Kobe City

Although we often talk about Japanese as if it were a single language, numerous dialects are spoken around the country. Standard Japanese is the form from Tokyo, chosen to unite the country in the latter half of the Meiji era. The Kansai dialect is the most common after standard Japanese because Kansai has the second-highest population. The Dialects The Kansai dialect is also a group of several dialects, each with vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar variations. The main groups are the Inner Kansai, Outer Kansai, and Totsukawa-Kumano dialects. However, many of these groups consist of subgroups and sub-sub groups! For instance, under Inner Kansai falls the Kyoto dialect, further divided into Gosho, Machikata, Tanba, and Southern Yamashiro dialects. In addition, some dialects have influenced others. For example, the Osaka dialect has influenced the Kobe and Northern Nara varieties. How the Kansai Dialect Differs from Standard Japanese Numerous features of the Kansai dialect make it different from standard Japanese. First, there’s phonology, or how the language sounds. Whereas standard Japanese has strong consonants, Kansai has strong vowels. There are also some specific differences to some particular sounds, which you’ll start to notice if you become more familiar with the dialect. However, the…