Kansai Talk

I sent an email recently to Trevor Corson (Sushi Concierge) about basashi (horse sushi) and such and he told me he had trouble with Kansaiben (Osaka area dialect). I'm not near my Japanese enabled computer right now, but I can certainly give some pointers into kansaiben using romanji.

First is verb endings:

Wakaranai (I dont understand) -> Wakarahen
Wakarimasu (I understand, polite) -> Wakarimasse~ (polite w/ emphasis)

Kyoto variety (-haru) - A lot of older women in the Kansai area have picked up the Kyoto dialect varient that is considered quite polite for that area

Wakatteru (I understand it) -> Wakkatteharu (polite Kyoto ben)

Kobe variety (-toru) This is more prevalent in the Kobe area and sounds a bit rude to my ears.

Wakatteru -> Wakattoru

Some common words:

Tokyo -> Osaka
Cho (very ) Meccha - and mecha is getting much more popular these days
~ja nai (not ~) ~ chau - also more popular recently
Honto ni (really) Homma (ni)

And then there is the change of sentence emphatic ending from ~jan to ~yan, along with other words.

Kyo ga cho atsui kara honto ni kurushi jan! (Tokyo for "It's so hot today I feel really tired!"
Kyo ga meccha atsuiyanka~ homma ni kurushiyanen! (Osaka)