なんでやねん!

← Previous (Advanced Volitional) | Table of Contents



Kansai Dialect

is a region of Japan that includes some of the largest cities in Japan such as 大阪 (Osaka), and 京都 (Kyoto). While there are many dialects with distinct characteristics within that region, 関西弁 is often used to roughly describe the dialect of that entire region based mostly on 大阪弁 (Osaka dialect). 関西弁 is one of the most widely-used dialects in Japanese, second only to the standard (Tokyo) dialect. While standard Japanese is understood everywhere in Japan, you're going to eventually have to become at least somewhat familiar with 関西弁 in order to understand a large portion of the Japanese population either in the media or in real life. In fact, while all Japanese native speakers may not be able to speak in 関西弁, they all understand it to a certain degree.

There are four major types of differences in the language that makes up a dialect: grammar, sentence endings, vocabulary, and pitches. In this section, we will take a look at the major differences in grammar, sentence endings, and vocabulary. This will be enough to understand most of the dialect. However, in order to actually speak the dialect, you need to master all the differences in pitches, which is beyond the scope of this text.

The differences in pitches are what really gives 関西弁 its distinct flavor and characteristic. For example, if you said, 「ありがとう」 in the standard dialect, you would raise and lower the pitch on the 「り」 like so: 「/\がとう」. However, in 関西弁, you would raise the pitch on the last 「とう」 like so: 「ありが/とう」. While understanding 関西弁 is not too difficult, if you want to speak the dialect like a true local, you need to train yourself to speak with the different tones and pitches by mimicking people who speak the dialect. However, I strongly recommend maintaining your standard Japanese as well because, after all, it is the standard language.

Common Vocabulary in the Kansai Dialect

Let's first look at some vocabulary more commonly used in the Kansai dialect. We are going to become familiar with the Kansai version of some of the most common vocabulary so that we can recognize it when it is used by Kansai speakers. Given below is a table of some of the most common words in the Kansai dialect and the equivalent in the standard dialect.

KansaiStandard
ええいい
ほんま本当
ちゃう違う
しんどいつらい

While the meaning of the word of each version is the same dialects, it is important to note that they are not the same grammatically. In fact, in many cases, vocabulary particular to a dialect can only be used as is and cannot be conjugated into other forms such as the negative or past tense.

Negative Verbs using 「へん」

One of the biggest differences betweem 関西弁 and the standard dialect is the negative tense of verbs for casual speech. Basically, the 「ない」 ending of the verb is replaced by 「へん」. For the past tense, 「なかった」 becomes 「へんかった」. Here is a simple chart outlining the difference.

Negative verbs in 関西弁
標準語関西弁
Non-Pastわからないわからへん
Pastわからなかったわからへんかった
The regular exceptions verbs 「する」 and 「くる」 becomes 「せえへん」 and 「こおへん」. The negative past is quite simple as it is identical to the negative but with 「かった」 attached to the end.
Using Negative Verbs in 関西弁

Examples

(1) 相手は剣の達人だ。そう簡単には勝てまい
- Your opponent is a master of the sword. I doubt you can win so easily.

(2) そんな無茶な手段は認めますまい
- I won't approve of such an unreasonable method!

We already learned that you can use the volitional form to say, "lets" and to express an attempt do something. But that doesn't mean you can use the negative volitional to say "let's not". Also, while you can use it as an attempt to not do something, people just use 「ようにする」 unless they wanted to sound old-fashioned. The tone of this grammar carries a very strong determination to not do something, as you'll see in the examples.

(1) その時までは決し彼に会うまいと心に決めていた。
- Until that time, I had decided in my heart to not meet him by any means.

(2) あの人は、二度と嘘をつくまいと誓ったのです。
- That person had sworn to never lie again.

Using the volitional to express a lack of caring

で -> よ わ どってでもええで We will now learn a grammar that's actually practical for everyday use using the negative volitional grammar. Basically, we can use both volitional and negative volitional forms to say it doesn't matter whether something is going to happen or not. This is done by attaching 「が」 to both the volitional and the negative volitional form of the verb that doesn't matter.
Using the volitional to express a lack of relation

Examples

(1) あいつが大学に入ろうが入るまいが、俺とは関係ないよ。
- Whether that guy is going to college or not, it has nothing to do with me.

(2) 時間があろうがあるまいが、間に合わせるしかない。
- Whether there is time or not, there's nothing to do but make it on time.

(3) 最近のウィルスは強力で、プログラムを実行しようがしまいが、ページを見るだけで感染するらしい。
- The viruses lately have been strong and whether you run a program or not, I hear it will spread just by looking at the page.

Using 「であろう」 to express likelihood

http://www.shurey.com/Kansai/ We already found out that the negative volitional can be used as kind of a formal version of 「でしょう」 and 「だろう」. You may wonder, how would you do the same thing for the volitional? The answer is to conjugate the verb 「ある」 from the formal state of being 「である」 to the volitional to produce 「であろう」. Remember 「でしょう」 can already be used as a polite form, so this form is even a step above that in formality. We'll see what kind of language uses this form in the examples.
Using 「であろう」 to express likelihood

Examples

(1) 今後50年、人間が直面するであろう問題に正面から向き合って、自ら解決をはかりつつ、そのノウハウが次の産業となるシナリオを考えたい。(from www.jkokuryo.com)
- I would like to directly approach problems that humans have likely encounter the next 50 years and while measuring solutions, take that knowledge and think about scenarios that will become the next industry.

(2) もちろん、生徒数減少の現在、学科の新設は困難であろうが、職業科の統廃合や科内コースの改編などで時代に合わせた変革が求められているはずである。(from www1.normanet.ne.jp)
- Of course, new educational facilities will likely be difficult with this period of decreasing student population but with reorganizations of subjects and courses within subjects, there is supposed to be demand for reform fit for this period.

Using 「かろう」 as volitional for 「い」 endings

We learned in the lesson about formal grammar that 「ではない」 was the negative of 「である」. So how would we say something like 「であろう」 but for the negative tense? The answer is to use yet another type of volitional for negative tenses and i-adjectives used only in formal and literary contexts. You may remember that 「だろう」 could only be used for nouns and na-adjectives. You can think of this grammar as a very old-fashioned version for i-adjectives and negative 「い」 endings.

The conjugation rule is simple: remove the last 「い」 and attach 「かろう」. You can use it for negative tenses and i-adjectives just like the 「かった」 past conjugation form.

Using 「かろう」 to express volition for 「い」 endings

Examples

(1) どんな商品でもネットで販売するだけで売上が伸びるというものではなかろう。(from www.kojii.net)
- It's not necessarily the case that sales go up just by selling any type of product on the net.

(2) 運動を始めるのが早かろう遅かろうが、健康にいいというのは変わりません。
- Whether you start exercising early or late, the fact that it's good for you health doesn't change.

(3) 休日であろうが、なかろうが、この仕事では関係ないみたい。
- Whether it's a holiday or not, it looks like it doesn't matter for this job.

← Previous (Advanced Volitional) Table of Contents

This page has last been revised on 2005/4/27