Hakata dialect

Hakata Japanese
Native to	Japan
Region	Fukuoka
Language family	Japonic Japanese Kyūshū Japanese Hichiku Hakata Japanese
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	haka1241[1]

Banners in a shopping mall using Hakata dialect

Hakata dialect (博多弁 Hakata-ben) is a Japanese dialect spoken in Fukuoka city. Hakata dialect originated in Hakata commercial district, while a related Fukuoka dialect (福岡弁 Fukuoka-ben) was spoken in the central district. Hakata dialect has spread throughout the city and its suburbs. Most of Japanese regard Hakata dialect as the dialect typical of Fukuoka, so it is sometimes called Fukuoka-ben.

Hakata dialect is being increasingly used in television interviews in Fukuoka, where previously standard Japanese was expected.

Grammar

The basic grammar of Hakata dialect is similar to other Hichiku dialect such as Saga dialect, Nagasaki dialect and Kumamoto dialect. For example, Hakata dialect is famous, amongst many other idiosyncrasies, for its use of to or tto as a question, e.g., "What are you doing?", realized in standard Japanese as nani o shiteiru no?, is nan ba shiyo tto? or nan shitō to? in Hakata and other Hichiku dialects.

Vocabulary

Basic words: uchi "I", ātan "you", yoka "yes", innya "no".^[2]

References

1. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Hakata-ben". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
2. hakata-ben vocabulary

External links

• Fukuoka-ben Study Website - u-biq
• 単純明快博多弁辞典 (Japanese)