Tokyo ben and Kansai ben - Japanese has many local dialects.

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                                                                                           ID number 4580175

                                                                                           ERS section 3

                                                                                          Assignment 5: Compare/contrast

                                                                                           Due date: 2 December 2002

                                                       Tokyo ben and Kansai ben

        Japanese has many local dialects. The two dialects with the largest number of

speakers are the eastern and western dialects. The eastern dialect is called “Tokyo ben”

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which is equivalent to standard Japanese and the western dialect is called “Kansai ben” which is

spoken in western Japan such as Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe. There are four main differences between

Tokyo ben and Kansai ben affecting vocabulary, spelling, pronunciation and grammar.

        

The first difference is vocabulary. Different dialects use different words for the same

things. For example, “arigato”(thank you) is used in Tokyo ben while “maido ookini”(thank you)

is used in Kansai ben instead (Rie-Higuchi,2002). The easterners say “yano-assatte”(the day after

tomorrow), “shoppai”(salty) and “-nai”(not) ...

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