By Seina Manabe, University of Shimane
Students from Shimane and Yamagata Prefectures made a joint presentation of Japanese dialects at Windward Community College in Honolulu, Hawaii, on December 12. While the University of Shimane is in the south and Yamagata University is in the north of Japan, our hometowns are scattered across Japan, so we were able to demonstrate the variety of Japanese dialects.
We decided to show simple Japanese expressions in local dialects across Japan such as “yes,” “eat it,” “come again,” “let’s keep trying,” “I like you,” and “thank you.”
While the formal way of saying “yes” is “hai, ” we were amazed at the diversity of the more colloquial “u-n.” For example, in standard Japanese it is pronounced as “u-n,” which is also used in Ibaraki, Aichi, Ehime, and Kagawa Prefectures, but it is pronounced as “ja-no” in Hiroshima, “so-ge” in Shimane, “n-da” in Aomori, “n-da-zu” in Yamagata, and “n-da-cha” in Miyagai.
There is also a great diversity in how to say “thank you”: “ari-gato” in Ibaraki, “anga-tono” in Hiroshima, “dan-dan” in Ehime and Shimane, “moke-dano” or “o-sho-na” in Yamagata, and “arigato-gozaisu” in Miyagi.
The endings of “come again” varied a lot too: “matakitara-yokappe” in Ibaraki, “mata-korin” in Aichi, “mata-kite-kunnaiya” in Niigata, “matakin-chyaine” in Hiroshima, “mata-kimai” in Kagawa, “mata-oideya” in Ehime, “mata-kite-goshinai” in Shimane, “mata-kite-keroya” in Aomori, “mata-kitero” in Yamagata, and “mata-gozain” in Miyagi.
Everyone felt very shy when they said “I love you” in their local dialects because Japanese seldom express their emotions. The ending also varied from the standard expression of “suki-da.”
We did not know how to express “gan-ba-ro,” a common Japanese phrase in English. It can be translated into English such as “let’s keep trying,” “keep at it,” “keep working,” “try harder,” or “never give up,” depending on the context. We hear this phrase very often when people encourage each other when facing challenges. Again the endings were all different in different dialects.
The presentation went very well and it seems the students at Windward Community College enjoyed listening to our demonstration. It is very difficult to fully convey the intimate and nostalgic feelings we have when we speak with dialects because the intonations of each dialect are very special. For example, in Aichi “thank you” is written as “arigato,” just the same as in standard Japanese, but the middle syllable is raised in the local dialect. Similarly, when saying “I love you” in the Aichi dialect, the “ra” sound in “dera-suki-yani,” must be elongated. Such fine nuances cannot be transcribed in writing.
We would like to thank Professor Swan for giving us this opportunity to introduce Japanese dialects to the Windward Community College students. Preparing for this presentation made us realize how important dialects are. We remembered sweet memories with grandma, grandpa, mom and dad, and old friends. Using dialects automatically connects us to our hometowns. We found that dialects formed our identities. We are very grateful for this opportunity.
