Iyo dialect

The of Japanese is spoken by people from Ehime Prefecture in Japan. The name is a remnant of the Ehime area's historical name, Iyo Province.

Accents vary somewhat by geography within the prefecture. The southern area is particularly influenced by the Kyūshū dialect, while the central and eastern districts have accents similar to Kansai dialect.

Characteristics

The Iyo dialect has numerous characteristics that differentiate it from standard Japanese grammar.
*''ya'' (や) replaces ''da'' (だ) as the casual copula
*''ken'' (けん) replaces ''kara'' (から) as in "because"
:*''yaken'' (やけん) is used instead of ''dakara'' (だから)
*''oru'' (おる) replaces ''iru'' (いる) as the verb "to be" for animate objects
:This leads to two alternate conjugations of the continuative form (～ている ''-te iru''):
:*''-toru'' (～とる) is a contraction of ''-te oru''
:*V-stem + ''-yoru'' (～よる) is a slurring of ''oru''
:''Example:'' "What are you doing?" (何してるの？ ''nani shiteru no?'' in standard Japanese) becomes either
:*''nani shitoru no?'' (何しとるの？) or
:*''nani shiyoru no?'' (何しよるの？)
*''n'' (ん) as a contraction of sentence-final ''no'' (の)
:''Example:'' The second "What are you doing?" above, ''nani shiyoru no?'' is often contracted to ''nani shiyon?'' (何しよん？) or ''nani shon?'' (何しょん？)
*''ya'' and ''wai'' (わい) can be emphatic sentence-final particles, like ''yo'' (よ)
*Negative potential forms ("can't ''X''") are sometimes expressed as ''yō'' + V-neg. (''yō'' is an onbin of 良く ''yoku'', so literally, "not well ''X''ed")
:''Example:'' "Can't do" (できない ''dekinai'' in standard Japanese) becomes ''yō sen'' (ようせん）
::"Can't go" (行けない ''ikenai'' in standard Japanese) becomes ''yō ikan'' （よう行かん)
*Especially among the elderly, ''kogai'' (こがい), ''sogai'' (そがい), and ''dogai'' (どがい) are used for "this (kind of~)", "that (kind of~)", and "which (kind of~)", respectively (''konna'' こんな, ''sonna'' そんな, ''donna''　どんな in standard Japanese).
*''zonamoshi'' (ぞなもし) is the most famous sentence-final particle of Iyo dialect due to being used in Botchan, a famous novel by Natsume Sōseki, but the usage is now obsolete.

Regional variations

These patterns are found mostly in the Nanyo (southern) region:
*''ga'' (が) replaces ''no'' (の) in some contexts:
:*"Explanatory/inquisitive ''no''" — "What are you doing?" (何してるの？ ''nani shiteru no?'' in standard Japanese) becomes ''nani shiteru ga?'' (何してるが？)
::In combination with the alternate form of the continuative mentioned above, this is usually rendered as ''nani shiyoru ga?'' (何しよるが？)
:*"Although ''-noni''" (～のに) — "But that's what you said!" (そう言ったのに！ ''sō itta noni!'' in standard Japanese) becomes ''sō itta gani!'' (そう言ったがに！)
*Especially in Yawatahama, ''-teya'' (てや) is an emphatic suffix, usually seen in ''sōteya'' (そうてや), which is equivalent to ''sōdayo'' (そうだよ)
::This is thought to be a contraction along the lines of ''sō ya to itta ya'' → ''sō yatte ya'' → ''sōteya''

Vocabulary

Some of the vocabulary in the dialect is readily understandable by speakers of standard Japanese, but many items are so different as to cause significant confusion. An example often proffered by locals is ''kaku'' かく, "to move/carry". For instance, it might be used in the context of a classroom—"Move your desk" (机をかいて ''tsukue o kaite''). This would be incomprehensible to a non-local; a speaker of standard Japanese would interpret this as either "draw a desk" or "scratch your desk".

References

*Takao Kitō, Atsushi Shimizu (2002). Kyō no Iyo-ben: Iyo gogaku no tame ni. Aoba tosho Publishing.

External links

IkataWiki: Iyo dialect
- Analysis of Iyo dialect grammar

(Japanese)
Vocabulary list
(Japanese)

{{Japanese language

Japanese dialects