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Japanese dialect

The is a group of Japanese dialects in the Kansai region (Kinki region) of Japan. In Japanese, is the common name and it is called Kinki dialect (近畿方言) in technical terms. The dialects of Kyoto and Osaka are known as , and were particularly referred to as such in the Edo period. The Kansai dialect is typified by the speech of Osaka, the major city of Kansai, which is referred to specifically as It is characterized as being both more melodic and harsher by speakers of the standard language.

Since Osaka is the largest city in the region and its speakers received the most media exposure over the last century, non Kansai dialect speakers tend to associate the dialect of Osaka with the entire Kansai region. However, technically, Kansai dialect is not a single dialect but a group of related dialects in the region. Each major city and prefecture has a particular dialect, and residents take some pride in their particular dialectal variations. The common Kansai dialect is spoken in Keihanshin (the metropolitan areas of the cities of Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe) and its surroundings, a radius of about around the Osaka Kyoto area (see regional differences). This article mainly discusses variations in Keihanshin during the 20th and 21st centuries. Even in the Kansai region, away from Keihanshin and its surrounding areas, there are dialects that differ from the characteristics generally considered to be Kansai dialect like. Tajima and Tango (except Maizuru) dialects in northwest Kansai are too different to be regarded as Kansai dialects and are thus usually included in the Chūgoku dialect. Dialects spoken in Southeastern Kii Peninsula including Totsukawa and Owase are also far different from other Kansai dialects, and considered a language island. The Shikoku dialect and the Hokuriku dialect share many similarities with the Kansai dialects, but are classified separately.

The Kansai dialect has over a thousand years of history. When Kinai cities such as Nara and Kyoto were Imperial capitals, the Kinai dialect, the ancestor of the Kansai dialect, was the de facto standard Japanese. It had an influence on all of the nation including the Edo dialect, the predecessor of modern Tokyo dialect. The literature style developed by the intelligentsia in Heian kyō became the model of Classical Japanese language. When the political and military center of Japan was moved to Edo under the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Kantō region grew in prominence, the Edo dialect took the place of the Kansai dialect. With the Meiji Restoration and the transfer of the imperial capital from Kyoto to Tokyo, the Kansai dialect became fixed in position as a provincial dialect. See also Early Modern Japanese. As the Tokyo dialect was adopted with the advent of a national education/media standard in Japan, some features and intraregional differences of the Kansai dialect have diminished and changed. However, Kansai is the second most populated urban region in Japan after Kantō, with a population of about 20 million, so Kansai dialect is still the most widely spoken, known and influential non standard Japanese dialect. The Kansai dialect's idioms are sometimes introduced into other dialects and even standard Japanese. Many Kansai people are attached to their own speech and have strong regional rivalry against Tokyo. Since the Taishō period, the form of Japanese comedy has been developed in Osaka, and a large number of Osaka based comedians have appeared in Japanese media with Osaka dialect, such as Yoshimoto Kogyo. Because of such associations, Kansai speakers are often viewed as being more "funny" or "talkative" than typical speakers of other dialects. Tokyo people even occasionally imitate Kansai dialect to provoke laughter or inject humor.

In phonetic terms, Kansai dialect is characterized by strong vowels and contrasted with Tokyo dialect, characterized by its strong consonants, but the basis of the phonemes is similar. The specific phonetic differences between Kansai and Tokyo are as follows:

is nearer to than to In Standard, vowel reduction frequently occurs, but it is rare in Kansai. For example, the polite copula (です) is pronounced nearly as in standard Japanese, but Kansai speakers tend to pronounce it distinctly as or even In some registers, such as informal Tokyo speech, hiatuses often fuse into , as in うめえ and すげえ instead of 旨い "yummy" and 凄い "great", but are usually pronounced distinctly in Kansai dialect. In Wakayama, is also pronounced distinctly; it usually fuses into in standard Japanese and almost all other dialects. A recurring tendency to lengthen vowels at the end of monomoraic nouns. Common examples are for 木 "tree", for 蚊 "mosquito" and for 目 "eye". Contrarily, long vowels in Standard inflections are sometimes shortened. This is particularly noticeable in the volitional conjugation of verbs. For instance, "行こうか？" meaning "shall we go?" is shortened in Kansai to "行こか？" The common phrase of agreement, "そうだ" meaning "that's it", is replaced "そや" or even "せや" in Kansai. When vowels and semivowel follow , they sometimes palatalize with or For example, "好きやねん" "I love you" becomes '好っきゃねん' , 日曜日 "Sunday" becomes にっちょうび and 賑やか "lively, busy" becomes にんぎゃか .

The syllable ひ is nearer to than to The yotsugana are two distinct syllables, as they are in Tokyo, but Kansai speakers tend to pronounce じ and ず as and in place of Standard and Intervocalic is pronounced either or in free variation, but is declining now. In a provocative speech, becomes , similar to the Tokyo Shitamachi dialect. The use of in place of Some debuccalization of is apparent in most Kansai speakers, but it seems to have progressed more in morphological suffixes and inflections than in core vocabulary. This process has produced はん for さん san "Mr., Ms.", まへん for ません (formal negative form), and まひょ for ましょう (formal volitional form), ひちや for 質屋 "pawnshop", among other examples. The change of and in some words such as さぶい for 寒い "cold". Especially in the rural areas, are sometimes harmonized or metathesized. For example, でんでん for 全然 "never, not at all", かだら or からら for 体 "body". A play on words around these sound changes goes as follows: 淀川の水飲んれ腹らら下りや for 淀川の水飲んで腹だだ下りや "I drank water of Yodo River and have the trots". The + vowel in the verb conjugations is sometimes changed to as well as colloquial Tokyo speech. For example, 何してるねん？ "What are you doing?" often changes 何してんねん？ in fluent Kansai speech.

Many words and grammar structures in Kansai dialect are contractions of their classical Japanese equivalents (it is unusual to contract words in such a way in standard Japanese). For example, chigau (to be different or wrong) becomes chau, yoku (well) becomes yō, and omoshiroi (interesting or funny) becomes omoroi. These contractions follow similar inflection rules as their standard forms so chau is politely said chaimasu in the same way as chigau is inflected to chigaimasu.

Kansai dialect also has two types of regular verb, 五段 godan verbs ( u verbs) and 一段 ichidan verbs ( ru verbs), and two irregular verbs, 来る ("to come") and する ("to do"), but some conjugations are different from standard Japanese. The geminated consonants found in godan verbs of standard Japanese verbal inflections are usually replaced with long vowels (often shortened in 3 morae verbs) in Kansai dialect (See also Onbin, u onbin). Thus, for the verb 言う ("to say"), the past tense in standard Japanese 言った ("said") becomes 言うた in Kansai dialect. This particular verb is a dead giveaway of a native Kansai speaker, as most will unconsciously say 言うて instead of 言って or even if well practiced at speaking in standard Japanese. Other examples of geminate replacement are 笑った ("laughed") becoming 笑うた or わろた and 貰った ("received") becoming 貰うた , もろた or even もうた
An auxiliary verb] てしまう (to finish something or to do something in unintentional or unfortunate circumstances) is contracted to ちまう or ちゃう in colloquial Tokyo speech but to てまう in Kansai speech. Thus, しちまう , or しちゃう , becomes してまう Furthermore, as the verb しまう is affected by the same sound changes as in other 五段 godan verbs, the past tense of this form is rendered as てもうた or てもた rather than ちまった or ちゃった : 忘れちまった or 忘れちゃった ("I forgot [it]") in Tokyo is 忘れてもうた or 忘れてもた in Kansai. The long vowel of the volitional form is often shortened; for example, 使おう (the volitional form of tsukau) becomes 使お , 食べよう (the volitional form of 食べる ) becomes 食べよ The irregular verb する has special volitional form しょ（う） instead of しよう The volitional form of another irregular verb 来る is 来よう as well as the standard Japanese, but when 来る is used as an auxiliary verb てくる , てこよう is sometimes replaced with てこ（う） in Kansai. The causative verb ending is usually replaced with in Kansai dialect; for example, させる (causative form of ) changes さす , 言わせる (causative form of 言う ) changes 言わす Its te form and perfective form change to and ; they also appear in transitive ichidan verbs such as 見せる ("to show"), e. g. 見して for 見せて
The potential verb endings for 五段 godan and られる for 一段 ichidan, recently often shortened れる (ra nuki kotoba), are common between the standard Japanese and Kansai dialect. For making their negative forms, it is only to replace ない with ん or へん (See Negative). However, mainly in Osaka, potential negative form of 五段 godan verbs is often replaced with such as 行かれへん instead of 行けない and 行けへん "can't go". This is because overlaps with Osakan negative conjugation. In western Japanese including Kansai dialect, a combination of an adverb よう and ん negative form is used as a negative form of the personal impossibility such as よう言わん "I can't say anything (in disgust or diffidence)".

In Standard Japanese, the verb iru is used for reference to the existence of an animate object, and iru is replaced with oru in humble language and some written language. In western Japanese, oru is used not only in humble language but also in all other situations instead of iru. Kansai dialect belongs to western Japanese, but いる and its variation, いてる (mainly Osaka), are used in Osaka, Kyoto, Shiga and so on. People in these areas, especially Kyoto women, tend to consider おる an outspoken or contempt word. They usually use it for mates, inferiors and animals; avoid using for elders (exception: respectful expression orareru and humble expression orimasu). In other areas such as Hyogo and Mie, いる is hardly used and おる does not have the negative usage. In parts of Wakayama, いる is replaced with ある , which is used for inanimate objects in most other dialects. The verb おる is also used as a suffix and usually pronounced in that case. In Osaka, Kyoto, Shiga, northern Nara and parts of Mie, mainly in masculine speech, よる shows annoying or contempt feelings for a third party, usually milder than やがる In Hyogo, southern Nara and parts of Wakayama, よる is used for progressive aspect (See Aspect).

Kansai dialect has two imperative forms. One is the normal imperative form, inherited from Late Middle Japanese. The ろ form for ichidan verbs in standard Japanese is much rarer and replaced by or in Kansai. The normal imperative form is often followed by よ or や The other is a soft and somewhat feminine form which uses the adverbial (連用形) (ます stem), an abbreviation of adverbial (連用形) + The end of the soft imperative form is often elongated and is generally followed by や or な In Kyoto, women often add よし to the soft imperative form. godan verbs: 使う becomes 使え in the normal form, 使い（い） in the soft one. 上一段 kami ichidan verbs: 起きる becomes 起きい (L H L) in the normal form, 起き（い） (L L H) in the soft one. 下一段 shimo ichidan verbs: 食べる becomes 食べえ (L H L) in the normal form, 食べ（え） (L L H) in the soft one. s irregular verb: する becomes せえ in the normal form, し（い） in the soft one. k irregular verb: 来る becomes こい in the normal form, き（い） in the soft one. In the negative imperative mood, Kansai dialect also has the somewhat soft form which uses the ren'yōkei + な , an abbreviation of the ren'yōkei + なさるな な sometimes changes to なや or ないな This soft negative imperative form is the same as the soft imperative and な , Kansai speakers can recognize the difference by accent, but Tokyo speakers are sometimes confused by a command not to do something, which they interpret as an order to do it. Accent on the soft imperative form is flat, and the accent on the soft negative imperative form has a downstep before na. 五段 godan verbs: 使う becomes 使うな in the normal form, 使いな in the soft one. 上一段 kami ichidan verbs: 起きる becomes 起きるな in the normal form, 起きな in the soft one. 下一段 shimo ichidan verbs: 食べる becomes 食べるな in the normal form, 食べな in the soft one. s irregular verb: する becomes するな or すな in the normal form, しな in the soft one. k irregular verb: 来る becomes 来るな in the normal form, きな in the soft one.

The stem of adjective forms in Kansai dialect is generally the same as in standard Japanese, except for regional vocabulary differences. The same process that reduced the Classical Japanese terminal and attributive endings (し and き , respectively) to has reduced also the ren'yōkei ending く to , yielding such forms as 早う (contraction of 早う ) for 早く ("quickly"). Dropping the consonant from the final mora in all forms of adjective endings has been a frequent occurrence in Japanese over the centuries (and is the origin of such forms as ありがとう and おめでとう ), but the Kantō speech preserved く while reducing し and き to , thus accounting for the discrepancy in the standard language (see also Onbin)

The ending can be dropped and the last vowel of the adjective's stem can be stretched out for a second mora, sometimes with a tonal change for emphasis. By this process, omoroi "interesting, funny" becomes omorō and atsui "hot" becomes atsū or attsū. This use of the adjective's stem, often as an exclamation, is seen in classical literature and many dialects of modern Japanese, but is more often used in modern Kansai dialect. There is not a special conjugated form for presumptive of adjectives in Kansai dialect, it is just addition of やろ to the plain form. For example, 安かろう (the presumptive form of 安い "cheap") is hardly used and is usually replaced with the plain form + やろ likes 安いやろ Polite suffixes です/だす/どす and ます are also added やろ for presumptive form instead of でしょう in standard Japanese. For example, 今日は晴れでしょう ("It may be fine weather today") is replaced with 今日は晴れですやろ .

In common Kansai dialect, there are two forms for the continuous and progressive aspects teru and toru; the former is a shortened form of te iru just as does standard Japanese, the latter is a shortened form of te oru which is common to other western Japanese. The proper use between teru and toru is same as iru and oru. In the expression to the condition of inanimate objects, taru or taaru form, a shortened form of te aru. In standard Japanese, te aru is only used with transitive verbs, but Kansai taru or taaru is also used with intransitive verbs. One should note that te yaru, "to do for someone," is also contracted to taru ( charu in Senshu and Wakayama), so as not to confuse the two. Other Western Japanese as Chūgoku and Shikoku dialects has the discrimination of grammatical aspect, yoru in progressive and toru in perfect. In Kansai, some dialects of southern Hyogo and Kii Peninsula have these discrimination, too. In parts of Wakayama, yoru and toru are replaced with yaru and taaru/chaaru.

There is some difference in the particles between Kansai dialect and standard Japanese. In colloquial Kansai dialect, case markers (格助詞) are often left out especially the accusative case o and the quotation particles to and te (equivalent to tte in standard). The ellipsis of to and te happens only before two verbs: yū (to say) and omou (to think). For example, Tanaka san to yū hito ("a man called Mr. Tanaka") can change to Tanaka san yū hito. And to yū is sometimes contracted to chū or tchū instead of te, tsū or ttsū in Tokyo. For example, nanto yū koto da! or nante kotta! ("My goodness!") becomes nanchū kotcha! in Kansai. The interjectory particle (間投助詞) na or naa is used very often in Kansai dialect instead of ne or nee in standard Japanese. In standard Japanese, naa is considered rough masculine style in some context, but in Kansai dialect naa is used by both men and women in many familiar situations. It is not only used as interjectory particle (as emphasis for the imperative form, expression an admiration, and address to listeners, for example), and the meaning varies depending on context and voice intonation, so much so that naa is called the world's third most difficult word to translate. Besides naa and nee, noo is also used in some areas, but noo is usually considered too harsh a masculine particle in modern Keihanshin. Kara and node, the conjunctive particles (接続助詞) meaning "because," are replaced by sakai or yotte; ni is sometimes added to the end of both, and sakai changes to sake in some areas. Sakai was so famous as the characteristic particle of Kansai dialect that a special saying was made out of it: "Sakai in Osaka and Berabō in Edo" (大阪さかいに江戸べらぼう)". However, in recent years, the standard kara and node have become dominant. Kate or katte is also characteristic particle of Kansai dialect, transformation of ka tote. Kate has two usages. When kate is used with conjugative words, mainly in the past form and the negative form, it is the equivalent of the English "even if" or "even though", such as Kaze hiita kate, watashi wa ryokō e iku ("Even if [I] catch a cold, I will go on the trip"). When kate is used with nouns, it means something like "even", "too," or "either", such as Ore kate shiran ("I don't know, either"), and is similar to the particle mo and datte.

The sentence final particle (終助詞) used in Kansai differ widely from those used in Tokyo. The most prominent to Tokyo speakers is the heavy use of wa by men. In standard Japanese, it is used exclusively by women and so is said to sound softer. In western Japanese including Kansai dialect, however, it is used equally by both men and women in many different levels of conversation. It is noted that the feminine usage of wa in Tokyo is pronounced with a rising intonation and the Kansai usage of wa is pronounced with a falling intonation. Another difference in sentence final particles that strikes the ear of the Tokyo speaker is the nen particle such as nande ya nen!, "you gotta be kidding!" or "why/what the hell?! ", a stereotype tsukkomi phrase in the manzai. It comes from no ya (particle no + copula ya, also n ya) and much the same as the standard Japanese no da (also n da). Nen has some variation, such as neya (intermediate form between no ya and nen), ne (shortened form), and nya (softer form of neya). When a copula precedes these particles, da + no da changes to na no da (na n da) and ya + no ya changes to na no ya (na n ya), but ya + nen does not change to na nen. No da is never used with polite form, but no ya and nen can be used with formal form such as nande desu nen, a formal form of nande ya nen. In past tense, nen changes to ten; for example, "I love you" would be suki ya nen or sukkya nen, and "I loved you" would be suki yatten. In the interrogative sentence, the use of nen and no ya is restricted to emphatic questions and involves interrogative words. For simple questions, (no) ka is usually used and ka is often omitted as well as standard Japanese, but no is often changed n or non (somewhat feminine) in Kansai dialect. In standard Japanese, kai is generally used as a masculine variation of ka, but in Kansai dialect, kai is used as an emotional question and is mainly used for rhetorical question rather than simple question and is often used in the forms as kaina (softer) and kaiya (harsher). When kai follows the negative verb ending n, it means strong imperative sentence. In some areas such as Kawachi and Banshu, ke is used instead of ka, but it is considered a harsh masculine particle in common Kansai dialect. The emphatic particle ze, heard often from Tokyo men, is rarely heard in Kansai. Instead, the particle de is used, arising from the replacement of z with d in words. However, despite the similarity with ze, the Kansai de does not carry nearly as heavy or rude a connotation, as it is influenced by the lesser stress on formality and distance in Kansai. In Kyoto, especially feminine speech, de is sometimes replaced with e. The particle zo is also replaced to do by some Kansai speakers, but do carries a rude masculine impression unlike de. The emphasis or tag question particle jan ka in the casual speech of Kanto changes to yan ka in Kansai. Yan ka has some variations, such as a masculine variation yan ke (in some areas, but yan ke is also used by women) and a shortened variation yan, just like jan in Kanto. Jan ka and jan are used only in informal speech, but yan ka and yan can be used with formal forms like sugoi desu yan! ("It is great!"). Youngsters often use yan naa, the combination of yan and naa for tag question.

In some cases, Kansai dialect uses entirely different words. The verb hokasu corresponds to standard Japanese suteru "to throw away", and metcha corresponds to the standard Japanese slang chō "very". Chō, in Kansai dialect, means "a little" and is a contracted form of chotto. Thus the phrase chō matte "wait a minute" by a Kansai person sounds strange to a Tokyo person. Some Japanese words gain entirely different meanings or are used in different ways when used in Kansai dialect. One such usage is of the word naosu (usually used to mean "correct" or "repair" in the standard language) in the sense of "put away" or "put back." For example, kono jitensha naoshite means "please put back this bicycle" in Kansai, but many standard speakers are bewildered since in standard Japanese it would mean "please repair this bicycle". Another widely recognized Kansai specific usage is of aho. Basically equivalent to the standard baka "idiot, fool", aho is both a term of reproach and a term of endearment to the Kansai speaker, somewhat like English twit or silly. Baka, which is used as "idiot" in most regions, becomes "complete moron" and a stronger insult than aho. Where a Tokyo citizen would almost certainly object to being called baka, being called aho by a Kansai person is not necessarily much of an insult. Being called baka by a Kansai speaker is however a much more severe criticism than it would be by a Tokyo speaker. Most Kansai speakers cannot stand being called baka but don't mind being called aho.

Standard first person pronouns such as watashi, boku and ore are also generally used in Kansai, but there are some local pronoun words. Watashi has many variations: watai, wate (both gender), ate (somewhat feminine), and wai (masculine, casual). These variations are now archaic, but are still widely used in fictitious creations to represent stereotypical Kansai speakers especially wate and wai. Elderly Kansai men frequently use washi as well as other western Japan. Uchi is famous for the typical feminine first person pronoun of Kansai dialect and it is still popular among Kansai girls. In Kansai, omae and anta are often used for the informal second person pronoun. Anata is hardly used. Traditional local second person pronouns include omahan (omae + han), anta han and ansan (both are anta + san, but anta han is more polite). An archaic first person pronoun, ware, is used as a hostile and impolite second person pronoun in Kansai. Jibun (自分) is a Japanese word meaning "oneself" and sometimes "I", but it has an additional usage in Kansai as a casual second person pronoun. In traditional Kansai dialect, the honorific suffix san is sometimes pronounced han when san follows a, e and o; for example, okaasan ("mother") becomes okaahan, and Satō san ("Mr. Satō") becomes Satō han. It is also the characteristic of Kansai usage of honorific suffixes that they can be used for some familiar inanimate objects as well, especially in Kyoto. In standard Japanese, the usage is usually considered childish, but in Kansai, o imo san, o mame san and ame chan are often heard not only in children's speech but also in adults' speech. The suffix san is also added to some familiar greeting phrases; for example, ohayō san ("good morning") and omedetō san ("congratulations").

Kyōto ben (京都弁) or Kyō kotoba (京言葉) is characterized by development of politeness and indirectness expressions. Kyoto ben is often regarded as elegant and feminine dialect because of its characters and the image of Gion's geisha (geiko han and maiko han in Kyoto ben), the most conspicuous speakers of traditional Kyoto ben. Kyoto ben is divided into the court dialect called Gosho kotoba (御所言葉) and the citizens dialect called Machikata kotoba (町方言葉). The former was spoken by court noble before moving the Emperor to Tokyo, and some phrases inherit at a few monzeki. The latter has subtle difference at each social class such as old merchant families at Nakagyo, craftsmen at Nishijin and geiko at Hanamachi (Gion, Miyagawa chō etc.) Kyoto ben was the de facto standard Japanese from 794 until the 18th century and some Kyoto people are still proud of their accent; they get angry when Tokyo people treat Kyoto ben as a provincial accent. The verb inflection haru is an essential part of casual speech in modern Kyoto. In Osaka and its environs, haru has a certain level of politeness above the base (informal) form of the verb, putting it somewhere between the informal and the more polite masu conjugations. However, in Kyoto, its position is much closer to the informal than it is to the polite mood, owing to its widespread use. Kyoto people, especially elderly women, often use haru for their family and even for animals and weather. Tango ben (丹後弁) spoken in northernmost Kyoto Prefecture, is too different to be regarded as Kansai dialect and usually included in Chūgoku dialect. For example, the copula da, the Tokyo type accent, the honorific verb ending naru instead of haru and the peculiarly diphthong such as for akai "red".

Hyōgo Prefecture is the largest prefecture in Kansai, and there are some different dialects in the prefecture. As mentioned above, Tajima ben (但馬弁) spoken in northern Hyōgo, former Tajima Province, is included in Chūgoku dialect as well as Tango ben. Ancient vowel sequence /au/ changed in many Japanese dialects, but in Tajima, Tottori and Izumo dialects, /au/ changed Accordingly, Kansai word ahō "idiot" is pronounced ahaa in Tajima ben. The dialect spoken in southwestern Hyōgo, former Harima Province alias Banshū, is called Banshū ben. As well as Chūgoku dialect, it has the discrimination of aspect, yoru in progressive and toru in perfect. Banshū ben is notable for transformation of yoru and toru into yō and tō, sometimes yon and ton. Another feature is the honorific copula te ya, common in Tanba, Maizuru and San'yō dialects. In addition, Banshū ben is famous for an emphatic final particle doi or doiya and a question particle ke or ko, but they often sound violent to other Kansai speakers, as well as Kawachi ben. Kōbe ben (神戸弁) spoken in Kobe, the largest city of Hyogo, is the intermediate dialect between Banshū ben and Osaka ben and is well known for conjugating yō and tō as well as Banshū ben. Awaji ben (淡路弁) spoken in Awaji Island, is different from Banshū/Kōbe ben and mixed with dialects of Osaka, Wakayama and Tokushima Prefectures due to the intersecting location of sea routes in the Seto Inland Sea and the Tokushima Domain rule in Edo period.

The dialect in Mie Prefecture, sometimes called Mie ben (三重弁), is made up of Ise ben (伊勢弁) spoken in mid northern Mie, Shima ben (志摩弁) spoken in southeastern Mie and Iga ben (伊賀弁) spoken in western Mie. Ise ben is famous for a sentence final particle ni as well as de. Shima ben is close to Ise ben, but its vocabulary includes many archaic words. Iga ben has a unique request expression te daako instead of standard te kudasai. They use the normal Kansai accent and basic grammar, but some of the vocabulary is common to the Nagoya dialect. For example, instead of te haru (respectful suffix), they have the Nagoya style te mieru. Conjunctive particles de and monde "because" is widely used instead of sakai and yotte. The similarity to Nagoya ben becomes more pronounced in the northernmost parts of the prefecture; the dialect of Nagashima and Kisosaki, for instance, could be considered far closer to Nagoya ben than to Ise ben. In and around Ise city, some variations on typical Kansai vocabulary can be found, mostly used by older residents. For instance, the typical expression ōkini is sometimes pronounced ōkina in Ise. Near the Isuzu River and Naikū shrine, some old men use the first person pronoun otai.

Kishū ben (紀州弁) or Wakayama ben (和歌山弁), the dialect in old province Kii Province, present day Wakayama Prefecture and southern parts of Mie Prefecture, is fairly different from common Kansai dialect and comprises many regional variants. It is famous for heavy confusion of z and d, especially on the southern coast. The ichidan verb negative form n often changes ran in Wakayama such as taberan instead of taben ("not eat"); hen also changes yan in Wakayama, Mie and Nara such as tabeyan instead of tabehen. Wakayama ben has specific perticles. Yō is often used as sentence final particle. Ra follows the volitional conjugation of verbs as iko ra yō! ("Let's go!"). Noshi is used as soft sentence final particle. Yashite is used as tag question. Local words are akana instead of akan, omoshai instead of omoroi, aga "oneself", teki "you", tsuremote "together" and so on. Wakayama people hardly ever use keigo, which is rather unusual for dialects in Kansai.

Shiga Prefecture is the eastern neighbor of Kyoto, so its dialect, sometimes called Shiga ben (滋賀弁) or Ōmi ben (近江弁) or Gōshū ben (江州弁), is similar in many ways to Kyoto ben. For example, Shiga people also frequently use haru, though some people tend to pronounce aru and te yaaru instead of haru and te yaharu. Some elderly Shiga people also use raru as a casual honorific form. The demonstrative pronoun so often changes to ho ; for example, so ya becomes ho ya and sore (that) becomes hore. In Nagahama, people use the friendly sounding auxiliary verb ansu and te yansu. Nagahama and Hikone dialects has a unique final particle hon as well as de.

The dialect in Nara Prefecture is divided into northern including Nara city and southern including Totsukawa. The northern dialect, sometimes called Nara ben (奈良弁) or Yamato ben (大和弁), has a few particularities such as an interjectory particle mii as well as naa, but the similarity with Osaka ben increases year by year because of the economic dependency to Osaka. On the other hand, southern Nara prefecture is a language island because of its geographic isolation with mountains. The southern dialect uses Tokyo type accent, has the discrimination of grammatical aspect, and does not show a tendency to lengthen vowels at the end of monomoraic nouns.