Girish Mahajan (Editor)

Hakata dialect

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Native to
  
Japan

Glottolog
  
haka1241

Region
  
Fukuoka

Hakata dialect

Language family
  
Japonic Japanese Kyūshū Japanese Hichiku Hakata Japanese

Hakata dialect (博多弁, Hakata-ben) is a Japanese dialect spoken in Fukuoka city. Hakata dialect originated in Hakata commercial district, while a related Fukuoka dialect (福岡弁, Fukuoka-ben) was spoken in the central district. Hakata dialect has spread throughout the city and its suburbs. Most of Japanese regard Hakata dialect as the dialect typical of Fukuoka, so it is sometimes called Fukuoka-ben.

Contents

Hakata dialect is being increasingly used in television interviews in Fukuoka, where previously standard Japanese was expected.

Grammar

The basic grammar of Hakata dialect is similar to other Hichiku dialect such as Saga dialect, Nagasaki dialect and Kumamoto dialect. For example, Hakata dialect uses to or tto as a question, e.g., "What are you doing?", realized in standard Japanese as nani o shiteiru no?, is nan ba shiyo tto? or nan shitō to? in Hakata and other Hichiku dialects.

Vocabulary

Basic words: uchi "I", ātan "you", yoka "yes", innya "no".

References

Hakata dialect Wikipedia