Nagaoka dialect

Nagaoka dialect is a dialect of the Japanese language spoken in Chūetsu region centered Nagaoka city in Niigata prefecture of Japan. Nagaoka dialect is similar to Niigata dialect spoken in the Shin'etsu region. It differs somewhat from town to town.

Accent

The accent of the Nagaoka dialect is classified as being among the outer range of the Tokyo accent group. With the development of modern media and transportation in recent years, there has been a trend, mostly among younger people, to use the middle range of the Tokyo accent group, which was originally used only in Itoigawa. For example, two-syllable words originally having a heiban accent, meaning a word ending with a high pitch that carries over to the following particle, have changed to an odaka accent, meaning the high pitch no longer carries over to the particle.
Some additional difference from the standard Tokyo dialect:

Japanese word	Tokyo accent	Nagaoka accent	English translation
ネズミ	nezumi	neꜜzumi	rat
卵	tamaꜜgo	taꜜmago	egg
服	fuku	fuꜜku	clothes
靴	kutsu	kuꜜtsu	shoe

Grammar

''ga''

The postposition ga is probably the best known element of the Nagaoka dialect. It is typically placed at the end of sentences to alter the speaker's tone. It is basically equivalent to yo or no in standard Japanese. It is often pronounced with a lengthened vowel sound, i.e. gā, written in Japanese as がー or がぁ.
Features of ga:

When spoken with rising intonation it can often indicate a question, while falling intonation often shows the speaker's understanding or concent.
Unlike regular postpositions, additional postpositions can be added after ga, such as ka, ya and te.
The copula da/''desu and the polite form -masu can be abbreviated when ga is added, e.g. "This is Nagaoka." which would be rendered in standard Japanese as Koko wa Nagaoka na n da would be Koko wa Nagaoka n ga'' . Other auxiliary verbs are not removed.

''te''

Like ga, te is generally attached to the end of a sentence, and carries a meaning similar to yo in standard Japanese. Unlike ga, however, da, desu and -masu are not removed when te is added, e.g. "This is Nagaoka", rendered in standard Japanese as Koko wa Nagaoka da yo would be Koko wa Nagaoka da te in Nagaoka dialect.

''ra''

The copula da and its derivative darō are replaced with ra and raro, e.g. standard Japanese Sō darō? becomes Sō raro? in Nagaoka dialect.

Vocabulary

Below is a list of example words from the Nagaoka dialect:

Nagaoka dialect	Standard Japanese	English	Lexical category
atchē	atsui	hot	adjective
ga	yo	see above	particle
ga, nga, gan	to iu mono, na mono	that, thing	particle
-gakeba	-nara	if	verb ending
na, nā	anata	you	pronoun
shagu, shagitsukeru	naguru, tataku	to hit, to strike	verb
shakkoi	tsumetai	cold	adjective
soiga, sōiga	sō na no da	oh really, is that so	phrase
sorotto	sorosoro	soon, steadily, gradually	adverb
suke, rasuke	da kara, na no de	because	conjunction
te	yo	see above	particle
najira	...wa dō desu ka?	asking someone's opinion of something	phrase
butcharu	suteru	throw out, throw away	verb
mojakuru	kushakusha ni marumeru	to crumple up into a ball	phrase
yakkoi	yawarakai	soft	adjective
nomeshikoki	mendōkusagari, namakemono	lazy person	noun
shōshii	hazukashii	shy, embarrassed	adjective