speakers.

If compared to English, they can be best compared to Hawaiian English, due to being islands and having their own distinctive culture.

These Ryukyuan languages^note generally named after the island or region they are spoken are:

• Kikai (Shimayumita)
• Amami (Shimayumuta)
• Tokunoshima (Shimayumiita)
• Okinoerabu (Shimamuni)
• Yoron (Yunnu Futuba)
• Kunigami (Yanbaru Kutuuba)
• Okinawan (Uchinaaguchi)
• Miyako (Myaakufutsu or Sumafutsu)
• Yaeyama (Yaimamuni)
• Yonaguni (Dunan Munui)

When the Empire of Japan annexed the islands in the 19th century, they dissolved the local monarchy and began a forced assimilation of the native people into Imperial Japanese society, which included suppressing the native languages which to this day are only considered dialects of Japanese. Following World War II, the American Occupation government attempted to promote use of the original native languages, but the locals refused, and kept using Standard Japanese in protest of the occupation. In the 21st century, most of the Ryukyuan languages are endangered, with increasingly fewer native speakers remaining, but the local governments in Kagoshima and Okinawa Prefectures have begun programs to preserve the languages for future generations. Aside from these many languages, an actual fusion dialect of Japanese, Okinawan, and American English is spoken in Okinawa Prefecture, and is called Okinawan Japanese (Uchinaa-Yamato-guchi). Some major (often stereotypical) features of this dialect are:

• hazu having a much fuzzier implication of an event happening
• masho ne or yo ne being declarative indicators rather than suggestions
• kara meaning "as" or "because" rather than "from" or "since"
• saa being the informal sentence ending copula rather than da or jan
• American English pronunciations of words like shaapu for "shop", paarii for "party", piitsa for "pizza", etc.
• American English's tendency to use brand names for similar items like jaroo (Jell-O) for a chilled gelatin dessert, korugeeto (Colgate) for toothpaste, etc.
• Other American English words such as pooku for any canned luncheon meat, tuuna for any canned tuna, peidei for payday
• Using an approximation of "-er" to turn words into a person described by the word, such as ritchaa (richer) for a rich person, amerikaa (America-er) for an American person, naichaa (naichi-er) for a mainland Japanese person.

Okinawans are also seen as more laidback than mainland or Yamato Japanese, as evident by the different meaning of hazu mentioned above. The term Uchinaa taimu (Okinawa time) exists to mean that scheduled events generally don't happen until much later. It's not uncommon for Okinawans, particularly the elderly, to take midday naps. It's also not unheard of for Okinawans to reach the age of 100 because of their healthy lifestyles and interesting genetic makeup (Ryukyuans have a high rate of having certain genes which are linked to longevity).

Examples

• Stitch! features a lot of Okinawan language and culture (taking inspiration from Lilo & Stitch's approach to Hawai'ian language and culture). A Kijimunaa (a trickster spirit) is even a main character.
• Eureka Seven AO starts off in Okinawa. Naru Arata's illness due to her exposure to the Scub Coral has her treated as a yuta (a traditional Okinawan priestess and oracle).
• Haitai Nanafa is primarily focused on life in Okinawa, and its title even contains the Uchinaaguchi informal feminine greeting haitai (the masculine form is haisai).
• Yakuza 3 has Kazuma Kiryu moving to Naha, with several prominent landmarks present, but sometimes renamed. Ichiba Hondori gets renamed to the "Kariyushi Arcade"; kariyushi is an Okinawan word meaning "happy" or "lucky" and is used for the name of a unique style of patterned collared short-sleve shirt popularized by an Okinawa tourism board.
• The Karate Kid Part II is one of the few Hollywood films set in Okinawa which is not about the war, but only because karate was invented in Okinawa.
• Okinawa is also often the subject of a Class Trip in various anime and manga (due to its popularity as an actual location Japanese children go for class trips): Azumanga Daioh has an entire episode dedicated to such a trip, where Osaka becomes obsessed with the name of the saataa andaagii doughnut, Tomo amuses herself with the names of the chinsukou shortbread cookie and ukoncha turmeric tea because they sound like dirty words in standard Japanese, and Sakaki uncharacteristcally befriends a yamamayaa a.k.a. the critically endangered Iriomote wild cat.
• Digimon Tamers has its goggle boy Takato being ethnically Okinawan due to The Movie showing his grandfather and cousin living there. The movie also features Seasarmon, which is based on the Okinawan shiisaa guardian dogs.
• Godzilla has King Caesar, first featured in Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla, as a protector guardian of the royal family; again, based on the shiisaa.
• Yo-kai Watch 2 includes many Local Yo-kai that were originally obtained in the Japanese editions through a related arcade game. Happycane (Ukiukibi) and Starrycane (Tokimekibi) were the Yo-kai for Okinawa; in Japanese, Happycane says Nankurunai sa, which means "everything will be fine".
• In episode 9 of Pop Team Epic, the A-part of the long Pop Team Story segment is in fluent English, while the B-part is in Uchinaaguchi.
• Chiyoganemaru, Chatannakiri and Chiganemaru from Touken Ranbu, three treasure swords of the Ryūkyū kingdom.
• In Sakura Wars, Kanna Kirishima was born in Okinawa and thus speaks in the appropriate dialect.
• Kuroyukihime from Accel World meets two Okinawan Burst Linkers, Ruka Asato and Mana Itosu. Ruka is a tomboy that sprinkles Ryukyuan phrases with Okinawan-accented Japanese, while Mana speaks Japanese with a heavy Okinawan accent. Both voice actresses, the late Tamaki Nakanishi for Ruka, and Yuko Gibu for Itosu, hail from the prefecture.

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