Kaga dialect

The Kaga dialect is a dialect of Japanese spoken in the southern half of Ishikawa Prefecture in central Japan.

Regional variation

The Kaga dialect is broadly divided into three regional dialects, which include:

The North Kaga dialect, centred around Kanazawa. Also known as the Kanazawa dialect and sometimes treated separately to the wider Kaga dialect. It may also be known as Kanazawa kotoba, but this term in particular refers predominantly to the phrases used in customer service that have developed in the hanamachi district of its old town.
The Central Kaga 'dialect centred around Komatsu. Includes the vernacular of the former village of Shiramine, Hakusan, known as the Shiramine, or Jige dialect. The Shiramine dialect is a language island that differs considerably from other Kaga dialects.
The South Kaga dialect' centred around Kaga City.
Phonology

General features

Single-mora nouns become lengthened, like me → mē and te → tē.
* In areas such as Komatsu, two-mora first-class nouns are lengthened. For example: hashi → hāshi, ashi → āshi.
In Shiramine, a /tu/ sound can be heard.
Except when beginning a word, g-starting mora become nasalised.
At the end of words or in breaks in conversation, an ‘undulating’ intonation and underline ) appears. It is a characteristic phenomena of Hokuriku dialects, and is known as kantō or yusuri intonation. Even among the younger generation, whose Japanese is increasingly standardised, this intonation is common. Below are some examples:
* sore de → honde → hondee'e
* ~da kedo → ~ya kedo → yakedoo'o .
* ano ne → anoon-nē
* etto ne → ettoon-nē.
The demonstrative stem so- sometimes becomes ho-.
* Sō da → sō ya ・ hō ya.
* Soshite → hoshite, etc.
Among the older generation, there remains a distinction between ka and kwa, such as between kaji and kwaji.
Pitch accent

According to Haruhiko Kindaichi, the pitch accent of Kaga dialects is considered to be intermediate between the Kyoto and Tokyo standards. Two-mora nouns like ka-ze are pronounced flat in both the Tokyo and Kyoto standards, but have a characteristic so-called kakō standard tone in Shiramine. When independent of any particles, the first mora is pronounced somewhat higher and the second mora falls slightly. When a particle is attached, the second mora is higher and gently falls from the third mora onwards. Second- and third-class two-mora nouns like ya-ma are front-mora stressed and fourth- and fifth-class two-mora nouns like ka-sa are unaccented. In plain area, however, pitch accent changes depending on the type of vowel used. For example, in Daishoji, Kaga City, among first-, second- and third-class two-mora nouns, those with a close vowel as their second mora are front-mora stressed and those with an open vowel are final-mora stressed. Conversely, among those born in Showa Era Kanazawa, first-, second- and third-class two-mora nouns with a voiced consonant and close vowel as their second mora are front-mora stressed and those with a consonant and open vowel as their second mora are final-mora stressed. Among the generation born between the Meiji Era and the mid-Taisho era, however, first-class nouns are all final-mora stressed, differentiating them from second- and third-class nouns. In Kanazawa, fourth- and fifth-class nouns are unaccented. This pitch accent system is also found in the former town of Imajō in Fukui Prefecture.

	Word	Shiramine	Daishōji	Kanazawa	Kanazawa
First class nouns	mizu	〇〇	〇〇	〇〇	〇〇
First class nouns	taki	〇〇	〇〇	〇〇	〇〇
First class nouns	kaze	〇〇	〇〇	〇〇	〇〇
Second and third class nouns	inu	〇〇	〇〇	〇〇	〇〇
Second and third class nouns	yuki	〇〇	〇〇	〇〇	〇〇
Second and third class nouns	yama	〇〇	〇〇	〇〇	〇〇
Fourth and fifth class nouns	ame	〇〇	〇〇	〇〇	〇〇

Expressions and grammar

Kanazawa dialect

Men often attach ya and women ne to the end of words.
The casual interrogative no becomes ga, a trait found throughout Ishikawa and Niigata and is also shared with the Tosa dialect. For example:
* sonna no ga ii no ka? → honna ga ga ii ga ke?.
''~masshi'' (〜まっし)

The soft imperative -masshi can be used in place of -nasai. This is considered an iconic Kanazawa dialect expression. It is a euphonically-changed form of the respect particle -masaru 's imperative form, -masare. Although -masaru is now only heard among the older generation, -masshi continues to be comparatively well used even among the younger generation due to possessing a specific degree of 'softness' not found in other imperative forms in standard Japanese. Save for to the attributive form, -masshi formerly connected directly onto the dictionary form of Godan verbs. After World War II, however, this was influenced by the way -nasai connected to the -masu stem in standard Japanese, so that -masshi also came to connect to Godan verbs in the style of . Due to this generational change, some older speakers consider expressions like ganbari-masshi to be improper. The ending of -masshi can sometime change like in -masshi ne or -masshima, with the latter having a stronger nuance.

Informal imperatives

-ne, -nema, -, -ima and -iya are used in informal imperative expressions. For example:

okinasai → okimasshi, okine, okinema, oki, okiima or okiiya.

In the case of ~shine, this means that the second portion of the dialectal equivalent of hayaku shinasai, hayo shine, becomes a homophone with the second part of the vulgar hayaku shine. In reality, however, the shine sound is avoided and hayo senkai ne is more commonly said.

''Ga yo'' (がや) and ''ga ne'' (がね)

Equivalent to da yo and no da, respectively. Among those middle-aged and younger, the informal ganya, gan and gē are also spoken, with a further derivative of gē, gen, being widely used among predominantly the younger generation. Gen is also widely used outside of Kanazawa in areas such as Komatsu. Gan and gen sometimes merge with the sound preceding them. For example:

Suru-gan → suran, suru-gen → suren.
Iku-gan → ikan, iku-gen → iken.
Tabeta-gen → tabeten
Suki-na-gen → suki-nen, etc.
''Jii'' (じー) and ''Wē'' (うぇー)

Kanazawa-unique sentence-ending particles that express emphasis. Jii expresses feelings of unexpectedness or surprise, whilst wē expresses feelings of pride. Although jii is still used among young people, wē is slightly negative nuance has led to its decline. Jii is considered to be a modified form of ze whilst wē is thought to be a corruption of wai or e. For example:

ii nekutai shiteru nē → ii nekutai shitoru jii.
ii nekutai shiteru desho → ii nekutai shitoru wē.
''Ke'' (け)

Interrogative sentence-ending particle equivalent to kai in standard Japanese. Compared to ka, it displays greater intimacy and kindness, and is widely used by both sexes. Ke often experiences sokuon like in shitokke and shite kurekke? . In parts of the Kinki Region such as Kyoto and Osaka, ke is regarded as a rude, masculine expression, which can lead to misunderstandings between people from Kanazawa and these areas during conversation.

''Asobase'' (あそばせ)

When interacting with customers in hanamachi districts, so-called ‘asobase language' like in o-agari-asobase ) or irashite-oide-asobase is widely used. Asobase is a phrase borrowed from the imperial court language of Kyoto and is a renowned expression of the traditional Kanazawa kotoba.

Shiramine dialect

''Gira'' (ぎら)

First-person pronoun used by men in Shiramine. When written in Kanji it becomes 儀等. Recently it has experienced euphony and is often pronounced as gyā. As with the Fukui dialect, in Kuwajima District, it is said as ura. Its plural forms are girara and urara, respectively.

''Wae'' (わえ)

Second person pronoun used by men in Shiramine. Its e is actually an intermediate sound between i and e. Its plural form is warra.

''Asai kuwasshaimashita ka yo'' (あさいくわっしゃいましたかよ)

Equivalent to ohayo gozaimasu. The asai is a corruption of asameshi. The expression literally translates to asa-gohan wo o-tabe ni narimashita ka?.