Kumamoto dialect (, ) is a

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of Linguistics, linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety (linguisti ...

of the

Japanese language is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ma ...

spoken in

Kumamoto Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Kumamoto Prefecture has a population of 1,748,134 () and has a geographic area of . Kumamoto Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the north, Ōita Prefecture to ...

. It belongs to the Hichiku group, and shares similarities with other nearby dialects in

Kyushu is the third-largest island of Japan's five main islands and the most southerly of the four largest islands ( i.e. excluding Okinawa). In the past, it has been known as , and . The historical regional name referred to Kyushu and its surroun ...

Features

Adjectives

The

I adjective This article deals with Japanese equivalents of English adjectives. Types of adjective In Japanese, nouns and verbs can modify nouns, with nouns taking the 〜の particles when functioning attributively (in the genitive case), and verbs in the ...

Standard Japanese is spoken natively by about 128 million people, primarily by Japanese people and primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language. Japanese belongs to the Japonic or Japanese- Ryukyuan language family. There have been ma ...

becomes "か" (ka) in Kumamoto dialect: うまい (umai, "tasty") > うまか (umaka) よい (yoi, "good") > よか (yoka) This feature is found in other Kyushu dialects. The negative conjugation "ない" (nai) also becomes "なか" (naka).

Accent

Unlike Standard Japanese, Kumamoto dialect is described as "accentless", meaning it has no fixed tonal pattern.

Words

Kumamoto dialect has a different set of Ko-so-a-do words: これ (kore, "this") > こっ (ko') それ (sore, "that") > そっ (so') あれ (are, "that over there") > あっ (a') どれ (dore, "which") > どっ (do')

References

{{Japonic-lang-stub Japanese dialects Kumamoto