Mino Dialect

The is a Japanese dialect spoken in the southern area, made up of the former area known as Mino Province, of Gifu Prefecture, Japan. It is also referred to as the Tōnō dialect (東濃弁 ''Tōnō-ben'') by residents of the Tōnō region of the prefecture, which is the eastern part of the former province. It is sometimes also referred to as the Gifu dialect (岐阜弁 ''Gifu-ben''), but that can sometimes include Hida dialect, which is in the northern part of Gifu Prefecture.

Generally speaking, it has many words and grammatical structures that are shared with other nearby dialects, such as the Nagoya and Mikawa dialects in neighboring Aichi Prefecture. However, it also shares features with the Kansai dialect.

Grammar

Up until the Taishō period, the Mino dialect used ''ja'' (じゃ) for copulas and adjectival nouns, and the Mino dialect was occasionally referred to as a "''ja''-language in Mino" (美濃のじゃ言葉 ''Mino no ja-kotoba''). However, because of the influence of the Kansai dialect, the modern Mino dialect generally uses ''ya'' (や) and is compared to the Nagoya dialect which uses ''da'' (だ) for copulas and adjectival nouns.

Standard Japanese emphasizes copulas with ''yo'', such as ''da yo'' (だよ), but the Mino dialect attaches ''te'' (て) to the ''ya'' copula, leading to emphases such as ''ya te'' (やて).

The main difference between verbs in the Mino dialect and in standard Japanese is seen in the negative form. The verb "to eat" (食べる ''taberu'') is written as ''tabenai'' (食べない) as a negative in standard Japanese. In the Mino dialect, ''nai'' is replaced by ''n'' (ん) or ''hen'' (へん), leading to forms such as ''taben'' (食べん) or ''tabehen'' (食べへん). The verb "to go" would similarly be written in the negative form as ''ikan'' (行かん) or ''ikahen'' (行かへん).

Pronunciation

The Mino dialect elides the intervocalic in the sequences ''an'i'' and ''en'i''; the first vowel is lengthened, becoming ''aai'' and ''eei'', respectively. For example, 満員 and 全員 are read as ''man'in'' and ''zen'in'' in standard Japanese, but can be read as ''maain'' and ''zeein'' in the Mino dialect.

The traditional accent pattern for the Mino dialect follow similar patterns to the Tokyo accent, though some of the western areas around Tarui and Sekigahara also show influences from the nearby Kansai accent pattern. Because major cities like Ōgaki and Gifu have many commuters from the surrounding area, modern youth have lost the traditional accent for the dialect.

Examples

Below is a list of example words for the Mino dialect:

Famous persons using Mino dialect

*Yuriko Osada ( 長田 百合子 ''Osada Yuriko'')
* Yoko Kumada (speaks standard Japanese, but uses the Mino dialect on some programs)

See also

*Japanese dialects

References

{{Japanese language

Japanese dialects
Culture in Gifu Prefecture