Japanese message PLEASE READ

[MMM]

Harsh? C'mon...that's feeling.

[kenmei]

Originally Posted by MMM

Harsh? C'mon...that's feeling.

you don't think blabbering robots in annoying tones have feeling? c'mon

[MMM]

Originally Posted by kenmei

you don't think blabbering robots in annoying tones have feeling? c'mon

I am not sure what that means, but I lived in Kansai, and enjoy the dialects of the area to no end. Yes, I know some people in other parts of the country find it intimidating, but I find it refreshing.

[kenmei]

Originally Posted by MMM

I am not sure what that means, but I lived in Kansai, and enjoy the dialects of the area to no end. Yes, I know some people in other parts of the country find it intimidating, but I find it refreshing.

was refering to kanto

[chryuop]

Are those dialects so different? I mean he understood it by just a couple of phrases...

[enyafriend]

Originally Posted by chryuop

Are those dialects so different? I mean he understood it by just a couple of phrases...

Well, let's put it this way.

Kanto dialect is like how English is being spoken by New Yorkers.
If you have ever listened to NHK news, well, they're in real serious tones, almost robotic. The average people in Kanto region speaks in a rather relax manner.

However, over in the Kansai region, the dialect is like how people speaks in e.g. Texas. The average Kansai people speaks relatively fast Japanese and have different tunes and tones in their speech as compared to their monotonous Kanto speakers.

Well, at least that is how I compare them. But of course, that is just a personal view.

[chryuop]

I understand about speed and so on. In my native country (Italy) there are 20 regions and just by hearing the accent of people speaking I can tell where they come from. We too have dialect and actually they are very different (so different that from a region to another they couldn't understand one another).
I was wondering is the same is for Japanese since they were telling the dialect from the message written in the thread...not by hearing the accent of their spoken Japanese.

[MMM]

Originally Posted by enyafriend

Well, let's put it this way.

Kanto dialect is like how English is being spoken by New Yorkers.
If you have ever listened to NHK news, well, they're in real serious tones, almost robotic. The average people in Kanto region speaks in a rather relax manner.

However, over in the Kansai region, the dialect is like how people speaks in e.g. Texas. The average Kansai people speaks relatively fast Japanese and have different tunes and tones in their speech as compared to their monotonous Kanto speakers.

Well, at least that is how I compare them. But of course, that is just a personal view.

But New Yorkers talk fast and other Americans find their style of speech as intimidating, like Kansai-dialect.

[kenmei]

Originally Posted by chryuop

I understand about speed and so on. In my native country (Italy) there are 20 regions and just by hearing the accent of people speaking I can tell where they come from. We too have dialect and actually they are very different (so different that from a region to another they couldn't understand one another).
I was wondering is the same is for Japanese since they were telling the dialect from the message written in the thread...not by hearing the accent of their spoken Japanese.

within the different dialects of japan they have both pronunciation changes and changes to actual words. different word endings and totally different words even can pinpoint a person to a specific region and sometime even a specific ken within that region. so there are both words and sounds that can be identified with different bens (ben = dialect).

speaking in generalities, kansai-ben is more "harsh" sounding (esp. to kanto ppl) and is very slang/relaxed oriented speaking. Nagoyankee was refering to my signature "hora kao agee na" (lit. "hey! lift your head" eng: "don't look down/be down on yourself") in which "age na" is a very slangy form of ageru and ne and can be considered almost like a command (which is where the "harsh" soundingness comes into play).

and for the sentance where he got kanto-ben from, i said "jitsu wa rainen no haru ni ikitai demo kane ga nai'ssu yo .. dakara, tabun rainen no aki ni ikimasu~ (datte natsu wa chou mushiatsui... chou yabai .. mainichi aikon no soba ni itai) disecting this sentance, most of it is "kanto ben" or standard japanese, however there are little words in their that are kinda specific to kanto region slang. specifically "chou" and "yabai" chou meaning "a lot" and yabai meaning "not good"

so for nagoyankee it was pretty easy to pick up the differences in the two based on text alone, because certain words/terms are specific to certain areas. i could go on about this subject but i'm not too proficient in kansai ben to be honest there's tons of small things like the endings of words (negative form for example..use "hen" instead of "nai" for the negative use of verbs)


MMM and Paul could probably help you out better since they've hailed from that region.

[chryuop]

Thank you, that was very clear.