Chūgoku dialects

The Chūgoku dialect is a group of the Japanese dialects spoken in most of the Chūgoku region and in the northwestern Kansai region. It may be separated into two groups according to the form of the copula.

copula ja group
* Aki also known as Hiroshima dialect
* Bingo dialect
** Fukuyama dialect
* Okayama dialect
* Yamaguchi also known as Chōshū dialect
copula da group
* Iwami dialect
** ja is also used in western Iwami region.
* Inshū, also known as Tottori dialect
* Tajima dialect
* Tango dialect

Although Kansai dialect uses copula ya, Chūgoku dialect mainly uses ja or da. Chūgoku dialect uses ken or kee instead of kara meaning "because". ken is also used in Umpaku dialect, Shikoku dialect, Hōnichi dialect and Hichiku dialect. In addition, Chūgoku dialect uses -yoru in progressive aspect and -toru or -choru in perfect. For example, Tarō wa benkyō shiyoru means "Taro is studying", and Tarō wa benkyō shitoru means "Taro has studied" while standard Japanese speakers say Tarō wa benkyō shiteiru in both situations. -Choru is used mostly in Yamaguchi dialect.
Japanese [pitch accent|Pitch accent] of Chūgoku dialect is similar to the Tokyo accent and is a contrast to Kansai dialect and Shikoku dialect.