The Tohoku dialect is a group of Japanese dialects spoken in the Tohoku region of northeastern Honshu, part of the Eastern Japanese dialect family. It differs from standard Japanese enough that it is sometimes given subtitles on national television, and its most distinctive feature, the neutralization of the vowels i and u after coronal consonants so that words such as sushi, susu and shishi become indistinguishable, has earned it the nickname Zuzu-ben; unvoiced stops also become voiced between vowels, with prenasalization that scholars believe preserves an older Japanese pronunciation. Grammatically it uses a volitional suffix, be or ppe, descended from the archaic beshi, and the directional particle sa, a usage traceable to the Muromachi period, and it is often portrayed in Japanese popular culture as the archetypal rural dialect.
Facts
RegionSpoken in the Tohoku region, the northeastern region of Honshu, Japan. 1 Speaker CommunityToward the northern part of Honshu the dialect can differ so dramatically from standard Japanese that it is sometimes rendered with subtitles for intelligibility in nationwide media, and it has been treated as the typical rural dialect in Japanese popular culture. 1 Distinguishing FeaturesA notable feature is the neutralization of the high vowels i and u after coronal obstruents, so that sushi, susu ('soot') and shishi ('lion') become homophonous, a feature that gives the dialect the nickname Zuzu-ben. 1 Classification
Variety Kind In the Other Atlases
- Also in Geography Atlas: Asia, found in there.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Tohoku Dialect
Wikimedia FoundationLead section
Toward the northern part of Honshū, the Tōhoku dialect can differ so dramatically from standard Japanese that it is sometimes rendered with subtitles for intelligibility in the nationwide media and it has been treated as the typical rural dialect in Japanese popular culture.
Phonetics section
A notable linguistic feature of the Tōhoku dialect is its neutralization of the high vowels "i" and "u" (Standard [i] and [ɯᵝ]) after coronal obstruents, so that the words sushi, susu ('soot'), and shishi ('lion') are rendered homophonous, where they would have been distinct in other dialects. In light of this, Tōhoku dialect is sometimes referred to as Zūzū-ben.
Variety kind, Tohoku Dialect entity page
The Tohoku dialect is a group of Japanese dialects spoken in the Tohoku region of northeastern Honshu, part of the Eastern Japanese dialect family.
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