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Micky
About the accents in Kansai
I know that there are many different accents in Kansai, which might be quite different from the Japanese we heard in drama or tv series. Can someone tell me that, is the Kansai accent really differs greatly from the Kantou accent? Is it difficult to learn?
Jul 24, 2012 3:02 PM
Answers · 4
Each region of Japan has different language forms indeed. They are not so many differences between one another, as long as you know some basic structures. [obviously in smaller villages, you may encounter people using dialectal words, which are hardly intellegible with standard japanese].
If you want to learn Kansai-ben, you have a great advantage, because most of the comedians you see in Japanese TV, are from Osaka area. Have a look and you will clearly notice the differences!
One of the distinctive features of Kansai-ben is the basic copula や [instead of だ・です]
Other thing you will hear often is ほんま -honma- instead of ほんと -honto- "really/just"
ex. interjection ほんとだ!-hontoda!- "it is true! / it´s just/really like that! etc" becomes ほんまや -honmaya-!
and あかん -akan- instead of いけない -ikenai- "it is not good to..." [please notice the contraction of the negative form /ない/ to /ん/]
Typical words such as おおきに -ookini- for ありがとう "thank you" and ええ -ee- for いい -ii- "good/right", are used very often too.
The accent itself is quite different from Kanto. It has a different pitch pattern. You will recognize it from experience.
In any case, if you visit Kansai as a tourist, most of the people will address to you in standard Japanese, probably with a little accent, but it is completely understandable, so do not worry.
July 24, 2012
Btw your profile pic is sooo cute... could you tell me what anime it is from?
July 25, 2012
Hmm so you want to learn to speak Kansai-ben??
July 25, 2012
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Micky
Language Skills
Chinese (Mandarin), Chinese (Cantonese), English, Japanese, Portuguese
Learning Language
Japanese, Portuguese
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