/r/conlangs Chat Network Relay Game - Learn a Lang Natlang Relay

⇐ Previous step (Swiss German) | Full Relay | Next step (French) ⇒

#8Kansai Japanese by salp
Kansai JapaneseEnglish

オーストラリアにはぎょうさん有袋類が暮らしとるやで。ほんで他の動物もおるわ。
Ōsutoraria ni wa gyōsan yūtairui ga kurashitoru ya de. Hon de hoka no dōbutsu mo oru wa.

Many marsupials live in Australia. Furthermore, there are other animals as well.

Oosutoraria=ni=wagyoosanyuutairui=gakuras-i-t-or-uyade
Australia=DAT=TOPmanymarsupial=NOMlive-CONTV-CVB-exist-ATTRIBCOPDM
hondehoka=nodoobutu=moor-uwa
thatCOP.CVBother=GENother=alsoexist-ATTRIBDM

Lexicon

  • オーストラリア (Ōsutoraria) - ‘Australia’
  • おる (oru) - ‘to exist, to be, there is, there are’
  • ぎょうさん (gyōsan) - ‘many, much, a lot’
  • 暮らす (kurasu) - ‘to live, to make a living, to get along’
  • 動物 (doubutsu) - ‘animal’
  • 他 (hoka) - ‘other’
  • ほんで (hon de) - ‘then, also, additionally, furthermore’
  • や (ya) - ‘to be’ (emphatic)
  • 有袋類 (yūtairui) - ‘marsupial’

Intro:

The Kansai dialect (関西弁 Kansai-ben) is a group of Western Japanese dialects in the Kansai or Kinki region of Japan. It is as such also known as the Kinki dialect, as well as the Osaka dialect due to the influence of the major city. Kansai Japanese is marked mostly by various grammatical differences and a much more extensive pitch accent system.

Nowadays, Kansai Japanese is mostly perceived as funny and boisterous, if even somewhat rude. However, the standard form of Japanese used to be based on the Kansai dialect, as the old capital city Kyoto was located there. Following the moving of the capital to Tokyo, the standard was changed to one based on Eastern Japanese. But ironically, various fossilized Kansai forms still exist in honorific Standard Japanese speech.

This passage is mostly based on the form of Kansai Japanese spoken in Keihanshin, the Kyoto–Osaka–Kobe metropolitan area.

Grammar:

Strongly head-final. SOV word order.

Noun morphology:

  • が (ga) - nominative
  • に (ni) - dative, locative
  • の (no) - genitive
  • は (wa) - topic marker
  • も (mo) - ‘also, too’

Verb morphology:

  • -itor- - progressive, continuous
  • -u - present tense plain form

Other:

  • で (de) - emphatic discourse marker
  • わ (wa) - emphatic discourse marker