Colloquial Kansai Dictionary

Preface

まいど、まいど and welcome to Kansai Japan, the land of historic temples, beautiful 芸子げいこ, majestic mountains, and a vibrant, growing economy. Kindly leave your shoes and Tokyo dialect by the door. Remember to open your mouth when you speak here. If you like, you can roll your R's all the way down Mt. Rokko. The more expression in your voice, the better. Tell jokes. Go ahead, don't be afraid. You're among friends: this is Kansai.

If you've been here long, you have already noticed that nobody is speaking the Japanese you so diligently studied in classes and textbooks. But you're going to have to learn the language of the streets. Of course, you can continue speaking the so-called 標準語ひょうじゅんご, standard Japanese, the language of poker-faced bureaucrats up in Tokyo, exactly as it is taught on NHK, but you'll bore everybody and you sure won't have a clue as to what people are saying to you.

We have written this book for people who, like us, despite years of studying Japanese, or even being a Japanese native, felt clueless when they moved to the Kansai region and wore out their dictionaries trying in vain to find the meaning of words like ほんま、あかん、しもた、and ちゃう. Despite being the language spoken by every one of your honorable neighbors, including your teachers, it isn't taught in classes and there are no textbooks, tapes, or television shows to help master it. Yet, not only does learning the language make it possible to understand everyone else, but Kansai-ben is also a more expressive language, a more enjoyable dialect to speak than Tokyo-ben. And although it may seem strange for a foreigner to speak Kansai-ben (like a Japanese person affecting a Cockney accent or an Alabama drawl), it works wonders in livening up conversations, even in Tokyo.

If you're living in the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe area, we hope you will find this an indispensable road map to the language surrounding you. If you live elsewhere in the Kansai region, you should find that nearly all of our explanations are applicable, but that each region's dialect has its own pronunciation, special words, and other peculiarities you will need to pick up by paying close attention to your neighbors' speech patterns. If you live elsewhere in the southern half of Honshu, such as Nagoya, Hiroshima, or Okayama, we expect you will also find this useful, since the language spoken throughout the area has more in common with Kansai-ben than with 標準語. But you should listen carefully for differences, and may want to consider writing a book similar to this one yourself. If you live anywhere else in Japan or, God forbid, are still stuck in Tokyo, you can at least pretend to live in Kansai and lighten up those monotonous conversations.

So pour yourself a glass of beer or a cup of hot Nada sake, put on your Hanshin Tigers baseball cap, and learn to speak like a native. 頑張がんばってな！

What is Kinki?

The Kinki region of Japan called 近畿地方きんきちほう in Japanese, covers a wide region in the southern half of the main 本州ほんしゅう island. Although the area considered part of the Kinki region has varied through history, it is now legally defined as the two cities (府ふ) of Osaka and Kyoto and the five prefectures (県けん) of Hyogo, Mie, Nara, Shiga, and Wakayama or, in less legal terms, the land south of Nagoya and north of Okayama. This region includes Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, Nara, Akashi, the Ise Peninsula, and Awaji Island. Of course, there are differences in the language across such a large area containing such drastic contrasts in living styles and history, but these local variations are all considered sub-dialects of Kansai-ben.

What then is Kansai? Although the word "Kansai" is used much more frequently than "Kinki," unfortunately the meaning of Kansai is somewhat muddled. Officially, Kansai is synonymous with Kinki, but in actual usage it usually applies only to the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe area This tri-city region is usually abbreviated in Japanese as Kei-Han-Shin (京阪神), taking one character from the name of each city. Kei-Han-Shin also includes the suburban cities in between, such as Ibaragi, Hirakata, and Nishinomiya.

To make matters even more confusing, the version of Kansai-ben spoken in Osaka is often referred to as Osaka-ben, but as most outsiders cannot tell the difference, and because Osaka is by far the largest city in the region, quite often anyone who uses words such as あかん and ほんま is considered to be speaking Osaka-ben.

To keep things simple, we consider all the variations of Japanese spoken throughout the Kinki region to be part of Kansai-ben, and have tried to indicate the words or phrases that are used only in Osaka or only in the Kei-Han-Shin area.

We would also like to note that although many other areas of Central, Southern, and Western Honshu, such as Nagoya, Okayama, and Hiroshima, are not considered to be part of the Kinki region, the language in these areas has more in common with Kansai-ben than with standard Japanese. We have therefore tried to make this book useful for people living in these regions as well.

The Dialect

Why does the language spoken in Kansai differ from that in Tokyo and even vary from place to place within Kansai, even within the city of Osaka? The reason lies in the fact that before the advent of modern transportation and communication, residents of each area had little contact with people from more than a few miles away. As the language grew and changed, it did so within the confines of each locality. With the advent of modern communications, as well as the centralization of power in Tokyo, nearly everyone in Japan became able to understand and speak the officially sanctioned version of Japanese (the Tokyo version, of course). Regional dialects, however, although diminishing in usage, are still a fact of life in Japan. Children still master the local dialect spoken by parents and friends long before they are taught to speak standard Japanese.

But why are some words used in Kansai while different words with nearly identical meanings are used in Tokyo, and why are certain pronunciations of the same word favored in Kansai over the standard pronunciation? Essentially, it is because that is the way it is, but there are a few guiding rules for newcomers to Kansai-ben.

• Many words in standard Japanese are contracted. Note the following examples.

Kansai	Standard	English
よう	よく	very, well
おもろい	面白おもしろい	interesting
ちゃう	違ちがう	wrong
こら	これは	this is
そら	それは	that is

• For no reason other than history, certain words are used in Kansai while others are used in Tokyo

Kansai	Standard	English
ぬくい	暖あたたかい	warm
こそばい	くすぐったい	ticklish
こける	転ころぶ	fall down
ほかす	捨すてる	throw away

• "S" sounds in standard Japanese are often replaced by "H" sounds.

Kansai	Standard	English
-はん	-さん	Mr., Ms., Mrs., Miss
-まへん	-ません	(negative conjugation)
-まひょう	-ましょう	("let's do" conjugation)

• です and its variations are replaced by や.

Kansai	Standard	English
や	だ	is
やろ	だろう	don't you think?
やから	だから	therefore

• Long vowels, especially at the end of words, are often shortened.

Kansai	Standard	English
行いこ	行こう	let's go
しょ	しょう	let's do
そや、せや	そうだ	yes

• Short vowels at the end of words are sometimes lengthened.

Kansai	Standard	English
手てえ	手	hand
毛けえ	毛	hair
蚊かあ	蚊	mosquito
木きい	木	tree
血ちい	血	blood
戸とお	戸	door

• Double consonants (denoted by っ) are often softened or replaced with a long vowel.

Kansai	Standard	English
つこうて、つこて	使つかって	use
買こうた	買かった	bought
もろた、もうた	もらった	received
ゆうて	言いって	say

• The final vowel of words ending with two vowels, especially adjectives that end in -い, are dropped in informal conversations and the final sound is lengthened for emphasis. Stronger emphasis is indicated by longer sounds.

Emphasized	Kansai	English
しんど～	しんどい	tiring
おもろ～	おもろい	interesting
ごっつ～	ごっつい	very
あつ～	暑あつい	hot
いた～	痛いたい	painful
くさ～	臭くさい	smelly

• Although the level of formality depends on the person, place, and situation, in general the language in Kansai is less formal than in Tokyo. Typical conversations among Kinki people sound a notch less formal than those among Tokyoites, who consider this to be more an expression of bad manners than friendliness. Of course, there are large gradations in formality in Kansai-ben as well as in standard Japanese, and it is important to speak with the correct level of formality in each situation. Women tend to speak more politely and use more standard Japanese than men.

• Kansai-ben speakers often repeat the same word twice. This is especially common when showing sympathy or relieving someone's anxiety.

かまへん、かまへん	I don't mind at all.
ちゃう、ちゃう	No, that's not right.

• Accentuation of words also differs, but it is difficult to give any rules other than to recommend listening to your neighbors instead of language tapes, especially as there are large variations even within Kansai. Here are some examples of how pronunciation in Kansai differs from Tokyo.
The most often cited example is the homonym あめ, which can mean either rain 雨, or candy 飴. In Kansai, the word for rain is accented on the second syllable a-ME, and the word for candy is unaccented a-me. In Tokyo, the accentuation is on the first syllable A-me for rain and on the second syllable a-ME for candy. Here are a few more examples:

Kansai	Tokyo	Kanji	English
a-ME	A-me	雨	rain
a-me	a-ME	飴	candy
HA-shi	ha-shi	橋	bridge
ha-shi	HA-shi	箸	chopsticks
I-nu	i-NU	犬	dog
DE-n-sha	de-n-sha	電車	train
o-ha-YO-u	o-HA-YOU	お早う	good morning
FU-ku	fu-KU	服	clothes
KU-tsu	ku-TSU	靴	shoes
bu-SU	BU-su	ぶす	ugly
chu-U-ka	CHU-u-ka	中華	Chinese food
na-n-DE?	NA-n-de?	何で？	why?

Accentuation is, in general, much stronger in Kansai than in Tokyo, where pronunciation is basically flat. For example, 服ふく has a barely perceptible accent on the second syllable in Tokyo, so it is listed as fu-KU, but the accent on the first syllable in Kansai is relatively strong. This gives the speech in Kansai its more melodic, emotional tone as opposed to flat, monotonic Tokyo speech.