Kinki Japanese

T h e dialects a n d culture
of the Kinki region
D C Palter & Iaoru Horiuchi Slotsve

T U T T L E P U B L I S H I N G
Boston RutlandVermont Tokyo
This book is dedicated to the memory ofthose w h o died in
the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995.
Illustrations by Hiroshi Satoh
Published by Tuttle Publishing
an imprint of Periplus Editions (HK) Ltd.
199by Charles E. Tuttle Publishing Co.Inc.
Allrights reserved
L C C Card No. 94-61422
I S B N O8 0 4 8 - 2 0 1 71
First edition1995
Third printing2002
Printed in Singapore
Distributed by:
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Contents
Acknowledgments 7
Introduction... H H H - . . . H . . . . . H . . . . . H . . . . . H . . 9
1. Fifteen Words Needed to Survive in Kansai H H . . . . . H . . . . H . . . 1 7
2. Example Conversations I. . . H . . . . . H . . . . . H . . . . . H H H . . . . . H ...39
3. Kinki Variations: Kansai-ben Across Kansai . . . H . . . . . H . . 46
4. Fifteen More Words Needed to Survive H H . . . . H . . . H H H - .55
5. Example Conversations II .........................................................69
6. Tora-Kichi . . . H . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 9
7. Fifteen More Kinki Words......................................... .......... . .... . 8
7
8. Example Conversations III . . . . ................................................. 1 10
9. Kinki Cuisine .................. ............... .................. ... .. ..... ....... ....... 11
8
1O. Final F if t e e n Words to Master Ki nkiSpeech........................ . 1 2 3
11. Example Conversations IV ............. ........................................140
Dictionary ......... ............... ............ .. .............. ..... ................ ....... 1 4 7
Index.... . .. . .. . ........... . ..................... . ...........................
Acknowledgments
If w e listed by name all the people w h o have helped make this book
possiblethis section would probably be longer than the book itself. But
there are certain people w h o went far beyond the call of dutyand w e
would like to give a special note of thanks here.
First of allw e need to thank the kind people at the Charles E. Tuttle
Company w h o worked with us to publish the bookespecially Sally
Schwager. A special thanks also to our agentHenry Mariniwithout
w h o m this book would never have found a home. T w o peopleSatsuki
Tsubota and Yuriko Tanakaspent an inordinant amount oftime tracking
down information for us and correcting our drafts.
The most difficult section forus to write was on the differences between
the Osaka dialect and those of other regions in Kansai. M u c h of this
information was provided by Ryusuke KitamuraHiroaki Kitanoand
Hide Takahashi. Additional information about the Hanshin Tigers was
provided by Shinya Fimotowhose e-mail handle is Takoyaki Master."
Other people w h o spent a considerable amount of time helping out
with questions and editorial suggestions include Mr. and Mrs. Hirota
Yoshie KomuroMariko MatsumotoNaohisa MatsumotoKumiko
8 A C K N O W LED G M EN TS
MatsuyamaMasaki NakajimaDavid SandrichKayo ShinodaYuko
TaishakuY asuyo Yamamotoand Megumi Yoshioka.
T o these and all the other people who have helped usa big O kini!"
D C Palter
Kaoru Horiuchi
Introduction
Maidomaido and welcome to Kinki Japanthe land ofhistoric temples
beautiful geikom jestic mountainsand a vibrantgrowing economy.
Kindly leave your shoe_s and Tokyo dialect by the door. Remember to
open your mouth when you speak here. If you likeyou can roll your r's
all the way down M t. Rokko. The more expression in your voicethe
better. Telljokes. G o e a ddon'tbe afraid. You're among friends-this
is Kansai .
If you've been here longyou have already noticed that nobody is
speaking the Japanese you so diligently studied in classes and textbooks.
But you're going to have to learn the language of the streets. O f course
you can continue speaking the so-called hyjungostandard Japanese
the language of poker-faced bureaucrats up in Tokyoexactly as it is
taught on N H Kbut you'll bore everybody and you sure won't have a
clue as to what people are saying to you.
W e have written this book for people w h olike usdespite years of
studying Japaneseor even being a Japanese nativefelt clueless when
they moved to the Kinki region and wore out their dictionaries trying in
vain to find the meaning of words like honmaakanshimotaand chau.
9
10 INTRO DUCTIO N
Despite being the language spoken by everyone of your honorable
neighborsincluding your teachersit isn't taught in classes and there are
no textbookstapesor television shows to help master it. Yetnot only
does learning the language make it possible to understand everyone else
but Kansai-ben is also a more expressive languagea more enjoyable
dialect to speak than Tokyo-ben. A n d although it m a y seem strange for a
foreigner to speak Kansai-ben (like aJapanese person affecting a Cockney
accent or an Alabama drawl)it works wonders in livening up con-
versationseven in Tokyo.
Ifyou're living in the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe areaw e hope you will find
this book an indispensable road map to the language surrounding you. If
you live elsewhere in the Kinki regionyou should find that nearly all of
our explanations are applicablebut that each region'sdialect has its o w n
pronunciationspecial wordsand other peculiarities you will need to
pick up by paying close attention to your neighbors' speech patterns. If
you live elsewhere in the southern half of Honshusuch as Nagoya
Hiroshimaor Okayamaw e expect you will also find this book useful
since the language spoken throughout the area has more in common with
Kansai-ben than with hy6jungo. But you should listen carefully for
differencesand may want to consider writing a book similar to this one
yourself. Ifyou live anywhere else in Japan orG o d forbidare still stuck
in Tokyoyou can at least pretend to live in Kansai and lighten up those
monotonous conversations.
So pour yourself a glass ofbeer or a cup ofhot N ada sakeput on your
Hanshin Tigers baseball capand learn to speak like a native.
Ganbatte na!
I N T R O D U C T I O N 11
What Is Kinki?
The Kinki region of Japancalled Kinki Chiho i n Japanese
covers a wide region in the southern half ofthe main Honshisland.
Although the area considered part of the Kinki region has varied through
historyit is n o w legally defined as the two cities ( ) of Osaka and
Kyoto and the five prefectures (ken)of HyogoMieNatS h i g aand
Wakayama orin less legal termsthe land south of Nagoya and north of
Okayama. This region includes OsakaKyotoKobeNaraAkashithe
Ise Peninsulaand Awaji Island. O f coursethere are differences in the
language across such a large area containing such drastic contrasts in
living styles and historybut these local variations are all considered sub-
dialects of Kansai-ben.
W hatthen is Kansai? Although the word K ansai" is used much more
frequently m Kinki"unfortunately emeaning ofKansai is somewhat
muddled. OfficiallyKansai is synonymous with Kinkibut in actual usage
it usually applies only to the Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe area. This tri-city region
is usually abbreviated in Japanese as Kei-Han-Shin taking one
character from the name of each city. Kei-Han-Shin also includes the
surburban cities in betweensuch as IbaragiHirakataand Nishinomiya.
T o make matters even more confusingthe version of Kansai-ben
spoken in Osaka is often referred to as Osaka-benbut as most outsiders
cannot tell the differenceand because Osaka is by far the largest city in
the regionquite often anyone w h o uses words such as akan and honma
is considered to be spei n g Osaka-ben.
Forthe puo s e ofthis bookw e consider all the variations ofJapanese
spoken throughout the Kinki region to be part of Kansai-benand have
tried to indicate the words or phrases that are used only in Osaka or only
in the Kei-Han-Shin area.
W e would also like to note that although many other areas of Central
Southernand Western Honshu such as NagoyaOkayamaand
12 INTRO DUCTIO N
Hiroshimaare not considered to be p t ofthe Kinki regionthe language
in these areas has more in common with Kansai-ben than with standard
Japanese. W e have therefore tried to make this book useful for people
Iiving in these regions as well.
The Dialect
W h y does the language spoken in Kansai differ from that in Tokyo and
even vary from place to place within Kansaieven within the city of
Osaka? The reason lies in the fact that before the advent of modern
transportation and communicationresidents of each area had little con-
tact with people from more than a few miles away. As the language grew
and changedit did so within the confines ofeach locality. With e advent
of modern communicationsas well as the centralization of power in
Tokyonearly everyone in Japan became able to understand and speak
the officially sanctioned version of Japanese (the Tokyo versionof
course). Regional dialectshoweveralthough diminishing in usageare
still a fact of life in Japan. Children still master the local dialect spoken
by parents and friends long before they"are taught to speak standard
Japanese.
But w h y are some words used in Kansai while different words with
nearly identical meanings are used in Tokyoand w h y are certain
pronunciations of the same word favored in Kansai over the standard
pronunciation? Essentiallyit is because that is the way it isbut there are
a few guiding rules for newcomers to Kansai-ben.
Many words in standard Japanese are contracted. Note the following
examples.
K A N S A I
y
S T A N D A R D
yoku
E N G L I S H
verywell
omoroi
chau
kora
sora
omoshiroi
chigau
kore w a
sore w a
interestIng
wrong
this is
that is
For no reason other than historycertain words are used in Kansai
while others are used in Tokyo.
nukui a t a t a k a i w arm
kosobai k u s u g u t t a i ticklish
kokeru k o r o b u fall down
hokasu suteru throw aw ay
S" sounds in standard Japanese are often replaced by h" sounds.
han -san M r.Ms.Mrs.Miss
-mahen - m a s e n (negative conjugation)
-mahyo - m a s h o (let's do" conjugation)
Desu and its variations are replaced by ya .
ya d a is
yaro d a r 6 don'tyou think?
yakard a k a r a therefore
Long vowelsespecially at the end of wordsare often shortened.
iko ik6 let's go
sho s h 6 let's do
soya seya sd a yes
Short vowels at the end of w o r d ~ are sometimes lengthened.
te M hand
ke hair
14 INTRO DUCTIO N
K A N S A I
ka
kii
chii
to
S T A N D A R D
ka
ki
chi
to
E N G L I S H
mosquIto
tree
blood
door
use
bought
received
say itte
tsukatte
katt
moratta
Double consonants (denoted by tsu )are often softened or replaced
with a long vowel.
tsukte
tsukote
ko
morot
mo
yute
- le final vowel ofwords ending with two vowelsespecially adjectives
that end in -iare dropped in informal conversations and the final sound
lengthened for emphasis. Strongeremphasis is indicated by longer sounds.
E M P H A S I Z E D S T A N D A R D K A N S A I E N G L I S H
shindo shindoi tIn ng
o m o r o - omoroi InterestIng
gottsu- gottsui very
atsu atsui hot
ita
itai painful
kusa
kusai smelly
Although the level of formality depends on the personplaceand
situationin general the language in Kansai is less formal than in Tokyo.
Typical conversations among Kinki people sound a notch less formal
than those among Tokyoitesw h o consider this to be more an expression
ofbad manners a n friendliness. O fcoursethere are large gradations in
formality in K sai-ben as well as in standard Japaneseand it is important
to speak with the correct level of formality in each situation. W o m e n
tend to speak more politely and use more standard Japanese than men.
Idon't mind at all.
N othat's not right .
Kansai-ben speakers often repeat the same word twice. This is

especially c o m m o n when showing sympathy or relieving someone's
anxIety.
kamahenkamahen
chauchau
Accentuation of words also differsbut it is difficult to give any rules
other than to recommend listening to your neighbors instead of language
tapesespecially as there are large variations even within Kansai. Here
are some examples of h o w pronunciation in Kansai differs from Tokyo.
The most often cited example is the homonym arnewhich can mean
either rain or candy .In Kansaithe word for rain is accented on
the second syllable a - M Eand the word for candy is unaccented a-me. In
Tokyothe accentuation is on the first syllable A -me for rain and on the
second syllable a - M E for candy. Here are a few more examples:
16 INTRO DUCTIO N
K A N S A I T O K Y O K A N J I E N G L I S H
a - M E A-me raIn
-m e a-ME candy
HA-shi ha-shi bridge
ha-shi HA-shi chopsticks
I-nu i-NU dog
DE-n-sha de-n-sha

traIn
0 ha-YO -u o-HA-YOU good morning
FU-ku
K U
R clothes
KU-tsu ku-TSU shoes
bu-SU BU-su ugly
chu-U-ka CHU-uk a Chinese food
na-n-DE? NA-n-de? why?
Accentuation isin generalmuch stronger in Kansai than in Tokyo
where pronunciation is basically flat. For exampleJuku has a barely
perceptable accent on the second syllable in Tokyoso it is listed as
K U but the accent on the first syllable in Kansai is relatively strong.
This gives the speech in Kansai its more melodicemotional tone as
opposed to flatmonotonic Tokyo speech.
- -
Fifteen Words Needed
to Survive in Iansai
lisfirst set offifteen terms (n words and five gran1ffiatical expressions)
w e believeare the most critical for understanding the language around
you. If you can master the usage of these wordsyou will be recognized
by everyone as a Kansai resident.
V O C A B U L A R Y
1. ah6aho
2. akan
3. chau
4. e
5. honma
6. maido
7. metchamutcha
8. nanbo
9. 6kini
10. oru
G R A M M A T I C A L E X P R E S S I O N S
11. -haru
12. -hen
13. nen
14. shimotamota
15. ya
17
18 KINKIJAPANESE
1. ahoaho foolfoolishstupid
Although considered a part of standard Japaneseahaor ahois used
often only in Kansai. While it is sometimes written in kanji as
pronounced ahathe final vowel sound is often clipped offand it is usually
written in katakana as aho .Depending on the tone and pt i c l e used
with ahothe word can range in meaning from a playful way to say no"
to a fairly strong expletive. W o m e n as well as m e n use this wordbut
women need to pay special attention to usage and tone in order to avoid
sounding unladylike. W o m e n usually avoid saying aho directly to the
person they are criticizing.
Nande kono hon no ichiban saisho nikonna aho na kotoba iretan?
Omaeraaho ya na.
?
W h y did you put such a stupid word at the beginning of this book?
Y ou guys are pretty stupid.
Omaera is the plural of omae (see word entry 43) and is used by m en
to mean you." Ya replaces da .(See 15)
W e agree it is somewhat reckless of us to begin your new vocabulary
with ahobut of the fifteen most important words in Kansai-benisone
ended up first in alphabetical order and second only to akan in A-I-U
order. W e are too aho to come up with a better systemso please don't
stop reading now.
SUZUKI: Kondoanta toko no yome-han to deto sasete ya.
H O N D A : Nani aho na koto yiiten nen!
:
: !
FIFTEEN SURVIVAL W O R D S 19
A
h
n o
l
h
a
n
v
n
SUZUKI: D o you mind if Itake your wife out on a date?

H O N D A : Don't say such stupid things!
-Teya isused when making requests in very casual situations
and is conjugated to the -te - fon n of the verb. -Tena - hasthe
same meaning. Toko is the Kansai version of tokoro .(See 53)
H I R A K A T A :
IBARAGI:
:
:
Kondo no bnasu sanjuppiisento katto yate!
Sonna aho na. Kaisha nani kangaeten nen?
30% !
?
We're getting a 3 0 % cut in our next bonus!
Howcan e y be so stupid? W hatis this company thinking?
H I R A K A T A :
IBARAGI:
Kangaeten nen is equivalent to kangaete iru .-Ten nen is
e Kansai version of-te iruthe progressive verb (-ing fonn) conjugation.
(See 45)
20 KINKIJAPANESE
2.akan baduselessimpossibleno
Akan is a very distinctive and easily recognizable feature ofthe language
spoken in Kansai. Although not vulgarthis word is considered to be
somewhat impolite. Akan is probably a modified version of ikanwhich
is the clipped form of ikenaimeaning m ustnot" or cannot."Akan has
many usesboth by itself and as a part of grammatical expressions. Its
various meaningssomewhat similar to dame in standard Japanese
are explained below.
(a) no! impossible!
SUZUKI: Issen man enkashite kurehen?
H O N D A : Akan!
: ?
: !
SUZUKI: Can you loan m e 10 million yen?
H O N D A : N O !
(b) expletive
MITSUI: Anta no kabuhanbun ni sagatta de.
ITOH: Akan.
:
:
MITSUI: The value of your stock fell by half.
ITOH: # & %
In this casealthough akan is used as an expletiveit has more of a
tone ofregret than anger. Anta isan informal word for you." It is
a contracted form of anata but is much more informal . It is used
by both m e n and womenas opposed to omae which is a rougher
word for you" used only by men.
A N N O U N C E R : Hanshinh6muran utaremashita.
TORAKICHI: Akan.
:
:
A N N O U N C E R : A home run was hit off of Hanshin.
TORAKICHI: # & %
(c) no goodbad
MIKA: Shiken donai yatta?
T O M O K O : Akankatta wa.
: ?
:
MIKA: H o w was the test?
T O M O K O : Miserable.
Tomoko obviously should have studied harder. Donai yatt
m eanshow was it?" Akankatta is the past tense of akan.
22 KINKIJAPANESE
(d) don't do that!
D A U G H T E R : Ronaite kuru wa.
M O T H E R : Akan yO.
:
:
D A U G H T E R : I'm going out now.
M O T H E R : N o you're not.
This usage is heard quite often when parents are telling their children
what they are not allowed to do.
E
U
'
'
h
u
l
K E N S U K E :
K Y O T A :
Kono butamankutte e?
Akan de.
?
Can Ieat this pork roll?

No!
Note that this example is typical of male speech only. W o m e n use
taberu instead of kuu forthe verb to eat." Akanespecially
followed by the particle desounds rough and in female speech would
probably be followed by yo instead.
The same conversation between two women might be as follows:
MIKA:
T O M O K O :
:
:
Sono butaman tabete m o e?
Akanyo.
?
Akan nen and akande are also often used to mean no" or you can't."
(e) must (used as a double negative)
Atarashii kurumakawana akan.
I've got to buy a new car.

Shinbun yomana akan.
Ihave to read the newspaper.

?
In this usagethe verb is conjugated as the standard negative form
(i.e.-nai) with the final -i sound clipped off and followed by akan. This
structure is identical in meaning to the -nakereba naranai formbut is
much more colloquial. Suru is usually conjugated as sena akan
.
Shigoto sena akan.
I've got to work.

2 4 KINKIJAPANESE
3. chau (a)nodifferentwrong; (b) isn't that right?
(a) Chau is the clipped form of chigau .This contraction is widely
used throughout Kansai in place of chigau.
chau de
chau. chau
K E N S U K E :
K Y O T A :
:
:
K E N S U K E :
K Y O T A :
g
O
n
u
w
u
u
m
J
+
t
Denshadai nihyaku en yna.
Chauchau. Nihyaku goju en yade.
O
The train fare is 200 yenright?
N oit's 250 yen.
Because chau is a verb ending in -uit can be conjugated to chaimasu
forslightly more formal situations.
K A K A R I C H O :
HIRASHAIN:
:
:
BOSS:
E M P L O Y E E :
Omae no happyodaiseiko yattan chau?
Zannen nagarachaimasu w .
?
Your presentation was a big hitright?

N ounfortunately not.
Yatta is the Kansai version ofdatta .
(b) In the first line of the above dialogue and in the following examples
chau is used in a manner similar to a sentence-ending particle meaning
isn'tthat right?" The standard equivalent isjanai? ? or soja
na?
AreNozomi chau?
?
Isn't that Nozomi?
M e chau?
?
That's enough alreadydon't you think?
Sore dejubun yattan chau?
?
That was good enoughright?
4.e goodthat's enough
E replaces ii which usually means good" but can mean no" or
that's enough" or jus: about anything else depending on the context.
Although usually written as ethe pronunciation is actually between
eand ei. E can be used anytime ii is used in standard Japanese. It is used
extensively in Kansai andthrou@outmuchofthe southernhalfofHonshu. But
don't confuse this with the ethat means yes" which is used throughout
Japan.
Ano kurumakakko e na.
That's a pretty car.

Kakko is a contraction of kakk6 which means
appearance" or shape" and is often used with eto denote something
that looks goodor with warui or waru for something ugly. B y changing
the orderhoweverw e get the word ekakkoshii which
means pretentioussomething very much disliked in Kansai .
2 6 KINKIJAPANESE
Like iiepreceding a noun is a very common pattern.
E tenki ya na.
Nice weatherisn't it.

E tku yaro.
Nice clotheshuh.
The following sentences have the same meaning of I've had enough
already" or stop it already" but the last of the three examples is the
strongest.
E kagen ni shitokiya!
E kagen ni shii ya!
E kagen ni sei!
!
!
!
Just like iieespecially when following rno means no" or no
thanks."
M o e m eans I've had enough" (when turning down an
offer of foodetc.) or I give up" (especially when talking to oneself).
This is often followed by wa.
E / 'ku ya na.
Kotara?
E wa. Takai kara.
HIKARI:
N O Z O M I :
HIKARI:
HIKARI:
N O Z O M I :
HIKARI:
These are nice clotheshuh?
W h y don't you buy them?
Naa. They're too expensive.
5. honma really
Honma is equivalent to honto meaning really." It is often used to
indicate that the person is stilllistening to what the speaker is saying.
Honma ni?
Honmahonma.
Honma ya!
Honma kainii.
?
v
d
g
'
'
1
y
y
v
d
'
E
A
'
E
E
A
T
d
d
d
-
u
e
e
e
O
R
R
R
Y
H onma nilike honto niis also often used as an adverb to strengthen
the word following it.
Kyohonma ni atsui nii.
It's really hot today.

Sono nechanhonma ni kirei ya nen.
That girl'sreally beautiful .

~ -
~ _ t < : ~ : e ; :
28 KINKIJAPANESE
Honma or honma ni will be heard at least ten times per minute in a
typical conversation as far south as Okayamabut this word is very
distinctive andbecause of the frequency of its useis among the most
recognizable features of Kinki Japanese.
6. maido hello
Maido translates literally as every time" butas with the all-purpose
d6mo maida can represent maido arigat6 gazaimasumeaning
thank you for your patronage" or other stock phrases of greeting. In
actual usagemaida is probably best translated as hello" but is often
used as a part of expressions of thanks. Although it is arguably the
penultimate Kansai-ben wordin actuality it isn't used much by young
peopleespecially outside ofOsaka. Maida is often combined with 6kini.
Maida6kini .
Thanks for your patronage.

A maida maido.
Hello/ Thanks for calling/ Thanks for coming.

This last example is usually used by the person receiving a phone call
in the office after the caller has identified himself. Howeveras Kansai-
ben is looked down upon by callers from Tokyoincluding the corporate
head-office personnelthe more acceptable d 6 m od6mo is often
substituted when the caller is neither a close friend nor another native of
Osaka.
7. metchamutcha very
FIFTEEN S U R V I V A L W O R D S 29
Both metcha and mutcha are adverbs meaning very." In usagee y a r e
similar to totemo taihen or sugoku .Metcha and
mutcha 'e completely interchangeable and can be thought ofas variations
in pronunciation of the same word.
Metcha omoroi.
Very interesting.
Mutcha umai .
Very delicious.
Metcha hagaii.
) 0
Very irritating.
~ < ; 6 0 0
8.nanbo how much

Nanbo is a distinctive Kansai word used in the entire southern half of
Honshuincluding Hiroshima and Okayamain place of ikura .
Nanbo by itself means how much?" when inquiring about a price. The
standard ikura. ..-temo expressionmeaning "no matter h o w much. .."
can also be replaced by nanbo ...-temo.
SUMIYOSHI: Sore nanbo?
SAKAI: Sen en.
: ?
:
SUMIYOSHI: H o w much is that?
SAKAI: 1000 yen.
30 KINKIJAPANESE
Tokyo no honsha ni nanbo setsumei shite m owakatte kurehen.
N o matter h o w much Itry explaining to the Tokyo head officethey fail

to understand.
9.okini thank you
Like maidookini is another typical Kansai word that isn'tused a t often
in Kansai anymore. Its use seems centered in Kyotowhere it is always
used in place ofdomo or arigaby nearly everyone. In Osakathe use of
isword is limited mostly to older peopleand domo or arigato are heard
just as often as okini. In Kobeits use is limited to old men and women
shopkeepers. Howeverbecause okini is understood and recognized by
everyone as proper Kansai-beneven though the Tokyo mentality has
been partially successful in converting most people to using domow e
recommend you saykiniat least occasionallyto the bus or taxi driver
when he drops you off or to the clerk w h o gives you change. If you live
in Kyotoforget about saying domo or arigat outside ofJapanese classes.
Note that the pronunciation of okini differs somewhat for m e n and
women. W o m e n lift their voice slightly on the middle syllable -K I-ni)
while m e n accent the first syllable (0k i - n i ) .
tO.oru isexists (for humans and animals)
The use of oru in place of iru is widespread not only throughout all of
Kansai but everywhere in the southern half ofJapan. Because oru is used
as the humble version of iru in standard Japanesehoweverand as such
is only used to refer to oneselfthe use of oru in referring to other people
seems rude to non-natives of Kansai .
HIRASHAIN: Ashita oraremasu ka?
K A K A R I C H O : Suman kedoashita orehen wa.
~ ~ Q . ' " ~
C ~ ~ V /
~ ~
:
:
E M P L O Y E E :
BOSS:
?
Will you be in tomorrow?

SorryI'm going to be out tomorrow.
A s in standard Japanesethe passive -rareru form of the verb is often
used to make the sentence more formalespecially when asking something
about your conversation pt n e r . Thereforeoraremasu ka? is heard quite
often in place of irasshaimasu ka? especially in business telephone
conversations and in the office. As this is an honorific formit cannot be
used when referring to oneself.
Suman isone ofthe Kansai versions of sumimasen .
This is the most clipped form and the least polite. Sunmahen
is slightly more polite and is considered correct" Kansai-ben. In some
po fKansai jt is considered rude and is thus used mostly by m e n and
older people. T w o versions that are also used widely are sunmasen
and suimasen .
Note that the employee speaks more formally to the boss than the
32 KINKIJAPANESE
boss does when he answers the employee. The employee uses oraremasu
while the boss uses orehen.
In addition to its use as a stand-alone verboru can also replace iru as
an auxiliary verb to create the progressive form of the verb. -Te oru is
usually contracted to -toru.
Nani shitoru?
?
W hatare you doing?
11. -haru (honorific verb conjugation)
This verb cougation forms an integral part of Kinki's keigo the
extra polite language used to show respect to people of higher rank or to
strangers. Howeveras Kansai-ben generally has a reputation of being
less formal standard Japanesewhen truly formallanguage is required
such as duringjob interviews orintercom announcementsstandd f o r m a l
Japanese is usually used. Thereforethe -haru form is most often heard
in situations that fall somewhere between formal and informal. It is used
especially by womensince they are expected to speak somewhat formally
to male acquaintances but don't wish to sound cold by speaking too
formally. It is also a convenient form for a company's younger employees
when speaking to or about senior memberssince it shows respect without
sounding like excessive bootlicking. This form is used often in Kyoto
where it is considered a p t of standard speech rather than keigo.
T hisconjugation is believed to have been derived by shortening nasaru
to haru.Howeverunlike nasaruh a r u can be used with nearly any
verb to make it more formal.
In most places in Kansaithe haru form is conjugated to the -i base of
the verb. Howeverin Kyoto and surrounding areassuch as Nara
conjugation with the -a base of the verb is more common.
Where are you going?
Doko e ikiharun desu ka?
Doko e ikiharimasu ka?
Doko e ikaharun desu ka? (Kyoto)
?
?
? ( )
As in standard Japanesea sentence in the polite form can end in either
the -masu conjugation of the verb harim asu) or by affixing -n desu
harun desu). The meaning of all three sentences above is essentially
the same.
Nani tabeharimasu ka?
?
What would you like to eat?
The -haru form can also be attached to the -te for m ofthe verb to
create the -ing form.
Doko e itteharun desu ka?
?
W here is he going?
Senseinani yutehattan?
?
What was the teacher saying?
12. -hen (negative verb conjugation)
The verb conjugation -hen is similar in usage to -nai . -Hen is attached to
either the -a base or -e base of verbs in order to form the negative of
verbs. It can also be attached to the -e base to produce the negative
cannot" form of verbs. For examplethe verb yomu (to read) in
34 KINKIJAPANESE
standard Japanese is conjugated yomanai meaning notread"
or yomenai meaning can'tread." In Kansaiyomu is
conjugated yomahen meaning notread" oryomehen
meaning either notread" or can'tread." W hich ofthe two meanings
is intended can only be determined from the context. Howeverwhen
intending to say unequivocally can't read"yomu can also be conjugated
yomarehen .
T o make the negative past tenseconjugate the verb with -henkatta in
the same manner as -hen. For examplethe past tense of ikahen
don'tgo" is ikahenkatta didn'tgo."
yomu
yomahen
yomehen
yomarehen
yomahenkatta
yomehenkatta
yomarehenkatta
iku
ikahen
ikehen
ikarehen
ikahenkatta
ikehenkatta
ikrehenkatta
to read
don't read
can'treaddon'tread
can't read
didn't read
couldn't readdidn't read
couldn't read
to go
won't go
can't gowon't go
can't go
didn't go
couldn't godidn't go
couldn't go
Here are a few more examples. Because the e base conjugation is
more common than the -a base formonly the -e form is shownbut most
verbs can be conjugated to either base.
taberu
dekiru
kamau
wakaru
tabehen don'teat
dekehen can'tdo
kamehen don'tmind
wakarehen don'tunderstand
Kuru and suru have two formsone where -hen is changed
to -hin.
kuru to come
kehen don't come
kiihin don't come
korarehen can't come
suru to do
sehen don't do
shiihin don't do
13.nen (neutralsentence ending)
Sentence-ending particlesor gobi are aJapanese grammatical form
with no real equivalent in Englishbutas only one minute listening to
any Japanese conversation will provetheir use must be mastered in order
to speak like anative. T he purpose ofthese wordswhich have no intrinsic
meaningis to control the mood or tone ofthe sentencesomething English
speakers generally accomplish by changing pitchspeedand accentuation.
Some examples include the pervasive nenaand yobutas you might
expectthese sentence endings differ by dialect. You m a y have already
noticed that the sentence endings in the examples up until n o w differ
from those used in Tokyo. A s they are one of the main points
differentiating Kansai-ben from other dialectsa number of c o m m o n
sentence endings will be introduced in the following pages.
36 KINKIJAPANESE
Nen is one ofthe most typical and frequently used sentence endings in
the Kansai region. Nen is essentially neutral in toneand is used when
eliciting response from the conversation pt n e r . It also has the effect of
ending the sentence in a smooth manner. W h e n used by itselfit has a
somewhat soft tonebut is sometimes followed by stronger endingssuch
as defor emphasis.
Suki ya nen. Ilike it .
So ya nen. It'strue.
Makudo iku nen. I'm going to McDonalds.
Baito yamen nen de! ! I'm quitting m ypt - t i m e
job!
14. shimotamota com pletely
Shimota is the local version of shimattawhich roughly translates as
com pletely" but with a variety of usages dependent on context. W hen
used as a stand-alone verbthe final a is sometimes lengthened to
shimota -- for extra emphasis. In conjugated formshimota is
often clipped to mota.
(a) Used usually under one's breath as an expletive indicating contempt
for one's o w n mistakes.
Shimota! M 6 osoi wa.
!
#&%$! I'm late.
(b) Following the te form of a verbshimota indicates action completely
finished or strengthens the preceding verb.
M denshaitte shimota.
The train'salready gone.

Sanzen en m otsukote shimota.
Iused up 3000 yen.

Tsukote is e Kansai pronunciation for tsukatte .In iscontext
shimota is often contracted to mota especially in less formal
situations. T hisis similar to the Tokyo contraction ofshimatta to chatta.
M denshaitte mota.
Sanzen en m o tsukote mota.
15.ya is
Ya replaces da the informal version ofdesu .Similarlynote the
following:
yaro replaces dar6
yan replacesjanai
yanka replacesjanai ka
yattara replaces dattara

Ya and its variations are arguably the most critical difference in
grammar between standard Japanese and Kansai-ben. Its usage is so
pervasive and noticeable that Tokyo-based novelistswhen trying to
portray a character from Kansaimerely change every da to ya in the
characters' dialogue.
z _
38 KINKIJAPANESE
T he usage ofya is varied and can only be explained effectively through
examples.
K A N S A I S T A N D A R D E N G L I S H
usa ya usoda you're kidding
iyaya iyada yuck
so yattara so dattara if that'S true
ittan ya ittan da went
sukiya suki da Ilike it
so yaro so dar don't you think so?
nanya? ? nan da? ? what?
so yanka sjanaika isn't it?
so yanke sojanai ka isn't it? (men only)
-121-
Example Conversations I
Conversation 1: Between two female college students.
1 T O M O K O : Nani shiten non?
2 MIKA: Shukudai shiten nen.
3 T O M O K O : Ronakonban no patti ikehen non?
4 MIKA: Ikitai nen kedo na. ..Akan nen.
5 T O M O K O : Eyaniko.
1 : ?
2 :
3 : ?
4 : . . .
5 :
1 T O M O K O : What are you doing?
2 MIKA: I'm doing m yhomework.
3 T O M O K O : Then Iguess you won't be coming to the party tonight.
39
40 KINKIJAPANESE
4 MIKA:
5 T O M O K O :
I want to gobut. ..N oIcan't.
Forget about the homework. Let's go!
Line 1: T he final non softens the sentence and asks for a response. N o
is the standard Japanese equivalent. (See 59)
Line 3: Hona is equivalent to soreja meaning if that is
true." (See 18) I e negative of iku (to go) is conjugated as ikehen
m eaning w on'tgo" or can't go." Non is often used at the end of
a sentenceespecially when asking a question. It is softer than ka and is
used particularly by women.
Line 4: N O is used when asking oneself a question or expressing
a wish. (See 28) Akan in this case has the same meaning as dameor that
it is impossible for her to go.
Line 5: E yan would be equivalent to ii janai . It is
impossible to translate this expression directly into Englishbut in this
case it means that's already good enough" or don't worry about it."
The standard ik6 is shortened to iko in Kansai.
Conversation 2: Between a male customer and a shopkeeper at a
market in Nanko.
1 SUMIYOSHI: U wo'kore metcha eno'.
2 Otchankore nanbo?
3 SAKAI: Sen en yakedo.
4 SUMIYOSHI: Accha-! Shimota!
5 Kyuhyaku en shika arahen wa.
6 SAKAI: Honaluhyaku en ni shitoku wa.
7 SUMIYOSHI: Honma? Okini.
8 SAKAI: Okini .
E X A M P L E C O N V E R S A T I O N S I 41
shir A
' " ' 0 r ~ ~ ( ~
1 :
2
?
3 :
4 : - ! - !
5
6 :
7 : ?
8 :
1 SUMIYOSHI: W o wthis is really nice.
2 H o w much is it?
3 SAKAI: That's 1000 yen.
4 SUMIYOSHI: Damn!
5 I've only got 900 yen.
6 SAKAI: In that caseI'll give it to you for 900 yen.
7 SUMIYOSHI: Really? Thanks.
8 SAKAI: Thank you.
42 KINKIJAPANESE
Line 1: Metchameaning very" is used to intensify emeaning good."
Sumiyoshi ends his sentences with nil when he talks .to himself.
Line 2: Otchn is short for ojisan meaning uncle." It is
used to address a middle-aged m a n and is informal but friendly rather
than rude. Ossan isalso used as a contraction for ~ j i s n but is
considered rude and would not be used when addressing someoneexcept
as an insult or ajoke. Nanbo is used to ask the price.
Line 4: Shimota- is an expression of annoyance at his o w n mistake
of not having enough money with him to buy it.
Line 5: Arahen is the negative ofaru. Tokyoites would say nai instead.
W ais used to soften the sentence ending. Although in standard Japanese
w a is used almost exclusively by w o m e nin Kansai it is used just as
much by m e n when adding a slight touch of politeness to the sentence.
(See 30)
Line 6: Here hona means in that case." Shitokua contraction of the
shite oku form of suruis often used in Kansai to indicate doing a favor
for the other person.
Line 8: Okini is used quite often by elderly shopkeepers.
Conversation 3: Between a department chief and one of his
employees.
1 HIRASHAIN:
2 B U C H O :
3
4 HIRASHAIN:
5 B U C H O :
6
Buchaashita oraremasu ka?
Oru omou kedochotto shirabete miru wa.
A hakan w aashita orahen wa. Nande?
AnoTakagi-san ashita kotchi ni kuru te yuteharun desu
kedo.
Eh? AshitaTakagi m o onaji kaigi ni derun ya de.
Kotchi niwa korarehen de.
EXAMPLE CONVERSATIONS I 43
1 : ?
2 :
3
?
4 :
5 : ?
6
1 E M P L O Y E E : Will you be in tomorrowsir?
2 CHIEF: Ithink so but let m echeck.
3 N oI'll be out tomorrow. W hy do you ask?
4 E M P L O Y E E : WellMr. Takagi says he's coming here tomorrow.
5 CHIEF: Huh? He's going to the same meeting as me.
6 H e won't be here.
Line 1: A s elsewhere in Japanmanagers and other people with titles
are often called by theirjob title instead of their name. In this casethe
section chief is not called by his o w n name but buch6 .The passive
form of oru is used to make the question more polite since the speaker
conversation pt n e r is of a higher rank.
Line 4: Yutehrun is used to make the verb yu (iu )
more formal . In standard Japanesehe would have said osshatte iru
. From the employee's use ofthe formal form when referring
to Takagi-sanw e can assume that Takagi is either a customera higher
level employeeor simply someone the employee is unfamiliar with.
Line 5: T he boss does not speakpolitely to his employees. His sentences
end with dewhich is fairly rough (see 26). Deru in this casemeans
to attend." W e can also assume that Takagi is ofroughly the same rank
or lower than the section chief by the lack of honorific language used
when referring to Takagi.
44 KINKIJAPANESE
Conversation 4: T w o college boys on the telephone.
1 TADASHI: Shige-yan?
2 SHIGERU: Ahisashiburi ya na.
3 TADASHI: [rnanani shiten nen? Farnikon?
4 SHIGERU: Chau chau. [rna bideo rniten nen.
5 TADASHI: Sukebe na yatsu yaro.
6 SHIGERU: Aho. Futsii no ya de.
1 : ?
2 :
3 : ? ?
4 :
J

6 :
1 TADASHI: Shige?
2 SHIGERU: H i . H o w have you been?
3 TADASHI: What are you doing now? Video games?
4 SHIGERU: N oI'm watching a movie now.
5 TADASHI: I'll bet it's a dirty movie.
6 SHIGERU: Don't be stupid. It's a regular one.
Line 1: In Kansai-yan - isaffixed to the names offriends. This
is most commonly used among school-age boysbut older people also
use it among very close friends.
Line 2: Ya na is equivalent to da ne in standard Japanese.
Line 3: Shite irun da is contracted to shiten nen .Farnikon
the Japanese word for NintendoSegaand other home video
gamesis a contraction of fam ily computer."
E X A M P L E C O N V E R S A T I O N S I 45
Line 4: Mite iru in standard Japanese is miten nen
in Kansai-ben.
Line 5: Sukebe as well as etchi means lewd or dirty-
minded. Sukebe is properly written sukebei but is usually pronounced
without the final -i sound. Sukebe is considered a more vulgar word than
etchi and is therefore used infrequently by womenespecially outside of
Osaka. Y;ro is equivalent to dar6 the informal version of
deshin standard Japanese.
-131-
Kinki Variations
ansai-ben Across Kansai
Throughout most ofthis bookw e have concentrated on Kansai-ben as it
is spoken in Osaka. Just as the Japanese language as a whole is slowly
converging toward one standard due to the influence of the education
systemnational mediaand movement of peopleregional variations in
Kansai-ben are slowly disappearing. Although the dialects spoken in such
places as OsakaKyotoand Mie were historically so different from each
other as to be essentially incomprehensible to non-residents of the
immediate areathe differences are n o w relatively minorespecially
among young people. Variations remainhoweverin pronunciationlevel
ofpolitenessand sentence endings. Within Kansai the difference between
an individual'smanner ofspeech due to personalityagesexand context
of the conversation is now much greater than any difference due to one's
place of birth.
W e asked many people throughout Kinki if they could identify
someone from their hometown by listening to that person's speech.
Surprisinglythe answeralmost unanimouslywas that it is impossible
especially among young people. Neverthelessthere are still some
differences in people'sspeech a t tend to characterize them as residents
46
KINKI VARIATIONS 47
of certain areas. We've compiled a list of some of these characteristics
but many are traditional and not used that often now. W e strongly
recommend a t you listen to your neighbors and colleagues to hear how
they speak.
Osaka
Even within Osaka ere have been traditional differences in the language
spoken in various pas of the prefectureespecially between north and
south. While these have virtually disappearedthere are still a few
noticeable trends.
The southern half of the prefectureespecially Kawachihas a
reputation for the roughestleast polite speech in Kansai. The sentence
ending keas in eyan ke (That'sfine!)has a very roughrude
sound and is heard more often here than elsewhere in Kansai. Only here
would it be used by women as well as men. A notherwell-known exn p l e
of Kawachi-ben is the use of the emphatic sentence ending ware! !
which roughly translates to da nekimi! !in standard Japanese.
A few of the words a t are considered traditional Kansai-bensuch as
erai kotcha and m karimakkaare really Osaka-ben. and their usage is
48 KINKIJAPANESE
~
essentially limited to inside Osaka. While it is difficult to generalizeit
seems the usage of Kansai-ben is more prevalent in Osaka than in other
Kansai citiessuch as Kyoto and Kobe. This m ay be because Osakain
are proud of their heritage and less willing a n those from smaller cities
to acceptTokyo's mandates. O n the otherhandit may be because Osaka-
jin have a rougher way of speaking and therefore use standard Japanese
(considered more polite) less often a n residents ofother cities in Kansai .
Neverthelessnearly every salaryman and office lady in Osaka and
throughout Kansai has learned to speak standard Japanese for use in
businessalthough eir pronunciation may differ slightly from Tokyoites.
It is in the countryside of Kansaiamong the grandmothers and
grandfathers long isolated from the rest ofJapan and without y need to
ever speak to anyone from outside their villagewhere true Kansai-ben is
preserved.
Kyoto
T he language in Kyoto is generally softermore refinedand less direct
than anywhere else in Japan.'his m ay be because Kyoto was the capital
of Japan for most of the country's history and its manner of politics
KINKI VARIATIONS 49
required avoiding offending anyone w h o might either be important or
likely to become important.
The most noticeable characteristic .of Kyoto-ben is the high frequency
usage of the haru for mwhich is considered keigo throughout
the rest of Kansai. This form is used so frequently in Kyotoeven in
informal situationsthat it is not really considered as honorific here. It is
used almost as frequently by m e n as by w o m e n in Kyotowhereas it is
used more often by w o m e n elsewhere. Because it is considered an
honorific formit is used to show respect to the conversation pt n e ror to
a third person. In Kyoto it is used only to add a touch of politeness to the
conversation and can therefore be used when talking about a member of
your o w n familyor even an animal. It is also often conjugated with the
-ta verb stem in Kyotowhile it is usually attached to the -te or
J for m of the verb in the rest of Kansai .
English:
Kyoto:
Osaka:
Tokyo:
What are you doing?
Nani shitaharu no? ? (regular speech)
Nani shitaharun desu ka? ? (regular
or formal speech)
Nani shiteharun desu ka? ? (formal
only)
Nani shiteharu no? ? (reguo r formal)
Nani shiten nen? ? (informal)
Nani shiteru no? ? (informal)
Similarly-nahare is the imperative form and equivalent to
-nasai in standard Japanese.
English:
Kyoto:
Osaka:
Tokyo:
G oto Kyoto!
K yto ni ikinahare. o
Kyoto iki .
Kyoto ni ikinasai.
50 KINKIJAPANESE
In the same vein 0 fover-politenessKyotoites use the honoorificsuffi IX
. sa n e ve n with inanimate 0 ectssuchasDm aru-san todenote
Daimaru Department Store.
Another characteristic i s not exclusive to Kyoto but more prevalent
there than in other places in Kansai is the usage of i sounds in negative
verbs instead of e.
K Y O T O K A N S A I T O K Y O E N G L I S H
shiihin sehen shinai don't do
kiihin kehen konai don'tcome
dekihin dekehen dekinai can't do
In actualityboth forms are used throughout Kansai and nowadays are
based more on personal speech habits than on locationbut the iform
seems somewhat more prevalent in Kyotowhile the e form is more
common elsewhere.
le pronunciation in Kyoto is softer and more melodic a n elsewhere
in Kansai . It is usually spoken slowly with clear pronunciation of what
are usually silent vowels in Japanesesuch as the u sound in m asu.
The usage of the sentence ending nen is uncommon in Kyoto
while nii is used frequently and usually drawn out for softness.
English:
Kyoto:
Osaka:
Tokyo:
KINKI VARIATIONS 51
M y mother went to Kawaramachi yesterday.
Kino niiuchi no okiisan Kawaramachi ikahattena.
O
Kino nauchi no oko.san Kawaramachi itten.
Kino neuchi no oko.san Kawaramchi ittan da.
Probably the most difficult aspect of Kyoto-ben for foreigners to pick

upespecially those familiar with Osaka-benis the dialect's lack of
directnessas in the following example:
M O.bubuzuke demo oagariyasu.
This literally translates as H ow about eating ochazuke (rice soup)?"

but is actually an indirect way of telling guests they have overstayed
their welcome. Kyoto residentshearing thiswould explain they were
running much too late to partake of the host's hospitality andin fact
would unfortunately have to be leaving immediately.
There are also many grammatical expressions and sentence endings
atwhile no longerused often by young peopleseem to define traditional
Kyoto-ben.
(a) -yoshi had betterplease try
This is conjugated to the same verb stem as -masu verbs in standard
Japanese.
English:
Kyoto:
Osaka:
Tokyo:
You should eat this.
Kore tabeyoshi.
Kore tabena. O
Kore tabete.
52 KINKIJAPANESE
English:
Kyoto:
Osaka:
Tokyo:
English:
Kyoto:
Osaka:
Tokyo:
(b) e
English:
Kyoto:
Osaka:
Tokyo:
(c) dosu
English:
Kyoto:
a
o
'
K
V
d
a
k
P
3
J
o
z
You should try eating this.
Kore tabete miyoshi.
Kore tabete mii.
Kore tabete mite.
You ought to go to Kyoto.
K yto ikiyoshi .
K yto ikana.
Kyoto itte.
(sentence ending equivalent to de in Osaka or yo
in Tokyo)
I'm going to Kyoto!
K yto iku e.
Kyoto iku de.
Kyoto iku yo.
(K yoto equivalent to desu in standard Japanese)
Kyoto is really beautiful .
Kyoto honma ni kirei dosu na.
K yto honma ni kirei ya wa. o

Kyoto honto ni kirei da yo.
Kobe
Kobealthough less than a thirty-minute train ride from Osaka station
has its own history andof coursea slightly different dialect. The most
identifiable aspect of Kobe-ben is the use of the verb conjugation -to
and -ton rather than ten nento create the -ing form of
verbs.
KINKI VARIATIONS 53
-&l.-
English:
Kobe:
Osaka:
Tokyo:
English:
Kobe:
Osaka:
Tokyo:
What are you doing now?
[rnanani shiton? ?
[rnanani shiten nen? ?
[rnanani shiteru? ?
I'm studying now.
[rna ben'0 shito.
[rna ben'0 shiten nen.
[rna ben'0 shiteru.
There is also less use of na and nit in Kobe than in Osaka. W o m e n in
Kobe also use ne more often.
Characteristics of Other Areas of Kansai
The language in areas outside the Kei-Han-Shin triangle is also becoming
a mixture ofthe old ways of speakingthe style of the nearest citiesand
to some extentstandard Japanese. T he older generationofcoursesticks
to their local dialect while younger peopleinfluenced by television
educationand travelare adopting more standard Japanese into their
5 4 KINKIJAPANESE
speech. It is nearly impossible to generalize h o w people speak in each
placebut there are a few patterns that are common in certain regions of
Kansai that are not part of regular Kansai-ben.
In Wakayama and rural parts ofNara Prefecturezsounds are replaced
by d sounds. For exampleinstead of saying zen-zen people in this
area say den-den .In the Shiga areayaharu replaces
haru .People in Himeji say otteya instead of iteharu
. There areof coursemany such variations across the Kinki
regionand it is impossible to describe them all herebut w e have listed a
few ofthe more interesting words you might hear if you travel across the
area.
D I A L E C T L O C A T I O N S T A N D A R D K A N S A I - B E N E N G L I S H
akanasho Wakayama akan no good
den-den Wakayama zen-zen not atall
dero Wakayama zero zero
dontsuki Nara tsukiatari end of street/corridor
go ga waku Himeji hara ga tatsu angry
momina; Nara shomonai trifling
otoroshii Nara mendokusai pain in the neck
otteya Himeji iteharu honorific for iru
shiyaharu Shiga shiharu honorific for suru
te'ara Wakayama aitsura those guys
waera Wakayama orera us
-141
Fifteen More Words
Needed T o Survive
N o w that you have mastered the first fifteen absolutely crucial words
and realized h o w useful speaking Kansai-ben is to survival herelet's
move on to the next fifteen. It is nearly impossible to construct a sample
conversation without using at least a few of these words.
V O C A B U L A R Y
16. bochi-bochi
17. gottsui
18. honahonnarasonnara
19. mokarimakka
20. omoroi
21. shindoi
22. suki ya nil
23. utt6shii
24. yo
25. y u ()
55
26. de
27. -han
28. nanil
29. -san
30. w a
56 KINKIJAPANESE
16. bochi-bochi (denna) () so-sonot bad
no problemsfine
Bochi-bochi has a wide variety of vague meaningssuch as so-so" or
slow ly improving." Its most stereotypical usage is as the properresponse
to m6karimakka? (See 19) Usuallydenna a contracted form
ofdesu ne is attached to the end. M ii isoften inserted at the
beginning.
SUMIYOSHI: M6karimakka?
SAKAI: Miibochi-bochi denna.
: ?
:
SUMIYOSHI: How's business?
SAKAI: SO-SO.
Howeverunlike m6karimakkbochi-bochi is still used quite
frequently in Kansai . It can be an effective neutral response to any
embarrassing question you do not wish to answer.
HIRAKATA:
IBARAGI:
:
:
HIRAKATA:
IBARAGI:
HORIUCHI:
PALTER:
[ma no shigotosusunden no?

Miibochi-bochi ya na.
?
How's the project progressing?

Moving along slowly.
Kansai-ben. m 6nareta?
?
)
M O R E SURVIVAL W O R D S 57
hi
y.... 1...
HORIUCHI: Have you gotten used to the Kansai dialect yet?
PALTER: Getting there.
Bochi-bochi is also used as a synonym for the standd Japanese soro-
soro meaning It is time."
Bochi-bochi iko ka.
It'stime to go now.
Bochi-bochi i s always a good response whenever someone asks you
the inevitable C an you speak Japanese?" or (even after you have lived
in Japf o r thirty y e a r s )
show a t you not only s pea k J a pe s e butKa n s a i-b en as w ell! N o matter
where you live in Japan (or even overseas)this response is certain to
provoke a laugh and start a conversation about Kansai or the Hanshin
Tigers.
58 KINKIJAPANESE
TAKESHITA:
PALTER:
TAKESHITA:
:
:
:
TAKESHITA:
PALTER:
TAKESHITA:
Kyanys u p i i k u Japaniizu?
Eh? Kettai na gaijin ya nii.
?
?
Can you speak Japanese?
Sure!
Huh? W hata strange foreigner.
Kettai is equivalent to hen or m y 6 . Like these
synonymskettai carries negative connotations meaning strange" or
perverted." The meaning depends on the contextand can also have
positive connotationssuch as interesting" or different ." It is difficult
to determine which meaning is implied herebut w e hope the foreigner
w h o can speak Kansai-ben is considered to be more interesting than
perverted.
17. gottsui verybig
Gottsui usually means very" and is similar in usage to metcha
d m utcha .W hilegottsui is the traditional Osaka wordmetcha
and mutcha n o w seem to be prefe' e d by young peopleespecially those
living outside the cityalthough gottsui is still used to describe extreme
conditions. With its very course soundwomen use gottsui only to express
very so n g emphasispreferring metcha or mutcha for normal situations.
A s with other Kansai-ben ajectivesit is common for the final isound to
be dropped and the u sound extendedin this case producing gottsu-.
Gottsui enii .
Really good.
Gottsu shigoto aru wa.
I've got a lot of work to do.

Aitsugottsui nii.
He's really big.

Gottsui kii.
A huge tree.
18. honahonnarasonnara in that case
if sothen
All three of these words have the same meaning of if that is true
then. .." All are contracted forms of sore nara .In general
hona is used more often by w o m e n and honnara by men. Hona and
honnara can also mean see you later." (See 61)
SUMIYOSHI: Sorenanbo?
SAKAI: Hyaku rokuji1 en ya.
SUMIYOSHI: Honnarakau wa.
: ?
:
:
SUMIYOSHI: H o w much is that?
SAKAI: It's 160 yen.
SUMIYOSHI: In that caseI'11 take it.
HIKARI: Niinanani shiten no?
NOZOMI: Gomen. [rnaisogashii nen.
HIKARI: Honaewa. Mata kuru wa.
60 KINKIJAPANESE
:
t
-==
:
HIKARI:
NOZOMI:
HIKARI:
?
Heywhat are you up to?

SorryI'm kind ofbusy now.
Wellno problem. I'll come back later.
19. mokarimakka H ow are you? How's business?
M karim akkais another typical Kansai word that everyone across Japan
thinks Kansai-ites use regularly butin factis rarely used nowadays.
W h e n usedit is as a greetingespecially to a shopkeeper whose store
you regularly patronize. The pronunciation m6kattemakka
is also sometimes heard.
M karim akka is derived from m karu which means to make
a profit . The fact that this was once the typical greetingeven to those
essentially unconcerned with money Gust as Americans might say how 's
business?" even to students or other nonbusiness-related people)is used
as ammunition by outsiders w h o look down on Osaka as a city of
merchants.
T o be honestw e have never heard m karimakka used in conversation
except as a joke. Howeverbecause it is always mentioned as a well-
known example of Osaka-benas a foreigner speaking Kansai-benyou
will be expected to know and to be able to use this word. See word entry
16 for the proper response if anyone ever asks you m6karimakka?
20.omoroi interesting
Omoroi is a contraction ofthe standard Jape s e word omoshiroi .
It can be conjugated in the same manner as other adjectivesalthough the
ku syllable is usually dropped in the negative conjugation.
omorokatta
b
n
.
E
A
E
L
P
W
V
I
e
E
L
n
.
A
P
a w
omoronal
omoronakatta
not InterestIng
wasn'tinteresting
A s with other adjectivesomoroi can be attached to nouns.
omoroi yatcha
omoronai bangumi
l
w
m
u
d
e
y
p
p
m
b
.
u
n
s
.
A
2
H
f
L
m
-
-
-
A
E
E
Kono eigaomorokatta nil.

Honma? Zen-zen omoronakatta omo kedo nil.
?
This movie was interestingdon't you think?
Really? Ithought it was completely uninteresting.
SHIGERU:
TADASHI:
SHIGERU:
TADASHI:
O m o isthe shortened form of omou .
21. shindoi tiredtiringdifficult
Shindoi is an all-purpose word used to express being tired or to indicate
that something is tiring or difficult. It is probably the most often used
word in the office and at the health cluband can also mean being
somewhat under the weather. It is conjugated the same way as other
adjectives.
Konna shigotoshindoi wa.
This type of work is tough.

Kyoshindokatta wa.
Ihad a rough day today.

62 KINKIJAPANESE
Erai (see word entry 46) also means tiringbut is not used
nearly as widely as shindoi.
22. sukiya na like
This is no different from the standard suki but w e include it here
because of the frequency with which it is heard in this formand because
of the difference in pronunciation. In standard Japanesesuki is
pronounced with a nearly silent uas in ski." In Kansaithe u is fully
pronounced and the first syllable is accentedSU-ki. This is usually
followed by ya na orya ne .
Suki ya na can refer to things and people liked by other people as well
as to your own personal preferences.
At an oden stand:
SUZUKI: Kanto-daki honma ni suki ya na.
H O N D A : So ya nen. Metcha suki ya nen. Toku ni kono mise no ga
umalnya.
:
:
SUZUKI: Y o u really like Kantod a k idon't you.
H O N D A : Yup. Ilove it. A n d this stand is especially good.
Kantod a k i isthe Kansai word for what is called oden
in Tokyo.
At a karaoke box:
MIKA: Kono uta suki ya nil.
T O M O K O : ltsumo kore ya nen.
:
:
jo-k
h o ~ h {
Ic:' yt' n ~
MIKA:
T O M O K O :
Y o u really like this songhuh?
Ialways sing is one.
23. uttoshii gloom ydreary
(especially in reference to the weather)
Although part of standard Japaneseutt shU is heard much more often in
Kansainot because the weather is worse in Kansai (it's actually slightly
better than Tokyoalthough it still gets its full share of uttoshU weather)
but simply as a matter of word choice. Tokyoites usually say iya na tenki
instead.In Kansaiutt;shii is also used to describe persistent
slimy people.
Kyutt shU nil .
It's pretty ugly out today.

Utt ;shU yatcha nil .
That guy is really slimy!

Yatcha is a contraction ofyatsu ya meaning a person
or thing.
64 KINKIJAPANESE
24.yo verymuchoftenwell
Yo is a contraction of yoku the adverb form ofyoi meaning
good."
Yo kutta.
Iate a lot.
Yo wakattoru.
Icompletely understand.
Yo sehen wa.
Ican'tdo this well.

25.yu () to speak
The verb iu in Kansai is usually pronounced yu . W hile in this
dictionary form it is difficult to hear the difference in pronunciationthe
conjugated forms are easily distinguishable.
yta (instead of itt)
yuten (it)
yuteru (itteru)
yutotten (itteta)
( )
( )
( )
( )
said
said
sayIng
was sayIng
Nan; yuten nen?
?
What the hell are you saying?
Sono kotoanoko ni yUtoite.
Please tell that to her.

M 6 ippen yUte kureru?
?
Would you say that again?
26.de (exclam atory sentence-ending particle)
D eunlike na (see 28)is used only at the end of sentences. Its meaning is
somewhat like an exclamation pointstrengthening the effect of the
sentence. It is usually used when informing someone of somethingbut
has a rough tone. In these respectsit is similar to zo in standard Japanese
but is used frequently by women as well as men.
tsuita de
atsui de
ede
iku de
We've arrived!
It'shot!
This is fine!
I'm leaving! /Let'sgo!
27. han M r .Mrs.Ms.Miss
-Santhe standard honorific suffix attached to people'snamesis altered
in pronunciation in Kansai and becomes -han. This practice tends to be
more common inside Osaka and among older people. It is not heard that
often outside of Osaka.
Miyazawah a n
yome-han
oba-han
anta-han
Mr. Miyazawa
wife
old lady
you
66 KINKIJAPANESE
28.nanii (sentence-ending particles) don'tyou think?
y'know?
It is nearly impossible to translate these sentence endings into English.
The closest equivalent to na and nil is the habit of some young people to
say y'know ?" or eh?" at the end of sentences. Japanese will include
some sort ofword with no meaning at the end ofevery sentenceoften in
the middle of sentencessometimes after nearly every wordand
occasionally replacing the entire sentence. Sometimes these particle
endings seem to have little meaning except to indicate the fact that the
speaker is pausing for an instant. In Tokyothe two main phrases are ne
and sa. In Kansaina is the preferred word. N e is sometimes used in
Kansaiespecially by w o m e nbut sis never used. In Tokyona is
occasionally usedbut it has a rough sound therewhich is another reason
that Kansai-ben sounds crude to untrained ears.
Just as ne is often lengthened to nena is very often lengthened to
nilespecially when used at the end of sentences or when asking for some
sort of response from the conversation partner.
TADASHI:
SHIGERU:
:
.f-f-
.
TADASHI:
SHIGERU:
Korenawakarehennil.
Na!
!
This isy'knowcompletely incomprehensibleisn't it?
Completely!
Like nena can be used by itself to indicate complete agreement with
the speaker'sopinion. It is not a soft nabut spoken with a shortstrong
expulsion of air. A drawn out na can also be similarly used in Kansai .
B e careful not to confuse this sentencee n d i n g na with the standard
Japanese particle nawhich is used with verbs to create the m ust" or
m ustnot" forms in such phrases as benky6 suru na (don't
study) or benkyo sena akan (have to study). In general
the grammatical partical na has a shorter sound and is used only in
conjunction with verbsbut it can sometimes be difficult to tell which is
intended except in the context of the conversation.
29. san ( g r e e t i n g s suffix)
-San is added to the end of greetings such as good morning." This is
essentially the same -san that is used as a suffix to peoples' namesa
contraction of the more formal -sama .The practice of attaching -san
to greetings is a well-known aspect of the Kansai dialectbut is heard
more often in Osaka. Because it is much less formal than standard
greetingsit is used mostly with friends or co-workers of the same age or
lower. This suffix cannot be applied to all greetings andas a rule of
thumbcan only be used with greetings that would normally end in
gozaimasugozimashitaor sama.
ohayo-san
omedetls a n
arigatos a n
gokuro-san
good morning
congratulations
thanks
thanks for your help
30.wa (untranslatable neutral sentence ending)
W ais yet another Kansai-ben sentence ending. It has neutral connotations
and is used for adding a slight amount ofemphasis to the sentence. Unlike
in Tokyowhere w a is a very soft sentence ending used exclusively by
womenin Kansai w a is neutral and is used frequently by m e n as well. It
is sometimes written as W Q to differentiate between the w a used
by everyone in Kansai and the Tokyo w a used only by women. Still
in order to avoid silly comments about learning Japanese from girlfriends
it is probably best for male foreigners to avoid using w a until everyone
has realized he is speaking Kansai-ben.
68 KINKIJAPANESE
M i5 ewa.
It'sgood enough. /Igive up.

Shiran wa.
Idon't know.
Tanomu wa.
Please.
W ais almost always used after tanomu w hen saying please" or
I'm counting on you." (See 38) Because w a is a polite way to add
emphasis to a sentenceit is often heard with somewhat formallanguage.
Desu + w a and -masu + w a are very common sentence patterns in Kansai.
Ii desu wa.
Idon't mind. /N o thanks. (formal)

Edesu wa.
Idon't mind. /N o thanks. (slightly less formal)

Orimasu wa.
I'm here.
-151-
Example Conversations I I
Conversation 1: T w o old merchants.
1 H A N A K O : Ohay6-san. Ojiih a nkarada no choshi donai?
2 ICHITARO: Miibochi-bochi ya na.
3 H A N A K O : Sonnaraissho ni Yoshimoto mi ni ikahen?
4 ICHITARO: Omoroin ka?
5 H A N A K O : Gottsui ninki ya de.
6 ICHITARO: Sonnan yute m o nii
7 Minami iku no chotto shindoi wa.
1 : ?
2 :
3 : ?
4 : ?
5 :
6 :
7
69
70 K IN K I J A P A N E S E
1 H A N A K O :
2 ICHITARO:
3 H A N A K O :
4 ICHITAR:
5 H A N A K O :
6 ICHITARO:
7
Good morning. H o w are you feeling?
Notbad.
In that caselet's go see Yoshimoto.
Is it interesting?
It's really popular.
That m a y be truebut
it's a bit of a pain to go all the way to Nanba.
Line 1: iihan means Mr. Old M a n or Grandpabut does not carry
the negative connotations it would have in English and is often preferred
over the use of actual names. Donai is equivalent to do in this case
meaning H ow is it?"
Line 3: Osaka is very famous for its sense of humorand one popular
form of comedy is manzaior stand-up comedy teams. Yoshimoto is
short for Yoshimoto K6gy6 a vaudeville and comedy
entertainment agency based in Nanba that has spawned a whole generation
of comedians w h o have become famous throughout Japaneven in
humorless Tokyo! They operate two theaters in NanbaNanba Kagetsu
EXAMPLE CONVERSATIONS II 71
d Nich5me G e19.j5. Watching a live performance ofyoung Yoshimoto
talent may help you lear K ansai-ben and understand Kansai humorbut
it isn't necessary to travel all the way to Nanba to see them. They also
produce a popular television show called Y oshim oto Shinkigeki." Each
actor has a stock of funny phrases which he uses each weekand these
soon make their way into the speech ofyoung people in Kansai. Thanks
to Yoshimotothe vast majority of comedians in Japan are from Kansai
and have helped popularize Kansai-ben throughout Japan. Because of
this agencypeople living outside of Kansai tend to believe a t everyone
in Kansai is a comedian. Due to the use of Kansai-ben in comedyeven
when Kansai people are discussing serious mattersit sounds like comedy
to everyone else. Actuallythe percentage ofpeople who think that making
others laugh is their life'swork may be very high in Kansai .
One of the basic patterns ofmanzai comedy is boke and tsukkomi
. Boke refers to the person playing the idiot while tsukkomi is
the straight m a n in a two-man comedy team. The role of the boke is to
say something strange or stupid. W h e n he doesthe tsukkomi has to
throw in the proper straight line to make people laugh. This pattern is
also common in everyday conversations in Osaka. W h e n someone says
something strangestupidor sillyreminiscent of the boke roleother
people are expected to add the tsukkomi line.
T he easiest and most common ofthese tsukkomi phrases are as follows:
Nna aho na!
!
That's really stupid!
Nande ynen?
?
GeeIwonder why?
72 KINKIJAPANESE
Anta to w a yattoren wa.
Ishould quit being your partner.

Honasainara.
In that caseI'm out of here.

Chan-chan.
It'sall over.
Line 7: The Nanba areaon the southern end of downtown Osakais
called Minami b y Osaka residentsand Kita refersto U meda
one ofthe main districts of Osaka on the northern end of the loop line. It
includes the main train stations for JR (Osaka Station) and Hankyii and
Hanshin (Umeda Station)as well as a large business and entertainment
district. Although these names obviously refer to the old north and south
ends ofOsakaMinami and Kitaare always written in katakana and never
ka1 .
Conversation 2: Between two high school students.
1 K A Z U O :
2 MARl:
3
4
5 K A Z U O :
6
7
Oreomae no koto suki ya nen.
Honma?
Sonnanj6danchaun?
ltsumo kirai ya" yii1eru yan.
Aho ya nti.
Oretereya yakara
honma no kimochiiwarehenkatten.
73
EXAMPLE CONVERSATIONS I I
?
?
O
:
:
:
t
I
d
A
5
6
Ireally like you.
You're lying.
You're justjokingright?
You always say you hate me.
Don't be stupid.
I'm shy so
Icould never say what Ireally felt .
K A Z D a :
K A Z D a :
2 MARl:
3
4
f
7
Line 1: Anta / O m a e no koto ga suki is the usual way to tell someone
you like them in the romantic sense. Its meaning is somewhere between
1;
0 :l.
74 KINKIJAPANESE
Ilike you" and Ilove you." Omae m eans the same as anatabut
is rougher sounding and used exclusively by males.
Line 6: Tereya is a person w h o tends to be tereru which means
to be shy or easily embarrassed.
Line 7: Kimochi m eansfeelings.
Conversation 3: T w o male college students.
1 SHIGERU: Eiga mi ni ikehen?
2 TADASHI: Omaeeiga honma ni suki ya na.
3 SHIGERU: Se yaro.
4 [ma gottsui omoroi eiga yatten nen de.
5 TADASHI: Eh? Honma kainii.
6 M a e m o so yiiJeta kedo
7 zen-zen omoronakatta yan ka.
8 SHIGERU: Nani yilten nenomae.
9 Sore omae ga eranda yatsu yan ka.
10TADASHI: M oyo oboetehen na.
11 SHIGERU: Honnrakondo w a ore erabu w a na.
1 2 Ashita sani ni iko ka?
l : ?
2 :

3 :
4

5 : ?
6

7

8 :
9

10 :
11 :
12
1 SHIGERU:
2 TADASHI:
3 SHIGERU:
4
5 TADASHI:
6
7
8 SHIGERU:
9
10TADASHI:
11 SHIGERU:
12
EXAMPLE CONVERSATIONS I I 75
3 ?
D oyou wanna go see a movie?
Y o u really like moviesdon't you?
You'd better believe it!
Thersa really good movie playing now.
Huh? Don't be stupid.
Last time you said that
the movie was awful .
What the hell are you saying?
Y o u picked that one!
Maybe. Idon't remember well.
WellI'm picking this one.
Let's go at 3 : 0 0 tomorrow.
Line 3: Se isa Kansai version ofso .It is almost always followed
by ya oryaro .
Line 4: D e isused after nen in this case to strengthen the sentence.
It has a slightly rough tone that is to be expected in a conversation between
close friends.
Line 5: H o n m a kaina is a very sarcastic way to say
really?" (See 41)
Line 6: Yuteta replaces itteta meaning w as
saying." Omoroi is conjugated in the negative past tense to omoronakatta
w asn'tinteresting."
Line 8: Nani + [-ten nen form ofverb]omae is a very common male
speech pattern in Kansai when asking a rhetorical question.
76 KINKIJAPANESE
Nani yUten nenomae?
?
W hatare you saying?
Nani yatten nenomae?
?
W hatare you doing?
Line 9: Yatsu in this case means thing" instead ofthe usual meaning
of person."
Line 10: y;oboetehen is the contracted form ofyoku
oboete inai or don't remember well." Yo before a
negative verb is a very common pattern.
Yo sehen.
Don't do well.
Ym iehen.
Can'tsee well.
Yo wakaran.
Don'tknow.
Conversation 4: Between Sakaia shopkeeperand Sumiyoshian
acquaIntance.
1 SUMIYOSHI: Ohayo-sanSakai-han. Mokarimakka?
EXAMPLE CONVERSATIONS II 77
~ ' m ( } \ k
2 SAKAI: Milbochi-bochi denna.
3 Kyoutt6shii nil.
4 SUMIYOSHI: So ya nil. Ima nimolris6ya nil. Mushiatsui shi.
5 Nanka m 6 shindoi wa. Shigoto shita nai wa.
6 SAKAI: Milsonna koto iwanto
7 bochi-bochi yarimahyo.
l : ?
2 :
3
4 :
5
6 :
7
1 SUMIYOSHI: Good morningMr. Sakai. How're things?
2 SAKAI: Not badnot bad.
3 It's pretty ugly out todayeh?
78 KINKIJAPANESE
4 SUMIYOSHI: Yeah. It looks like it'sgoing to rain. And it'shot and
humid.
5 I'm already tired of working. I don't want to keep
working.
6 SAKAI: Don't say that
7 let'sjust work at our own pace.
Line 1: Ohay6-san replaces ohay6 gozaimasu when saying good
morning" to friends or neighbors. Sakai-han is used in place of Sakai-
sanbut is less formal . Among maleseven good friends call each other
by last namesbut in this case the two are not close enough to dispense
with the honorific titles. They are probably too old to use -kun and not
close enough to use -yan.
Line 5: In this casem 6 shindoi probably means not that
he's tired from working but that he doesn'tfeel like working in the hot
and humid weather. Shita nai w a isequivalent to shitakunai
m eaning don'twant to" in this case referring to work. The
ku sound is often left out .
Line 7: As opposed to line 2this time bochi-bochi m eans
take our time." Yarimahyo isequivalent to yarimash6
. S"sounds are often changed to h" sounds in Kansaiespecially
by older people in Osaka. Similarly-masen verb endings are often
changed to m ahenand -mashto m a h y o .
-161
Tora-Kichi
Living in Kansai is synonymous with rooting for the Hanshin Tigers
baseball team. Even people who hate baseball will say they hope Hanshin
wins. There are two other teams in Kansaie Orix BlueWave in Kobe
and the Kintetsu Buffaloes ofOsaka Prefecturebut e y do not command
nearly as much support or attention as Hanshin. This is not to say that
Hanshin is a good team; in factsince they were formed in 1935they
have only once w o n the Nihon SeriesJapan's national championship.
Most years find them languishing in the cellar of the Central League
which only seems to increase their lovability as the underdog. So don't
be surprised wheneven at the end of a formal company banquetthe
corporate vice-president asks everyone to stand up and sing e Hanshin
Tigers Fight SongRokko Oroshi.
Memorizing the words to Rokko Oroshiaccurately called Hanshin
Taigasu no Uta is a sure way to become populi n
Kansai (and hated in Tokyo). Most karaoke clubs in the area have the
song on their menuand everyone in the place will surely join in singing
itespecially near the end of the summer.
79
80 KINKIJAPANESE
Rokko isof coursethe Rokko Mountainsand Rokko Oroshi is the
wind that blows down from M t . Rokko.1he Tigers's home stadium is
Koshien in Nishinomiyabetween Osaka and Kobe and near the base of
M t. Rokko.
Rokko Oroshi
Rokkoroshi ni sasso to
Soten kakeru nichirin no
Seishun no haki uruwashiku
Kagayaku wagana zo Hanshin Taigasu
0-0-0-6 Hanshin Taigasu
Furere-Jurere
Toshi hatsuratsu tatsu ya ima
Nekketsu sude ni teki 0 tsuku
Jii-o no iki takaraka ni
Muteki no warera zo Hanshin Taigasu
0666 Hanshin Taigasu
Furererere
Tetsuwan ky6da ikuchi tabi
Kitaete koko ni Koshien
Shori ni moyuru eikan w a
Kagayaku warera zo Hanshin Taigasu
0-0-H anshin Taigasu
Furererere
Lyrics: Sat6 S6nosuke
Melody: Koseki Y Uji
:
:
TORA-KleHI 81
Rokko rind
In the Rokko winda gallant
Orb galloping across the blue sky
A youngbeautiful spirit
W e are the sparkling Hanshin Tigers.
O Hanshin Tigers
Hurrayhurrayhurrayhurray!
A fighting spirit awake
Already beat back the enemy
With the pride of the king of animals
W e are the invincible Hanshin Tigers.
Steel arms and powerful hittingthousands of times
W e are training here in Koshien
Burning for the crown of victory
W e are the sparkling Hanshin Tigers.
Some useful words and phrases related to the Tigers are listed below.
dametora
W h e n the Tigers are playing poorly and falling behind in the standings
they are called dametorabut only by non-Kansai residents. Hanshin fans
no matter how bad the season might seemnever give up on their Tigers.
dento no issen
This is the name for the games between the Tigers and Kyojin
(Yomiuri Giants). The rivalry between the two teams is almost as intense
as the rivalry between the two cities. The Giants areof courseTokyo's
82 KINKIJAPANESE
main team. W h e n the game between the two teams is played at K6shien
it is called the Hanshin-Kyojin game. The home team's name comes first
so when the game is played at the Big Egg (Tokyo Dome) the order is
reversed.
Hanshin
(a) Hanshin Tigers baseball team
(b) Hanshin Railway
(c) Companies owned by Hanshin Railway such as Hanshin Dept m e n t
Store
(d) The Osaka-Kobe region
(e) Hanshin horse racing track in Takarazuka
It is important to realize that baseball teams in Japan are named after
the company that owns themin this case Hanshin Railway. The characters
for Hanshin a r e an abbreviation of Osaka-Kobe and
are used when referring to the two-city region. The railroad company
that built a line connecting Kobe and Osaka was therefore named Hanshin
Dentetsu a n dlike most other major rail companies in Japan
has become a transportation and retailing conglomerate. If Hanshin wins
TORA-KleHI 83
the pennantlook for bargain sales at Hanshin Hyakkaten
their department store.
jettoJusen
These are the long balloons that Tigers fansespecially those in the
bleachersrelease at the start of the bottom of the seventh inning. They
are also refee d to as rokettoJasen .The balloons make a
whistling noise as they fly and create an amazing racket when everyone
releases them at the same time.
Koshien
(a) Baseball stadium in Nishinomiya where the Tigers play.
(b) Twice annual high school baseball tournament held at Koshien
Stadium.
(c) Stop on the Hanshin Railway line where Koshien Stadium is located.
moko
Fierce Tigers. This is what they are called when they are playing well.
Rokko
M t. Rokkoone peak ofthe Rokko mountain rangewhich rises up behind
Koshien.
Rokko Oroshi
The Hanshin Tigers team anthemnamed after the first line of the song
describing the wind blowing down M t. Rokko.
rakkii sebun 7
Lucky 7the seventh inning. Tradition says i s is the strongest at-bat for
the Tigerswhen they often score runs to come from behind. W h e n
84 KINKIJAPANESE
Hanshin plays at homethe stadium makes an announcement over the
loudspeakers in the middle of the inning to remind everyone to cheer
even harder during Lucky 7.
ski no ro
These are the so-called deadly" road games. For two weeks in August
while the high school baseball tournament occupies Koshien Stadium
the Tigers play only road games. This is a criticaljuncture in the season
and the team typically doesn't do well during this period.
J
1
n
m
b
u
u
.
n
-
m
m
r
T
Z
A
tora
(a) The Japanese word for tiger.
(b) The Hanshin Tigers.
tora-kicki
Someone crazy about the Tigersor a Tigers fan. The word is derived
from torameaning tigerand kichiwhich is short for something w e
aren't allowed to printmeaning crazy or insane.
TORA-KICHI 85
torakki
The Tigers's mascot.
wakatora
A promising young Tigers player.
A trip to Koshien to see a game is well worth the effort if tickets are
available. Plan ahead-when the team is playing wellHanshin tickets
can be as difficult to come by as sumo wrestling tickets. But stay far
away from the bleachers unless you're carrying something far stronger
an aspirin. Although noisy throughout the stadiumthe bleachers beyond
the outfield are the epicenter of e non-stop orchestrated cheering. The
Hanshin colorsyellow and blackor white and blackare essentially
mandatory there.
It is also a smart idea to watch a few games on televisionpick out a
few favorite playersand keep track ofthe team's record and standings in
e newspaper in order to have an easy topic of conversation with which
to break e ice at pt i e s and company functions.
One interesting piece of Tiger history involves a foreignerColonel
86 KINKIJAPANESE
Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame. There seem to be several
versions of this storybut here is the one w e heard.
W h e n Hanshin w o n the Japan Series for the first time in 1985the
fans went crazy. One group gathered at Nanpa Bashi over the Dotonbori
Riverand as people called out the names oftheirfavorite playerssomeone
wouldjump into the river. Howeverwhen they called out the American
playerRandy Bassw h o helped lead the team's successthere were no
foreigners in the crowd to represent him. The closest thing to a foreigner
they could find was the Colonel Sanders statue in front of the nearby
K F C restaurantwhich the-y threw into the water.
The restaurant never replaced the statueand soon afterwards Hanshin
went into a deep slump. Some people claimed this was due to a jinx
wrought by the Colonel himself. W h e nin 1992it looked like Hanshin
would win the Central League pennantthe shop finally replaced the statue.
Howeverknowing the character ofHanshin fansthe management chained
the statue to the front of the restaurant . Unfortunatelythe team blew the
last few critical games and failed to win the pennant . Maybe they shouldn't
have kept the Colonel chained down.
-171
Fifteen More Kinki Words
B y now you have certainly noticed how often the grammar and vocabulary
described u s far are used in everyday speech. Hopefullyyou have e d
out some of the expressions yourself and have found people'sresponses
wanner and more openor less stiff and formal . Ifyou haven'tbeen using
the first thirty wordswhy not? Don't be shy or you'll miss all the fun in
conversing. Try it out in your Japanese class. Your teacher will
undoubtedly try to correct you. Ask her h o w she speaks ~ i t h her friends
outside of class and watch her get flustered. Yeslanguage studytoois
an integral part of the Tokyo conspiracy.
Seriouslyw e recommend you become comfortable with the first thirty
wordssince they constitute the backbone of Kansai-ben and are useful
in almost every situation. From this pointw e concentrate more on specific
words and speech patterns thatalthough important to understand and
useare somewhat more limited in application.
V O C A B U L A R Y
31. donkusai
32.hagaii
87
33.hokasu
34. kanawan
88 KINKIJAPANESE
V O C A B U L A R Y
35. kannin
36. makeru
37. shiinai
38. tanomu
39. yokegysanyosan
40. zukkoi
41. kaina
42. -n -
43. ra ()
44. -taru -
45. -ten -
31. donkusai dim -w ittedstupid
Donkusai translates literally as the smell of stupidity." It means aperson
or action of a personthat is dim-witted or stupidbut is usually used
more in jest between friends than as an actual insult. Similar words in
standard Japanese are noroma nibui and guzu .
Ah! Densha ni kasa wasurete mota.
Donkusai yatcha nii.
!
Ileft m yumbrella on the train.

You don't have your head screwed on straight.
S H I G E R U :
T A D A S H I :
S H I G E R U :
T A D A S H I :
Tadashi is teasing his friend for forgetting his umbrella. Toroi
is another Kansai word meaning a person w h o reacts slowlymoves
slowlyor thinks slowly. Donkusai would be used between friends when
teasing each otherwhile toroi can be used as an insultin some contexts.
As with many adjectivesthe final -i can be dropped and the last sound
lengthened. Donkusai then becomes donkusa-. Similarlyatsui is
often changed to a t s u - ~ and shindoi to shindo
M O R E KINKI W O R D S 89
32. hagaii frustrating
Hagaii is a contraction ofhagayui which literally means itchy
tooth." You know you could get rid of the itch by pulling the toothbut
you also know it would only make matters worseso you do nothing but
feel frustrated. A situation or person is hagaii when you know you have
the means to solve a problem but can't use it. The most common usage is
in reference to a person whobecause of ineptitude or other reasonsis
unable to do something you know you could do easily if allowed.
K E N S U K E :
K Y O T A :
K E N S U K E :
:
:
:
K E N S U K E :
K Y O T A :
K E N S U K E :
Oikotchi ni aruite kuru nonomae no akogare chau no?
Koe kakete miiya!
E?! A unseyakedonosono.
A aitte mota yan. Nani shiten nen?
Hagaii yatcha nahonm.
?
!
? ! . . .
?
O
Heyisn't that the girl you like walking towards us?
You ought to say something to her!
Huh? Wellu m m .
She's gone already. What are you doing?!
You're really frustrating!
A s you can see in this exampleKensuke is getting frustrated with
K y5ta because he'stoo shy to take Kensuke's advice and talk to the girl
of his dreams. Kensuke feels he would have done a much better job if
that had been the girl he liked.
A n akogare is someone you have a crush on. Mii attached
90 KINKIJAPANESE
to the -te form of a verb means you should try." (See"58) ltte mota is
equivalent to itte shimattin standard Japanese. (See
14) Shiten nen is the -ing form of suru. (See 45)
It is also possible to be frustrated with yourself. For exampleif you
are the best baseball player on the team and your team is losingbut you
can't do anything about it because you are iuredyou might say the
following:
Jibunjishin ga hagaii .
I'm frustrated with myself.

33.hokasu to throwaway
Hokasu means the same as suteru .Unlike many Kansai-ben words
that are contractions or variations on the pronunciation of standard
Japanese wordshokasu is unique to Kansai . People living outside of
Kansai who are unfamiliar with this word might assume it is a contraction
ofhokan suru meaning to save" the opposite ofhokasu. T his
can sometimes lead to misunderstandings between the Kansai office and
branch offices of a company.
Kono gomihokasu de.
I'm throwing away this garbage.

M O T H E R : M kono zasshi iran karahokaso ka?
D A U G H T E R : Hokashihokashi.
: ?
:
M O T H E R : W e don't need these magazines anymoreso w h y don't
w e throw them away?
DAUGHTER: G o ahead and get rid of them.
Kono shoruihokashitoite na.
Throw these documents away for m ewill you?

In this examplethe verb is in the -te oku - form hokashite
o i t e ~ As in standard Japanesethis indicates that something
is set aside or prepared ahead. This form is often used to request a simple
favor of someone younger or of lower standingand is sometimes
shortened to toite .H okashitoite is often shortened even further
to hottoite .Don't confuse this with h6tte oite
w hich is also contracted to hottoite and means leave m e alone."
Hokasu is also sometimes pronounced horu .
M 6 korehoro ka?
?
Should w e throw these away already?
34.kanawan stucktroubledcan't wincan't
stand something
T hisoften heard word has two unrelatedmeanings a t are both commonly
used. The first meaning is trouble" or troublem aker" somewhat similar
to komatta .But kanawan can also mean I can'twin against
something or someone" or I can't stand something." The intended
meaning has to be determined from the context. Here is an example of
similar sentences with very different meanings.
(a) Kanawan ytcha nil.
He's a troublemaker.
92 KINKIJAPANESE
In this contextkanawan is often shortened to kananas in kanan
yatcha nii.
(b) Aitsu ni w akanawan.
There's no way Ican beat him.

Both ofthe above examples can be simplified tojust kanawan nii
.
Related to definition (b) ofkanawan is the feeling ofnot being able to
stand something. In this casekanawan is used in the same way as
tamaranai which in Kansai is pronounced tamaran
.
Atsukute kanawan.
Ican't stand the heat.

Atsukute tamaran.
Ican't stand the heat.

The kanawan of sentence (b) is used throughout Japanbut the word
is pronounced kanawanai outside of Kansai . The kanawan
of sentence (a) is used exclusively in Kansai .
35. kannin suru excuse m eforgive m e
have patience
Kannin suru means the same as kanben suru pardon me" or
excuse m e" when asking forgiveness for a small mistakeand is often
used in the context of please have patience with me." It is sometimes
shortened to kanisuru w hen used in the forms kanishite
forgive m e" and kanishitaru Iforgive you."
A young woman meeting her boyfriend who has arrived late:
N O Z O M I : Nani shitottan?! Ichijikan m o matteten de!
M A T S U S H I T A : Kannin! Kaigi ga nobite shimoten.
: ? ! 1 !
: ! O
N O Z O M I : Where have you been?! I've been waiting for an hour!
MATSUSHITA: Give m e a break! M y meeting went late.
W e recommend that Nozomi find a more considerate boyfriend.
36. makeru to discount (a price)
Makeru literally means to lose" but can also meanespecially in Kansai
(although not exclusively)a special discountusually attained by
bargaining. Benky6 suru is also used synonymously in this
context . Neither word is used to refer to a store's standard bargain sales.
T A K A K O :
Y A S U K O :
:
:
T A K A K O :
Y A S U K O :
E nekkuresu ya nee Nanbo yattan?
Niman en yatten kedoichiman rokusen en ni makete
kureten.
?
Nice necklace! H o w much was it?

It was originally 20000 yen but they gave it to m e for
16000 yen.
9 4 KINKIJAPANESE
At a flea market:
MARl: Koresen en? M o sukoshi m kete kurehen?
SAKAI: Seya na. HonaIcyyaku en ni maketoku wa.
: ? ?
:
MARl: Is this 1000 yen? Can you drop the price a bit?
SAKAI: H m m . I'll give it to you for 900 yen.
Seya na isequivalent to so d ne .Maketoku
is a contraction of makete oku w here the -te oku form
means I'll do it for you."
This type of bargainingalthough not extremely prevalentis much
more common in Kansai than elsewhere in Japan. There also seem to be
more flea markets and other less formal shopswhere bargaining is
customary. Howevermost bargainingespecially at small marketsis
done by asking for a reduction based on volume purchases. For exn p l e
ifthe list price of a piece offish is 1000 yenyou may be able to get two
for somewhat less than 2000 yenor for 2000 yen you may be able to
get the shopkeeper to throw in another small piece for free. In Osaka's
Nipponbashi ( b e careful with the pronunciation-Tokyo has a
district written with the same characters and pronounced Nihonbashi)
electronic goods can be bought at a discount for those able to bargain
effectively. For exn p l e it may be possible to convince the salesman to
throw in free accessoriessuch as software or diskswith a computer
purchase.
Bargaining is often pointed out as an indicator of the significant
difference in personalities of Kansai and Kantresidents. Typical
Tokyoites take pride in their ability to pay for expensive goods. Although
bargain hunting may be growing in popularity all over JapanTokyoites
would not announce to friends that they bought anything other than the
best goods at full price. O n the other handtypical Kansai residents
especially those in Osakatake pride in their ability to drive a hard bargain
and to find the same goods at lower prices. It is often said this is due to
the fact that Osaka has traditionally been a city ofmerchantswhile Tokyo
has been a collection of people from the countryside trying to impress
each other.
So don't be embarrassed at an outdoor marketespecially if you are
buying more than one item. G o ahead and say makete kurehen? and see
what happens. You might save some money andif nothing elsehave an
interesting time talking with the shopkeepers in Kansai-ben.
37. shiinai can'tbe helped
Shtinai is a contraction of shikata ga nai oras a language
textbook might list itshikata ga arimasen .Literally
itmeans there is no method." It is used frequently to mean it'shopeless"
or Igive up." In Tokyo it is usually contracted to sho ga nai
while in Kansai it usually becomes shtinaiwith the middle a sound
~ / ~
96 KINKIJAPANESE
drawn out. The word is almost always followed by na .Japan is
sometimes referred to as the sh6 ga nai culture" because ofhow quickly
people give up when told they can't do something. While this refers
primarily to Tokyoshiinai is still heard frequently in Kansai.
SUZUKI: Kurumaugokahen.
H O N D A : Shiinai nii. Densha de iko ka.
:
:
SUZUKI: M y car's not running.
H O N D A : We've got no choice. We'll have to take the train.
In this caseshiinai doesn't mean there is no way to go but that there
is no choice in the matter. ObviouslySuzuki would rather have gone by
car. Note that ik6 is shortened to iko .
A telephone conversation from Umeda Station at I A.M.:
K E N S U K E : Saishu denshanogashite moten.
[ma kara sotchi tornari ni itte rnoe?
K Y O T A : M shiinai yatcha na. E de. Kotchikoi ya.
:
?
:
K E N S U K E : The last train already left.
D o you mind if Icome over and stay at your place?
K Y O T A : You screwed up againhuh? Wellcome on over.
Shanai yatcha nii is equivalent to shikata ga nai yatsu da n
which means someone who ends up in hopeless situations or
who screws up often. Here Kyota is giving Kensuke a hard time.
38. tanomu please;I'm counting on you
Tanomu replaces onegaishimasu in Kansaiespecially when
asking a favor of someone the same age or younger in a casual situation.
It is almost always followed by the neutral sentence-ending wa. Older
men in Osaka often pronounce it as tanonmassa .
K A K A R I C H O :
HIKARI:
K A K A R I C H O :
:
:
:
BOSS:
HIKARI:
BOSS:
H O N D A :
SUZUKI:
:
:
Kono h6kokushoitsu made ni dekiru?
N . ..tabunashita no hiru niwa ...
Sore de ewa. Tanomu wa.
?
. . . . . .
W h e n can you have this report finished?

Probably by noon tomorrow.
That's fine. I'm counting on you.
Kanku made noshitaro ka?
A honma ni? Honnara tanomu wa.
?
?
98 KINKIJAPANESE
H O N D A : D o you want a ride to the airport?
SUZUKI: Really? Wellifyou're offeringplease.
Kanka is short for Kansai Kokusai K a k 6 the
international airport in Osaka Bay.
39.yokegyosanyosan a lotmany
All three of these wordsidentical in meaning to takusan are
completely interchangeable and used with roughly the same frequency.
Different peopleof coursetend to use one word more than the others
and there may be some regional differences in word usage.
Gyosan kota.
Ibought a lot.
Kota isthe past tense of kau in Kansai-ben.
IBARAGI: Ashitakaigi de happyo sena akan nen.
Konya w a yke sena akan koto aru wa.
H I R A K A T A : M abochi-bochi ganbari!
:
: !
IBARAGI: Ihave to make a presentation at a meeting tomorrow.
I've got a lot to do tonight.
H I R A K A T A : Wellhang in there!
Y A S U K O : Hanshin hyakkaten de konna ni yosan kaimon shiten.
T A K A K O : A so kat Hanshin yushshitan yakke.
:
:
Y A S U K O :
T A K A K O :
!
Look how much Ibought at Hanshin Dept m e n t Store.
O hthat'sright! Hanshinjust wondidn'tthey.
If the Hanshin Tigers win the Central League pennant or the Nihon
SeriesHanshin Department Store holds a special sale to celebrate the
occasion. At that timenot only Tiger paraphernalia but all types ofgoods
'e on sale.
Kaimono isoften shortened to kaimon d tsukemono
is shortened to tsukemon in casual speech.
40.zukkoi cunningsneaky
Zukkoi means the same as zurui or warugashikoi .This
refers to a personsituationor method that is sneaky or unfair. The final
vowel is often lengthened to make it sound like zukko-
N O Z O M I :
HIKARI:
N O Z O M I :
HIKARI:
Mitsui-sanumai koto bucho ni toriitteshshin shitan yate.
So nan?! Zukkoi na.
? !
Iheard Mr. Mitsui got himself in good with the boss and
got a promotIon.
N o way! He's pretty sneaky.
Yate means so Iheard." (See 60) Toriiru m eans to curry
favor or brow n-nose." Mitsui seems to have succeeded at gaining a
promotion by currying favor with the boss.
Umai koto is equivalent to umaku meaning done well." In
Kansai-bensome adverbs are created from the -i form of adjectives by
100 KINKIJAPANESE
adding koto . Commonly used examples are umai koto
hayai koto and nagai koto which in standard
Japanese would be expressed as umaku hayaku andnagaku
.
Nagai koto matasete gomen na.
Sorry Ikept you waiting so long.

41. kaina sentence ending expressing sarcasmserious
doubtor a demand
This is another sentence ending unique to the Kansai dialect. Kai is
equivalent to ka indicating a question. N a often lengthened to
nais basically the same sentence ending as the na of word entry
28. These are frequently combined to become kaina. It has arough sound
and is therefore used primarily among friends or family.
(a) expressing sarcasm
Kaina is used most often to express sarcasm. Howeverthis form is
!?((
~
sometimes used to express anger. It is frequently heard after honma
but can follow a verb in dictionary form.
Konna yosan no shigoto dekiru kaina.
H o w can Ipossibly do all this work?

Dare ga anna kaisha iku kaina.
W h o would want to work for such a company?

K A Z U O :
HIROSHI:
K A Z U O :
:
:
:
K A Z U O :
HIROSHI:
K A Z U O :
SHIGERU:
TADASHI:
SHIGERU:
TADASHI:
Kino no shikenore manten toUa de.
Honma kaina?
Honma yade. Horamite mil
?
!
Igot 100% on yesterday's exam.
Yeahright!
Really. Look!
Shacho gajikyu agete kureru rashii de.
Honma kaina? Shacho gottsui kechi ya no ni .
?
Ihear the boss is going to raise our hourly wages.
Yeahright! That stingy person?
In these last two exampleshonma kaina is used as a very sarcastic
way to question the person's statement.
102 KINKIJAPANESE
(b) expressing very strong doubt
In this casekaina also follows the dictionary form of a verb with -n
attached.
Anna tayorinai ko ni mise makashite daijobu kaina?
?
Are you sure it's safe to leave the store in that kid's hands?
Dekirun kaina?
?
Are you really able to do it?
Kaisha ikun kaina?
?
Are you really going into the office?
(c) expressing a demand
Kainawhen used to express a strong demandfollows a verb in the
negative -nai for m with the -ai rem oved.
Bayo taben kaina!
!
Eat faster!
Sassato yaran kaina!
!
D o it now!
Shikkari sen kaina!
!
Get a hold of yourself!
42. n - (negative verb conjugation)
The negative verb conjugation -hen or -nai is often
coa c t e d tojust -n - .T hisvery clipped fonn ofspeech is used equally
by m e n and women but usually only in very informal situationssuch as
between friends. The usual rules of negative verb conjugation applybut
-n is added after the -a base. Some verbssuch as shiru primarily
use this negative informal endingas in shiran .Other verbssuch
as aru use only the -hen endingas in arahen while the
majority ofverbslike wakaru can use eitherendingas in wakaran
or wakarahen .There is no rule for making this
choiceso you will have to pick up the correct usage from listening to
conversations. If you use the wrong conjugationyou arejust as likely to
hear so w a iwahen de as you would so w a iwan de
.
n a
r
'
H
n
u
Idon't know
Idon't know
Idon'tneed itno thanks
104 KINKIJAPANESE
lwan
tsukawan
kanawan
dekin
don't say
don't use
can't beat
can't do
A rising intonation at the end turns this form into a question.
M I Y A Z A W A :
TAKESHITA:
:
:
M I Y A Z A W A :
TAKESHITA:
Shiran?
Shiran.
?
D oyou know?
Idon't know.
43. ra () (plural form)
-Ra added to a noun indicates the pluralas in groups ofpeople. Although
this is c o m m o n in written Japaneseit is used much more frequently in
spoken Kansai dialectwhile -tachi - is more c o m m o n in standard
Japanese speech.
tashira us (women)
us
orera us (men)
anokora those kids
the old m e n
None of these examples would be used in standard Japanesealthough
other words using -rasuch as bokura are not uncommon. T he word
uchi is often used in Kansai to indicate m e." Thereforeuchira
m eans us" and uchira no m eans our."
44. taru I'll do it for him/her/you
The verb conjugation taru is a contraction of -te yaru - meaning
I will do it for you" or I will do it for himlher." This conjugation is
formed by attaching -ru to the -ta form of the verb.
Fuku k6taru.
I'll buy those clothes for you.

Ashita mukae ni kitaru wa.
I'll come pick you up tomorrow.

Meshi tsukuttaru.
9
I'11 make you something to eat.
Aitsudotsuitaru!
!
I'm going to punch that guy out!
Yiitaru.
I'll go tell them for you.

One frequently used variation ofthis form is taro acontraction
of -shite yarD which has a slightly softer sound but
essentially the same meaning as -taru. The only difference in these two
expressions is a t -taro can be used in both interogatory and declarative
sentences.
106 KINKIJAPANESE
Kanekashitaro ka.
?
D oyou want m eto lend you some money?
Jitensha naoshitaro.
I'11 fix the bicycle for you.

Aitsunakashitaro ka?
?
I'11 teach him a lesson!
Kansai people often use the phrase abovewhich literally means I'm
going to make him scream" when they get angry with someone.
Because -taru sounds somewhat rudemany w o m e n prefer to use
-tageru a contraction of shite ageru which is
more polite than -shite yaru.
1'11 lend you some money.
Kanekashitaru wa.
Okanekashitageru wa.
Gohan tsukuttageru wa.
I'11 make you something to eat.

Okanekashitage.
Please loan him some money.

(male)
(female)
Another verb conjugation is created by contracting te yari
to tari a n d -te yare to t a r e . Both forms have
the same meaning ofplease do is for him" or you should do this"but
-tare sounds rougher than -tari and is used primarily by men.
Let him borrow that.
Kashitare. o
Kashitari.
Kanojo ni denwa shitari .
Y o u should call her.

(male)
(female)
45. ten - (pasttense verb conjugation)
This verb conjugationcreated by adding -n to the -te form of the verb
forms the past tense equivalent to ta n da i n standard Japanese.
It is used when the speaker wants to add some emphasis or feeling to the
sentence. The plain -ta pasttense form is used to state a fact.
Kinogakko itten.
Iwent to school yesterday.

Kekkon shiten.
I got married.
Anokuimoto ni ageten.
108 KINKIJAPANESE
Igave those clothes to m yyounger sister.
While -ten by itself is a past tense verb conjugationit becomes the
progressive (-ing) form when combined with nenas in ten nen -
. This form is equivalent to -te iru in standard Japanese.
These past tense and -ing forms are easily confused by non-natives.
Note the difference in the following examples:
Nani shiten?
?
What did you do?
Nani shiten nen?
?
What are you doing?
Here are some more examples of the -ten nen form:
Manga yonden nen.
O
I'm reading the comics.
Repoto kaiten nen.
I'm writing a report.

ImaMatsushitak u n to tsukitten nen.
I'm currently dating Matsushita.

Makudo de baito shiten nen.
I'm working part time at McDonald's.

Baito is short for arubaito a part-timejob.
I&hi
Shie"7
~
-181-
Example Conversations III
Conversation 1: At the officethe boss asks the office ladies to do
all the drudgery.
1 K A K A R I C H O : Warui kedokono tana no shorui zenbu hokashitotte
kurehen ka?
N O Z O M I :
2 HIKARIN O Z O M I : H a -i .
3 K A K A R I C H O : Tanomu wa. (heya 0 deru)
4 HIKARI: Mol Ano hitokanawan nil.
5 N O Z O M I : Honmahonma. Konna yosan no shorui atashira dake
de hakoberu kai na.
K yu zatsuyo bakkari atashira ni oshitsukete
jibun w a oishii shigoto bakkari yatten nen kara.
Aitsuzukkoi wa.
Honma. Hara tatsu wa.
6 HIKARI:
7
8
9
1 :
2 :
3 :
?

( )
110
EXAMPLE CONVERSATIONS III 111
4 : !
5 :
6 :
7
8
9 :
N O Z O M I :
1 BOSS: Iknow it'sa painbut would you mind getting rid of all
the documents in this book shelf?
2 HIKARIN O Z O M I : 0 -kay.
3 BOSS: Thanks. I'm counting on you. (He leaves the room.)
4 HIKARI: Ican't believe it! Ican't stand that guy!
5 N O Z O M I : Really! Does he really believe w e can cr aIl
those documents?
H e always pushes the drudgery off on us and
keeps all the interesting work for himself.
That guy's a sneaky dog.
Yeahhe gets m eso angry.
6 HIKARI:
7
8
9
M -?W I' .'
112 KINKIJAPANESE
Line 1: A s elsewhere in Japanrequests often start off with warui
kedowhich means it'sbad ofm e to askbut. .." or I know it's a pain
but. .." even when the person doesn't really believe he is asking for
much. In this caseas the bookcase is filled with company reportshokasu
probably means not simply throwing them away but shredding all the
documents as well .
Line 2: The women's responseh a - iwith the drawn out sound
indicates they aren'treally happy about carrying out the request but
realizing they have no choice in the matteragree reluctantly.
Line 3: Tanomu roughly means thanks" in this situation. In standard
Japanesethe boss would have said onegai .
Line 4: Once the boss is gonethe women are free to vent their anger
to each other.
Line 5: Atashi isa feminine contraction of watashi .The -ra
attached to the end changes the meaning from m e" to us." Kaina is
used to express sarcasm toward the bosswho believes the two women
will be able to move all the documents by themselves.
Line 6: Zatsuy6 is routine workin this caseall the boring
drudgery. Oshitsukeru isa standard Japanese word that means
to force something onto another person.
Line 7: Oishii usually refers to good-tasting foodbut is also used to
describe work that is favorable or profitable to oneself.
Conversation 2: Between two sweethearts.
Nozomi has been waiting a long time for Matsushitaher boyfriendto
meet her at Nanba Station. H e finally arrives and runs toward her.
1 M A T S U S H I T A :
2 N O Z O M I :
3 M A T S U S H I T A :
Gomen na. Nagai koto matashite shimote.
M !Shiran!
Machiawase nojikankanchigai shiteten.
Gotne" #)l
4 N O Z O M I : Donkusa-.
5 MATSUSHITA: Ohiru ogottaru kara kannin shite.
6 N O Z O M I : Shiinai na. Seyattarayurushitaru wa.
1 :
2 :
3 :
4 :
5 :
6 :
! !
1 MATSUSHITA: I'm sorry. Imade you wait for a long time.

2 N O Z O M I : I'd given up already.
3 MATSUSHITA: Imade a mistake in our meeting time.
4 N O Z O M I : That was pretty stupid.
5 MATSUSHITA: I'll buy lunch. Please forgive me.
6 N O Z O M I : Iguess there's no choice. In that caseI'll forgive you.
Line 2: Mol Shiranl means here that he's not worth the trouble of
knowing anymore.
1 T A K A K O :
2 Y A S U K O :
3
4
5 T A K A K O :
6
114 KIN KIJAPANESE
Line 3: Shitotten is the past tense of shitoru the
progressive (-ing) form of suru .This is equivalent to the standard
Japanese shite ita Sim ilarlytabetotten m eansI
was eating" and mitotten m eans Iwas watching."
Line 5: Ohiru which only means afternoon" is used here as
short for ohiru gohan or lunch. Ogoru m eans to treat
someone to something" and is used much more often than gochis
to indicate buying a meal for someone. Ogoru is also used when treating
someone to a movie or even taxi fare. Gochisosama deshita
usually said after a meal to the person w h o prepared it or paid for
itis sometimes replaced with gottsuosan by m e n in Kansai .
This is often shortened to gossosan or even further to gossan
.
Line 6: Seyattara is equivalent to so dattara meaning in that case."
Se or so replaces the standard so and yattara replaces dattara.
Yurushitaru is the shortened form ofyurushite ageru
.
Conversation 3: A housewife returns from the market carrying two
bags of rice. She is greeted by her neighbor
Takako.
Okusansonna ysan okome kote kitedonai shihattan?
Yaokusanasoko no mise dehitofukuro sen en no
okome
"ltafukuro kau kara" yutara
uhyaku en zutsu ni makete kuretan yo.
Atashisakki sen en de kote shimota wa.
Okusan ni w a kanawan wa. Kondoa.tashi m oyatte miru
wa.
You sure bought a lot ofrice. W hat's up?
O hhi . Iwas at i s shop where they had rice for 1000
yen per bag
so Isaidhow about if Ibuy two bags"
and she gave them to m e for 900 yen per bag.
Ijust paid 1000 yen.
Ican't beat you. Next time I'll try that myself.
1 :
2 :
3
4
5 :
6
1 T A K A K O :
2 Y A S U K O :
3
4
5 T A K A K O :
6
Line 1: Housewives often address each other as okusanmeaning
w ife." Dona; suru is hard to translate but roughly means
w hatwill you do?" In this casethe past tense of the respectful haru
form is attached along with a final -nshort for nowhich turns this into
a question. Thusdonai shihattan m eans something
like w hatdid you do?" or what's up?" These women are talking politely
to each other. In less formal conversationsdonai shitan is
commonly heard.
Line 2: fa is used to say hello or to express mild surprise at meeting
someone.
Line 4: The housewife bargained for a discount by buying two bags of
rice at a cheaper rate a n for a single bag. Unlike Tokyoitesshe is proud
of her ability to find a bargain.
Line 6: Kanawan means Ia m unable to win against you." Takako is
116 KIN KIJAPANESE
showing her respect for Yasuko'sintelligence and good sense in getting
a reduced price for the ricealthough she m a y say this sarcastically.
Conversation 4: Yasuko with her crying childM a k oand her
neighborTakako.
1 M A K O : Bie-n!
2 T A K A K O : Okusandonai shitan?
3 Y A S U K O : Yakono kotaisetsu na tegami hokashite shimotan yo.
4 Honma ni donkusai ko ya nen kara. Dare ni nitan yaro.
5 T A K A K O : Tanomu karakani shitatte.
6 Mako-chan m o muri ni nakushitan chau nen kara.
7 N akalis6 ni konna ni y6san namidanagashite.
8 Y A S U K O : Shiinai na.
1 : 1
2 : ?
3 :

4
5 :
6

7
8 :
1 M A K O : Waaaa!
2 T A K A K O : W h at's wrongYasuko?
3 Y A S U K O : This child threw away an important letter of mine.
4 She'sreally stupid. Iwonder w h o she takes after?
5 T A K A K O : Please forgive her.
6 She lost it by accidentdidn'tshe?
7 She's already cried so much and looks so sad.
8 Y A S U K O : D h wellIguess it's spilled milk now.
Line 2: A s in the previous exampledonai shitan means w hat's
happened?" or w hat's wrong?"
Line 4: Dare ni nitan yaro literally translates as who
does she resemble?" T he motheris implying a t the child certainly doesn't
take after her.
Line 5: Here tanomu means I'm asking you to ..." Kani is short for
kanninmeaning have patience." Shitatte is a contraction for
shite agete meaning please do something for someone."
Put togee rthis sentence means please be patient with her" or please
forgive her."
Line 8: In this situationshiinai indicates that Yasuko has no choice
but to forgive her childbut she is doing it only as a favor to Takako.
-191
Kinki Cuisine
The Kansai area is well known for certain foods. Osaka is famous for
okonomiyakiKyoto is known for yud land nishin soba (noodles with
herring)Kobe for Kobe beefNada for sakeand A kashiforAkashi-yaki.
Even foods found throughout Japan are prepared differently here and
have names different from the ones used in Tokyo. So while you are
heremake sure you try Kansai cuisine and remember to use the correct
local names.
Okonomi
Okonomiyaki usually referred to as just okonomiis
considered the kinkiest" of Kansai Cuisine. Japanese like to call it
Japanese pizza" but this is misleading sincebeyond its round shape
and varied toppingsit has little to do with pizza. Its texture is much
closer to that of pancakes. Okonomiyaki restaurants are numerous
throughout Kansairelatively inexpensiveand have a casual atmosphere
that makes them an ideal place to dine with friends. Some restaurants
cook the food on a hot plate in the middle of your table or at the counter.
Like pizzatoppings such as squidshrimpporkbeefand cheese can be
118
KINKI CUISINE 119
ordered to taste. The most popular and traditional toppings are pork and
squidreferred to as butatama and ikatama respectively.
Many restaurants serve a variation called modan-yaki which
is okonomiyaki with yakisoba noodles. Okonomi is also easy and fun to
make at homeand is especially suitable for small parties. Here is how to
make it:
Ingredients: Cabbageeggflourokonomiyaki saucetororoimo (
yam s)katsuobushi ( dried bonito flakes)aonori (
green nori flakes)tenkasu (ied dough)and toppings such as shrimp
squidbaconcheesepotatoc o mmochibeefetc.
Preparation: Cut the cabbage into small strips. Mix the cabbageegg
flourgrated tororoimotenkasuand water. Heat the hot plate and spread
a small amount of oil in the pan. Pour the mixture into a circlelike a
pancake and about two centimeters high. Wait about 3 minutes and add
toppings. W hen the bottom turns light brownflip over. W hen that side is
brownflip over again and apply saucekatsuobushiaonoriand
mayonnaiseif you like. T u m down the heat on the hot plate. Cut into
small pieces and eat.
Takoyaki and Akashi-yaki
Tako means octopus" and takoyaki is a popular ping-pong ball-shaped
120 KINKIJAPANESE
" tlfl
r - ~ r;

snack made from eggsflourand soup stockwith a chunk of octopus in
the middle and coated with sauce and aonori. T o make it at homea
special takoyaki pan is required. It is much easier to buy it from the little
carts that dot the streets near train and subway stationsespecially at
night. Akashi-yaki is similarbut it is more egg-flavoredand is dipped
into a thin soup before eating. If you're still hungry after eating Akashi
yakiyou can drink the soup. The name comes from the city of A kashi
which is on the sea coastjust west of Kobe and famous for its ocpus.
Udon
Udon is popular throughout Japanbut the udon in Kansai tastes slightly
differentthan f o u n d elsewhere. T hebroth color is much lighteralmost
clear. Jape s e visitors to Kansai are often surprised that they can see the
noodles inside the soup and mistakenly add soy sauce to darken the soup.
In Kansaiudon is more popular than soba.
KINKI CUISINE 121
Kobe Beef
The beeffrom cows in the Kobe area is well known throughout the world
as being especially tender and tasty. These cows are supposedly fed beer
and massaged every day in order to improve the tenderness of the beef.
Although cheapera n in Tokyoeven in Kobe the beefis quite expensive
and essentially reserved for people on expense accounts. HoweverKobe
beef or other wagyu (Japanese beef) for shabu-shabu
can be had for only slightly outrageous prices at the local supermarket.
Shabu-shabu is also enjoyable for partiesand is extremely easy to make.
Ingredients: Thinly sliced beefhakusai ( C hinese cabbage)
t (" shiitakeenokibean threadchrysanthemum leavesandponzu and
sesame sauce.
Preparation: Boil water in a nabe pot . A d d hakusaishiitakeand tt.
Dip beefone slice at a time in the boiling water for a few seconds until it
turns brownish-red. Dip in sauce and eat.
Other Local Specialties
Tetchiri: Thefugu (globefish)version of shabu-shabu.
Ikanago: Small fish boiled hard in sugar and soy sauce. Famous in
Hyogo Prefecture.
122 KINKIJAPANESE
Tonkatsu: Fried pork cutlet found throughout Japanbut especially
good in Kansai.
Ethnic foodsespecially Korean and Chineseare well known here
because ofthe large population ofethnic Koreans and Chinese. Kobe has
a Chinatown in the Motomachi district known as Nankin Machiwhile
Osaka has a Koreatown in Tsuruhashiwhich is famous for its yaki-niku
or Korean barbeque.
Local Names for Other Foods
A few other varieties of food that are found throughout Japan go by
different names in Kansai .
L O C A L N A M E
buta-man
kantl-daki
nankin
kashiwa
bara-zushi
otsukuri
kitsune
mamushi
tanuki
reik-
hotto
miik6 -
retii
makudo
S T A N D A R D N A M E
niku-man
oden
kabocha
tori-niku
chirashi-zushi
sashimi
kitsune-udon
unagi-don
kitsune-soba
aisukhii (ice coffee)
hotto-k6hii (hotcoffee)
miruku-k6hii (cafe au lait)
remont i i (lem on tea)
makudonarudo (M cD onald's)
-1101
Final Fifteen W o r d s T o Master
Kinki Speech
W hile isis our last set of fifteen words and grammatical expressionsit
by no means exhausts the range ofspeech in Kansai. W e hope it provides
a good introduction to the language and makes it possible to understand
most of the language spoken in the Kinki region of Japan.
V O C A B U L A R Y
46. erai
47. ichibiri
48. ikezu
49. irau
50. nangi
51. sara ( )
52. sh6monai
53. toko
54. yaru
55. yossha
123
56. do- -
57. kate
58. -mii
59. non
60. yate
124 KINKIJAPANESE
46. erai verytiringmagnificent
Erai has many different usagesmaking it difficult to grasp its exact
meaning in the context of a conversation. Its most basic meaning is as an
intensifiersimilar to the standard Japanese sugoi totemo
hijoni ortaihen .As suchit often has negative connotations.
B y itselfit usually means tired" or tiring" and is a synonym for shindoi
. Howeverit is also used in standard Japanese as a synonym
for rippa meaning a superior personor something great.
Erai kotcha! Ashita shiken ya no ni ben'0 shitehen waf
! !
O h no! I've got a test tomorrow and Ihaven't studied at all!
H I R A K A T A :
IBARAGI:
H I R A K A T A :
:
:
:
Ashi donai shitan?
Sukii de kega shitan ya.
Soraerai kotcha nii.
?
E'ro-i .ko
W O R D S T OMASTER KINKI SPEECH 125
H I R A K A T A : What happened to you?
IBARAGI: Iinjured m yleg skiing.
H I R A K A T A : That's horrible.
Erai kotcha is probably the most typical usage. Kotchis short for
kotoya "equivalente stand d koto da m eaning thing"
or event."Togetherthe expression means horrible" or that'stoo bad."
The closest equivalent in standard Japanese is taihen da
.Sora isa contraction ofsore w a .
Erai ame ya nil.
It'sreally pouring.
Erai tenki ya nil. y a w a .
This is really awful weather. It's snowing hard.

In these two examples abovethe meaning of erai is closer to the
standardJapanese hidoi andincludes an awareness ofthe largeness
or greatness of nature.
Erai asa hayo karakaigi sun nen nil.
I've got a meeting very early in the morning.

In this exampleerai is the same as totemo or hijo ni
meaning very" but includes the connotation that this early meeting is
unusual and unwelcome.
126 KINKIJAPANESE
Kymutcha erakatta wa.
Today was really rough.

Hereerai is synonymous with shindoi . (See 21) For an even stronger
expressionthe two words can be combinedas in erai shindokatta
.
47. ichibiri doltclowneasily excitable person
Ichibiri is a derogatory term used to describe someone who is too easily
elatedimplying stupidity. The best English translation might be clown"
spaz" or dolt." The closest expression in standard Japanese is
och6shimono .
Anna ichibiri aite ni sunna.
Just ignore that clown.

Sunna isa shortened form of suru na meaning don't
do that ."
The verb form ofichibiri isnot surprisinglyichibiru which
means to clown around or act stupid.
Ichibiru na!
!
Quit clowning around!
This can be shortened to ichibinna! !
48. ikezu m eannasty
Ikezu is an adjective used to describe a mean or nasty personor it is used
as a noun to describe something nasty someone has done. It is never said
aloud to the person being described except as ajoke.
Aitsuhonma ni ikezu ya na.
That guy's really mean.

Sonna ikezuiwantoite.
Don't say such mean things.

49. irau touchmeddle with
This word means to toucheither physically or in an abstract senseas in
to mess with" something. The closest equivalent words in standard
Japanese are ijiru and sawaru .
Koreirote m o e?
?
D o you mind if Itouch this?
Sore irotara akan de.
Don't mess with that.

In this exampleit is difficult to tell ifthe physical or abstract meaning
of irau is intended. The speaker could be telling the other person not to
put their hands on something. But he could also be telling the person not
to ruin the item. T he past tense ofirau isirota d irattara
is simplified to irotara .
128 KINKIJAPANESE
Kitanai te de in1Jantoite.
Don't touch that with your dirty hands.

A sister is telling her brother not to touch the item until he cleans his
hands. Here -toite m eans please" or do it" and is used in a
casual way. It is often used among friends or siblingsand can be further
contracted to totte .
50. nangi difficultannoying
Nangi is the Kansai version ofmuzukashii ormend6kusai
and is usually followed by ya na .It is accompanied by plenty
ofair sucking through the teethand can be considered a somewhat polite
way to say no" or you're really imposing on me." It is used mostly by
m e n and older people.
N A
-
u
o
Ashita no kaigishusseki shiharimasu ka?

Soranangi ya na. Ashitam 6tsumatten nen.
?
Are you going to attend tomorrow's meeting?

That's a problem. M y schedule tomorrow is already full.
E M P L O Y E E :
BOSS:
In is situationthe boss is really saying no."
Nangi na yatcha.
He's really picky.

Herenangi can mean difficult" as in he is a difficult person."
Erai nangi na koto ni natte shimota.
This situation has become extremely difficult.

51. sara ( ) new
People throughout Kansai tend to say sara instead ofatarashii for new ."
This is especially prevalent when talking about goods.
Kono kahansara ya nen.
This is a new briefcase.

The most c o m m o n usage of sara is probably when it is combined
with hin to make sarappin ()which means new
goods." It is also sometimes pronounced sarapin .
Kono kahansarapin ya nen.
This is a new briefcase.

For added emphasism a is often added to sara to create massara
. This can be translated as brand-new ."
Kono kahanmassara ya nen.
This briefcase is brand-new.

52. shomonai uninterestingboringtrifling
Sh6monai has two related meaningsthe most common of which is unin-
teresting" or boring"similar to omoshirokunai ortsumaranai
130 KINKIJAPANESE
in standard Japanese. The other meaningunimportant" or
trifling" is equivalent to kudaranai ortaishita koto nai
in standard Japanese. It is sometimes pronounced shomonai
shomona ---or sh6munai .
Sh6monai bangumi ya no'.
That show's boring.

Shmonai gyagu.
A stupidjoke.
In the above two examplessh6monai means something boring or
uninteresting. In the following examplesit describes something that is
triflingeven though it m a y not be boring or uninteresting. Note that
hayo is the Kansai pronunciation for hayaku .
Anna sh6monai kaishahayo yamete shimai!
!
Quit that useless company as soon as you can!
Sonna sh6monai koto de nayamu koto arehen wa.
There's no need to worry about such a trifling matter.

53. toko place
Toko is a contraction of tokoro .While this literally means place" it
is used frequently in expressions indicating possession. While this
contraction is used throughout Japanthe high frequency with which
Kansai residents use iteven when it seems to add no extra meaning to
e sentencemakes is a pt of Kansai-ben. Kansai people also shorten
the no thatgrammatically should precede toko to n or drop it
completely.
anta toko
uchi toko /uchintoko /
uchintoko no niwa
Kobehonma ni etoko ya.
Kobe is a really nice place.

yoh o u se/your family/youroffice
m y house/my family/my office
our gn
Minamiyoke asobu toko aru de.
Therr e plenty of places to have fun in Nanba.

Anna hito ga yosan oru tokoyo sumarehen wa.
Ican't live somewhere where there are a t many people.

54. yaru give
While yarumeaning to give" (don't confuse this with the homonym
atm eansto do")is actually part of standard Japaneseit has a broader
usage. In standard Japanesethis word is only used in reference to giving
something to a plant or i m a l or maybe a child. For exampleinu ni esa
o yaru m eans feed the dog." Howeverin Kansai this
word can be used instead of ageru w hen giving something to a
132 KINKIJAPANESE
person of equal or lower status. Howeverit does sound rude and is used
almost exclusively by m e nwhile most women stick with the more polite
ageru. It is frequently followed by the ending wa.
Orem 6 kono wiipuro tsukawan kara yaru wa.
I'm not using this word processor anymoreso I'll give it to you.
Kono honm 6iran kara yaru wa.
I'm finished with this book so you can have it.

MIKA:
T O M O K O :
:
:
MIKA:
T O M O K O :
Hoshikattara yaro ka?
E wa. Iran.
?
D oyou want is?

That's okay. Idon't need it.
55.yossha yesokaygreat!
Yossha is a very common way ofexpressing anything from simple assent
to extreme pleasure.
HIRAKATA: Omae ni kono shigoto makasu wa.
IBARAGI: Yosshamakashitoki.
:
:
HIRAKATA: I'm entrusting you with this job.
IBARAGI: Okay. Leave it to me.
A N N O U N C E R : Hanshinmanrui h6muran!
TORAKICHI: Yossha! Yalta!
: !
: ! !
A N N O U N C E R : Hanshinjust hit a grand slam home run!
TORAKICHI: Yes! They did it!
Yalta is a very common expression ofpleasure at success. It is a form
of yaffa the past tense of yaru meaning did." A literal
translation might be They did it!" or I did it!"
56.do (prefix for emphasis)
lisis aprefix usedbefore nouns and adjectives intensify theirmeaning.
It is usually used with words that are derisive or show scornand make
this effect even stronger.
doa h o
do-inaka
dos u k e b e
a true idiot
pure countryside
a real pervert
134 KINKIJAPANESE
Ano ko no kesh6itsumo dog i t s u i na.
That girl always wears too much make-up.

In some casesdo- merely intensifies the meaning without adding any
negative connotations.
dom a n n a k a the exact center
57. kate (sam e as -temodemom oor de sae)
Kate is a grammatical particle a t is difficult to translate into English
but the usual meaning is similar to even if ..." It is used in place of the
standard Japanese particles demo m o de sae and the
verb conjugation -temo .
Sonna koto yuta katedekihen mon w a dekihen nen.
N o matter what you saywhat's impossible is impossible.

[ma kara yatta katemuri chau?
?
Even if you start nowit's already hopelessisn't it?
In the above two exampleskate is used in the same manner as -temo
- in standard Japanese. This particle is placed after the -tta -
form of the verb. In the following two exampleskate is used after a
nounand has the same meaning as m o de sae ordemo .
Sonnan isequivalent to sonna koto .
Sonnan shogakusei kate shitteru wa.
Even elementary school kids know that.

Atashi kate iya ya w asonnan.
Idon'twant to do thateither.
58. -mii try it
Mii is an auxilliary verb conjugated to the -te form of another verb and
means oughtto try it." Depending on the toneit can also be a casual
way of saying do it." It is derived from miru and is essentially the
same as the standard Japanese -shite mite .
Hosokawah a nkono ika kutte mii. Umai de.
You ought to Y this squid. It'sreally good!

Kono bangumimite miL Omoroi de.
You ought to see this program. It'sreally interesting!

Joshi ni sdan shite mii.
W hatif you tried talking this over with your boss?

In these three examplesthe speaker is recommending a t e person
do somethingand the sentence ends with a flat or rising tone. However
136 KINKIJAPANESE
mii can also be used to express a demandespecially in the rhetorical
sense.
O m a eiitai koto arun narayute mii!
Hey buddyifyou've got something to say to m esay it!

A s you might expect by this point-mii can be shortened even further
by leaving off the final -i.
Kono honmite mi.
Take a look at this book.

Similarlyother standard Japanese verbs in the -te formwhen asking
for somethingare often expressed in the -i form in Kansai.
kii come kotchi kii come here
kii wear kore kii try this on
shii do denwa shii you should call
yomii read kyokasho yomii read your textbook
59.non (a)possessive conjunction(b) particle
indicating recurring event(c) sentence
ending for questions
(a) Non is used to indicate the possessive form of a noun when the item
isn't specified. This is equivalent to no orno mono in standard
Japanese.
uchinon mine
altsu non
Nagata non
that guy's
Nagata's
Uchi non tsubureten nen.
Mine'sbroken.
HIKARI:
N O Z O M I :
:
:
HIKARI:
N O Z O M I :
Koredare non?
Jibun non chau?
?
?
W hose is this?
It's yoursisn't it?
In Kansaijibun often means you" instead of I."
(b) Another usage of non is as a particle that indicates a recurring event
and is equivalent to mono orkoto .
Gakk6 iku nontarui na. Yametoko ka na.
I've got to go to school. W hata hassle. Maybe Iwon't go.

Note that tarui m eans the same as mend6kusai a
pain in the neck" or a hassle." -Toko is a contraction of -te ok6
- .
Sonna hito to deto suru noniya ya wa.
There's no way Iwould date that guy!

138 KINKIJAPANESE
(c) Non is also used as a sentence ending to indicate a question. In this
caseit is equivalent to no in standard Japanese.
Kaisha ikehen non?
?
You're not going to work?
M tabehen non?
?
You're not eating?
Konnan sanman en m o sun non?
?
They charge 30000 yen for this?
60.yate so Iheard
Yate is equivalent to the standard Japanese datte which has many
usagesbut essentially means itwas said. .." or I heard that. .."
indicating hearsay information. Hopefullya few examples will clarify
Its usage.
Ashitaame yate.
It's supposed to rain tomorrow.

F u'0 no tame ni I'llokatto yate.
Iheard our salaries are going to be cut due to the recession.

Nozomi-chankekkon shitan yate.
Iheard that Nozomi got married.

Shitan yate is often contracted further to shitente. Therefore the news
about Nozomi's marriage can be saidas follows:
Nozomi-chankekkon shitente.
W e were planning to finish on that final good news about Nozomi

but then realized there is one more important word to save for last.
61.honja see you later
Bonja is used in the same manner as honahonnaraand sonnara
explained in word entry 18. But honja is also the most common way to
say farewell to friends in Kansai . Its meaning is much closer to see you
later" m goodbye." W o m e n often say hona insteadbut use honja
as well. The standard sayonara isusually pronounced sainara
in Kansaibut as elsewhereit can have the meaning ofgoodbye
forever." So insteadw e would rather leave you with this:
PALTER:
HORIUCHI:
:
PALTER:
HORIUCHI:
Bonjamata na.
Bonamata nee
O
Until next timesee you later.
See you.
-1111
Example Conversations IV
Conversation 1: T w o office ladies having aconversation over dinner
at a robatayaki.
1 NOZOMI:
2 HIKARI:
3
4 N O Z O M I :
5 HIKARI:
6
7
8 N O Z O M I :
9 HIKARI:
10
1 :
2 :
Saikin donai?
Sore ga no'atarashiku uchitoko no ka ni kita hito
ikezu de no'.
Hito no shomonai misumitsukete w a erai
sawagttatete na.
Nangi na hito yno'.
Kinkatehito no shorui ir te
gucha-gucha ni shite kureten.
Mattaku erai m e ni ota wa.
Onaji ka no senpai ni yute mitarado ya non?
Un. Yute miten kedo
tada m o choi gaman shire mii" yate.
?
140
3
4 :
5 :
6
7
8 :
9 :
10
1 N O Z O M I :
2 HIKARI:
3
4 N O Z O M I :
5 HIKARI:
6
7
8 N O Z O M I :
9 HIKARI:
10
EXAMPLE CONVERSATIONS IV 141
H o w have you been?

Wellwe've got this new guy in m ydepartment and
he's really mean.
H e makes a big fuss out of even the smallest mistakes
people make.
This guy's a real painhuh?
Yesterdayhe messed with the papers on m ydesk
and got them all mixed up.
Ihad a really bad day.
Have you tried talking to your senpai in the department?
YeahItried saying something but
all she answered was try to be patient for a bit longer."
Line 2: Uchitoko no ka means m y dep ent ." Toko
doesn't really have any meaning here except to help the flow of the
sentence.
Line 3: Svagitateru m eans to make a fuss." Erai
is used as an intensifier here.
Line 7: Hidoi m e ni au is an expression that means
'had a bad day." In Kansaithis expression is changed to erai m e ni au
. The past tense of au in Kansai is.
142 KINKIJAPANESE
Line 10: Choi is equivalent to chotto . Yate at
the end indicates that the previous sentence is a quote. Mii m eans
try to" as in try to be patient."
Conversation 2: Tomoko and Mika at Mika's apartment .
1 T O M O K O :
2 MIKA:
3
4
5 T O M O K O :
6 MIKA:
7
8 T O M O K O :
9 MIKA:
10
1 :
2 :
3
4
5 :
6 :
7
8 :
9 :
10
1 T O M O K O :
2 MIKA:
3
Konna ni y'san nokudonai shitan?
To70 ni hikkoshi shita tomodachi ni moten kedo
uchitoko semai yaro.
Oku tokokomatten nen.
Uwa. Sara noJuku made aru yan.
Hoshikattara yaro ka.
D e m o saizu au ka do ka ippen kite mii.
Anta w a kiihin non?
Kite min kateawahen non wakatten nen.
Sono komechakucha hosoi ko ya nen.
?
What's with all these clothes?

Igot them from a friend whojust moved to Tokyobut
m yroom is pretty small.
4
5 T O M O K O :
6 MIKA:
7
8 T O M O K O :
9 MIKA:
10
Idon't know where to put them all.
W o w . There are even some new clothes in here.
If you want any of e mI'll give them to you.
W h y don't you try one on and see if it fits you?
You're not going to wear them?
Even wio u t trying them on Iknow that they won't fit.
She's really thin.
Line 2: Moten is the past tense of morau which
means to receive."
Line 3: In this caseuchitoko m eans m y home."
Line 4: Okutoko isshort for oku tokoro which means
a place to put ings."
Line 6: Yaro ka is a very informal way to say I'll give you."
In more polite speechshe would have said ageru w a .
Line 7: Kite mii m eans try it on."
Line 8: Non atthe end of this sentence indicates that this is a
questIon.
Line 9: The non in the middle of the sentence works like that" in
English. Hereit adds the meaning that" to Iknow that'they won't
fit." Kite min is the Kansai version of kite minai
which means nottry them on." Kate in this case means even if'or
even though." Together they mean even without trying them on." T he
equivalent phrase in standard Japanese would be kite minakute m o
.
Conversation 3: A mother and daughter discussing omiai
a formally arranged date.
1 M O T H E R : Antanande anna ehito kotowattan?
144 KINKIJAPANESE
2
3
4 D A U G H T E R :
5
6
7
8 M O T H E R :
9
10
R E T
R
H
E
G
H
m
D
M
1
i
1 :
2
3
4 :
5
6
7
8 :
9
10
11 :
12 :
1 M O T H E R :
2
3
Tochi motteru shiekaisha ni tsutometeru shi
se kate takltekakko yokatta ynai?
Tochi motteru yuta kateanna doi n a k a yan.
Sore ni ano hito metcha ibatten nen.
B oku mawari kara eriitotte iwareterun desu" yate.
Aho chau ka? Shmonai otoko ya w azettai.
Sonnan yuta kate antajibun no toshi kangaete mii.
Ikutsu ya omoten non?
0/1san kate'Anta 0 yome ni 'yaru made shinarehen"
yuten nen yo.
Ronaot:san zettai shinarehen wa.
Nangi na musume ya nil.
?
J
?
?
j
W hy did you tum down such a great guy?

H e owns his own landhas a goodjob
he's even tall and good lookingisn't he?
4 D A U G H T E R :
5
6
7
8 M O T H E R :
9
10
11 D A U G H T E R :
12 M O T H E R :
Maybe he owns landbut it'sway offin e c o u nside.
A n d he's real stuck-up.
T he people around m esay I'm elite" he says.
Pretty stupidhuh? He's a complete nothing.
Think about your age before you talk like that.
H o w old do you think you are?
Your father saidI can't die until you're married."
Wellin that casethere'sno chance a t he'11 ever die.
W hata pain in the neck daughter Ihave.
Line 3: Here kate has the same meaning as datte o r m o
na mely athe is even tall . Takte ise Kansai pronunciation
for takakute meaning high" oras in this casetall." Kakko
isequivalent to kakk meaning appearance." Yanai
is equivalent tojanai .
Line 4: The do- - added to inaka can mean either that the
land her suitor owns is way out in the boonies or that she is showing her
scorn for any place other than the city.
Line 8: Jibun is used by the mother to mean you." Mii is
used as a softer way to demand somethingsomewhat similar to nasai
in standard Japanese.
Conversation 4: T w o authors at the end ofthe day. W e hope to hear
from you againso we'llleave you with this last
example.
1 PALTER:
2 HORIUCHI:
3 PALTER:
4 HORIUCHI:
Kono hon kaku nondlyatta?
Nnnshindokatta kedoifa-iro tanoshikatta wa.
Hori-chan yganbatta na.
Pata-han kate. D e m o m a owari ya nen na.
146 KINKIJAPANESE
5
6 PALTER:
7 HORIUCHI:
8 PALTER:
9 HORIUCHI:
10 PALTER:
1
2 :
3
4 :
5
6 :
7 :
8
9 :
10 :
1 PALTER:
2 HORIUCHI:
3 PALTER:
4 HORIUCHI:
5
6 PALTER:
7 HORIUCHI:
8 PALTER:
9 HORIUCHI:
10 PALTER:
Kore karadonai suru?
Seya nil. D oya!? Tsugi no hon demo kako ka?
E nilsore.
Yosshaashita kara mata ganbaro!
Un. Honaashita ne.
Honja.
?

?
! ? ?
W hatdid you think of writing this book?

Wellit was a lot of workbut Ieoyed ittoo.
You really worked hard.
So did you. But now we're done.
W hatwill w e do after this?
H m m . I've got it! H o w about writing another book?
That's a good idea.
Okay! We'll start right in on it tomorrow!
Well thenI'll see you tomorrow.
See you then.
Dictionary
Note: Sample sentences appear when the entry word is not dealt with
extensively in the main text. Standard Japanese equivalents appear in
parentheses with each entry.
ahokusa stupid thing (bakarashii )
Ahokusa! Ashitaasa shichiji kara kaigi yate.
! 7
That's so stupid! Holding a meeting at 7 in the morning tomorrow!
ahoaho (See 1) foolstupidfoolish (baka )
akan (See 2) nono goodbaduselessimpossibleexpletive
(dame )
akko overthere (asoko )
Uchi tokoakko ya nen.
M y place is over there.

147
148 DICTIO NARY
antaansanantahan you;contraction
of anata ( k i m i )
Anta ni w a kankei nai wa.
That's none of your business.

arahen doesn'texistnot here (nai )
Gohan m oarahen wa.
There is no more rice left.

benkyo suru to discount a price (makeru )
bochi-bochi (See 16) so-sonot badnot good
chau (See 3) nowrongdifferent (chigau );sentence ending
meaning isn'tthat right?" (ja nai? ? )
choichocho (chotto )
Choi matte.
Hold on a second.
dabo asshole (fighting word); contraction of doa h o
de (See 26) exclamatory sentence ending (yo zo )
dekka contraction of desu ka
denna contraction of desu na ( d e s u ne )
Kyohonma ni atsui denna.
It is really hot out today.

do(See 56) prefix to add emphasis to nouns and adjectives
D I C T I O N A R Y 149
donai how is it? (dl)
Kono kutsudonai?
?
H o w do Ilook in these shoes?
donai shitan w hat's wrong? what happened? (doshita no
)
Kindonai shitan?
?
W hathappened to you yesterday?
donai sho w hatshould I/w e do? (do shiyo )
Shimekiri made mikka shika arehen. Donai sho?
3
I've only got three days until the deadline. What a m Igoing to do?
donaisuru w hatare you/we going to do? ( suru
)
Kare no kotodonai surun?
?
What are you going to do about your boyfriend?
donaiyatta how was it?
Eiga donai yatta?
?
H o w was the movie?
donkusai (See 31) dim-wittedstupid (nibui )
doshitan contraction of doshita no (doshita )
Konna sugoi kurumadoshitan?
?
H o w did you get such a nice car?
150 DICTIO NARY
dotsuku to punchto hit (naguru )
Aitsudotsuitaro ka!
!
Iwant to punch that guy out!
do sho m onai hopelessimpossiblegive up (sh6 ga
nai )
A m e yakarado sh6 m o nai.
It'srainingso there'snothing w e can do.

doya w hatdo you think? h o w is that? contraction of dlya
Omoikkiri makete3800 en de doya?
?
H o w about if Igive you m ybest offer of 3800 yen?
e (See 4) goOdthat's enough (ii yoi )
ekakkoshii person who puts on airspretentious
egui disgustingnauseating
Kono aisu kuriimu no iroegui nil.
The color of this ice cream is nauseating.

erai (See 46) very (hij6 ni totemo );tiring (taihen
;shindoi );magnificent (rippa )
gametsui greedy (yokubari)
gana sentence ending used as intensifier
Gakko ikan to akan gana.
You absolutely have to go to school.

DICTIONARY 151
geiko exclusive Kyoto geishaor geisha (in general)
geinin professionalentertainer or person with a talent for making
people laugh
gera a person w h o laughs hard (waraijogo )
Gion traditionaldistrict near Kawaramachi in Kyoto famous for
geiko
goneru to whineto complain
Nanbo gonete m o ame agehen de.
N omatter h o w much you complainI'm not going to give you any

candy.
gossan gottsuosan
gossosan gottsuosan
gottsuosangossosangossan
thanks for the food (gochisosama deshita )
gottsui (See 17) verybig
gyosan (See 39) a lotmany (takusan )
hagaii ) (See 32) frustrating
-han (See 27) Mr.lMs. (-san )
Hanshin H anshin Tigers baseball ten ;Hanshin Railway; Hanshin
Dept m e n t Store; OsakaK o b eregion; Hanshin horse racing track
in Takarazuka
-haru (See 11) honorific verb conjugation (nasaru )
152 DICTIO NARY
hayo earlyquickly (hayaku )
Kono shigotohayo sena akan nen.
W e have to do thisjob quickly.

-hen (See 12) negative verb conjugation nai)
hokasu (See 33) to throwaway (suteru )
honahonara (See 18) in that caseif sothensee you
later
honde thenafter thatand (sorede sorekara )
Osaka itteK yto itteShiga ittehonde kaette kiten.
Iwent to OsakaKyotoShigathen came back.

hondemo butnevertheless (sore demo )
Hondemo suki ya nen.
But Ilike it.

honja (See 61) see you latergoodbyein that case (soreja
)
honma (See 5) really (hont6 )
honnara in that caseif sothen (sore nara )
horu (See 33) throwaway (suteru )
Ano pitcha gottsu hayai tama horu de.
That pitcher throws really fast.

ichamon com plaintwhine (monku )
DICTIONARY 153
lchi-ichiichamon tsukentotte.
Stop being so contrary.

ichibiri (See 47) doltclown (ochoshi mono )
ichibiru (See 47) to clown o u n dto act stupid
ikezu (See 48) meannasty (ijiwaru )
ikkomo noteven a little bitnot at all; preceding negative
verb or adjective (zenzen )
Kono mangaikkomo omoronai.
This comic isn'teven the least bit interesting.

iko let'sgo (ik6 )
Ashita Nanba iko.
Let's go to Nanba tomorrow.

irau (See 49) to touchto meddle with (ijiru si J a r u
)
irachi irritable person
itchan num ber 1most (ichiban )
itchan aho
stupidest
itchomae self-im portant(ichininmae )
Anoko itchomae ni sebiro kiteru wa.
That kid looks full of himself in that suit.

154 DICTIO NARY
jibun you (anata )
Jibunkanto-daki suki?
?
D o you like oden?
kaina (See 41) sarcastic sentence ending; sentence ending
expressing doubt; demand
kakko appearanceshape(kakk6 )
Kyo kirei na kakko shiteru yan.
You look nice today.

kamahenkamehen don'tmind (kamawanai
)
Karite eka nil?
?
D o you mind if Iborrow this?
Kamahenkamahen.
Idon't mind.
kanawan (See 34) troubledstuck; can't win against someone
or something (kanawanai )
kannin surukani suru (See 35) excuse m ehave
patience with m e (kanben suru )
Kansai sam e as Kinki; same as KeiH a n - S h i n
kate (See 57) (mo temo demo ordesae )
katsu-katsu barely survivingbarely in time (giri-giri
)
DICTIONARY 155
Kongetsu no seikatsukatsu-katsu ya.
Ihave barely enough money to survive this month.

Kawaramachi m ain shopping and entertainment disi c t o f c e na1
Kyoto
KeiH a n - S h i n tri-city region of KyotoOsakaand Kobe
kehenkiihenkiihin don'tcome (konai
)
Konbankotchi kehen ka?
?
W h y don't you come over here tonight?
kettai strangeunusualcomical (hen my6 )
Soakettai na kotcha nil.
That'sreally sa n g e .
Kinki southern half of Honshuincluding Osaka-fuKyoto-fu
Mie-kenShiga-kenHyogo-kenNara-kenand Wakayama-ken
Kita O saka region around Umeda and Osaka Stations
koeru gain weight utoru )
Saikinmata koeten.
I've put on weight again recently.

koeteru fatoverweight (totte iru )
Ano koeteru h6 gauchi no buch6 ya.
That fat guy over there is our boss.

156 DICTIO NARY
kokeru fall downfall overtrip (taoreru korobu )
Uchi no kokokete akega shitan yo.
M y daughter fell down and hurt herself pretty badly.

korakorya contraction ofkore w a
Koraakan de.
This is no good.
kosobai ticklish (kusuguttai )
kotcha thing or event; contraction of koto ya ( k o t o da
)
Nan no kotcha.
What the & % $ is that?

Koshien baseball stadium where the Tigers play; national high
school baseball tournament; town in Nishinomiya where Koshien
stadium is located
kote buy;verb te form (katte )
Gyasan kate shimota.
Ibought more than Iplanned to.

kOI bought(katta )
Kurumaktan?
?
Did you buy a car?
-mahen sem i-polite negative verb conjugation (-masen
)
DICTIONARY 157
Konbanmiijan shimahen ka?
?
D oyou want to play mahjong tonight?
maido (See 6) hello
maiko girl training to become a geiko
makashimakashitoki leave it to him; I'll take care
ofit
Sono shigotoki5hai ni makashi.
Let your trainee take care of thatjob.

makeru (See 36) to discount a price
-makka contraction of -masu ka
Okiisan itehari makka?
?
Is your mother home?
manzai st d-up comedy
manzai-shi stand-up comedian
massara brand-new
Sonokumassara chau?
?
Those are brand-new clothesaren't they?
-masse ( - m a s u yo )
Hayo ikan tookuremasse.
You'd better hurry or you'11 be late.

158 DICTIO NARY
mecha (See 7) very (sugoku );recklessdisorganized
(mecha-kucha )
megeru to break (kowareru )
Konojitensha megeru.
This bicycle is broken.

metcha (See 7) very (sugoku )
-miimi - (See 58) Y itdo it (mite )
Minami region of Osaka near Nanba Station
mokkai once moreagain; contraction of m ikkai
Mokkaijiisho oshiete.
Tell m eyour address again.

-mon contraction of mono
Tsukemonkuu ka?
?
D oyou want some tsukemono (pickled vegetables)?
-mota (See 14) contraction of -shimota (shimatta )
moro received (moratta )
Sono amedare kara morotan?
?
W h o did you get that candy from?
mokarimakkamokattemak.
(See 19) h o w are you? how's business?
mota received (moratta )
DICTIONARY 159
mucha (See 7) same as mutchamecha; recklessdisorganized
(mucha-kucha )
mutcha (See 7) very (sugoku )
-n - (See 42) negative verb conjugation (-nai )
-n - sentence ending for questions; contraction of no
Ashitagorikun?
?
Are you going golfing tomorrow?
nand (See 28) sentence ending (ne)
nan sentence ending; contraction of nano
Sore nan nan?
?
W hatis that?
nanbo (See 8) h o w much (ikura )
nangi (See 50) difficultno (muzukashii mend6kusai
)
Naniwa old name for Osaka
nanmo noing;cona c t i o n ofnani m o follow ed by negative
verb or adjective
ReZ6ko n nakananmo nokottehen.
There's nothing left in the refrigerator.

nanya ( n a n k a )
Nanya wakaran kedokakarich6 erailkigen yawa.
160 D ICTIO N A RY
Idon't know what's wrongbut the manager is in a really bad mood.
naosu clean upput away (katazukeru )
Kono zasshihondana ni naoshitoite.
Please put away these magazines in the bookcase.

nen (See 13) neutral sentence ending
neya sentence ending used for question or statement (no da
no )
Nani shiten neya?
?
W hatare you doing?
non (See 59) possessive conjunction (no mono no );
particle indicating recurring event (mono koto );
sentence ending for questions (no? ? )
nukasu to say (vulgf o r m ) (iu )
Nani aho na koto nukashitonja?
?
W hatkind of stupid things are you saying?
nukui w arm (atatakai )
Kono heyanukui na.
This room's warm.

obahan middle-aged lady (obasan )
ochokuru teasemake fun of (karakau )
Aitsuitsumo hito no koto ochokunnen.
DICTIONARY 161
H e always makes fun of me.
okini (See 9) thank you (arigatl )
omoroi (See 20) interesting (omoshiroi )
oru (See 10) isexists (iru )
ossan m iddle-aged m a n (ojisan )
Ano ossanyopparatteru wa.
That guy's drunk.

otchan m iddle-aged m a n (ojisan )
Yaoya no otchanitsumo makete kuren nen.
The guy at the fruit stand always gives m e a discount.

ta (atta )
Rikoki no naka deyumeijin ni ten.
Imet a famous person on the plane.

pachirupakuru to steal (nusumu )
-ra () (See 43) suffix to make pronoun plural (chi- )
Rokko M t. Rokko
Rokko Oroshi H anshin Tigers fight song; wind a t blows down
from M t. Rokko
sainara goodbye (sayonara )
sakaini becauseforthatreason (kara node )
Ronamata kuru sakaini .
162 D IC TIO N A RY
Well thenI'll be back.

-san (See 29) suffix used in greetings (-sama gozaimasu
)
Sannomiya refersto the downtown area of Kobe; main train station
in Kobe
sara ( ) (See 51) new (tarashii )
sarappinsarapin new goods or product
Furii maketto demoyke sarappin utteru de.
They even sell a lot of new stuff at the flea market .

sehen don'tdo (shinai )
Kino nanmo sehen katta.
Ididn't do anything yesterday.

sen don't(shinai )
Shinpai sen katedaijobu ya.
Don't worryit will be fine.

sesshona don'tkill m ehave mercy on m e
Kino kashita sanman enashita kaeshite ya.
3
Tomorrowpay m eback the 30000 yen that Ilent you yesterday.
Sonna sesshona!
!
Have mercy on me!
seya ( s o )
Seya seya.
That'sright.
seyakara ( sdakara )
Seyakara yametokiyuta ya nai no.
That's why Isaid you shouldn't do that.

seyakedo ( s o dakedo )
seyattara sa me as soyattara
shanai (See 37) it can't be helpedhopeless (shikata ga nai
)
shibaku punch (naguru );do (suru )
shii do it (shinasai )
Hayo shukudai shii.
D o your homework now.

shiihin don'tdo (shinai );same as sehen
shimota (See 14) (shimatta )
shindoi (See 21) tiringhard
shitente Iheard. ..happened; contraction of shitan yate
(shitan datte )
Yoshihara-hantenshoku shitente.
Iheard Mr. Yoshihara found a newjob.

164 D IC T IO N A RY
shitatte please do it for him/her (shite agete )
Denwa shitatte.
Please call him.

shoshiyo ( s h 6 )
So shoo
Let's do that.
shomonaishomonai (See 52) uninteresting;
trifling
sonai so muchtoo much (sonna ni );in a t manner
(sono yn i )
Sonai mecha-kucha iwankateeya nai.
Y o u don't need to criticize m equite that much.

Sonai shitoki.
D oit that way.

sonnara (See 18) in that caseif sothen (sore nara )
sonnan thatis (sonna no sonna koto )
Sonnan zukkoi wa.
That's pretty sneaky.

sorasorya contraction of sore w a
Soraakan wa.
That's no good.
DICTIONARY 165
soyasoya ( s o d a )
Sora soya.
That's right.
soyattarasoyattara in that case (so dattara
sore dattara )
Syattarayameru wa.
In a t caseIgive up.
sukiya nilsukkya no 'sukiya nensukkya nen
(See 22) like
sunmahensumahensunmasensuman
excuse m e (sumimasen )
Kono aida w ahonma ni sunmahen deshita.
I'm really sorry about what happened.

Taigasu H anshin Tigers
takote tallhighexpensive (takakute )
Suteki w a taktemetta ni taberarehen.
Steak is expensiveso Ican't eat it very often.

-tan - n added to standard -form of past tense (-ta )
Nani shitan?
?
What did you do?
tanomu (See 38) pleaseI'm counting on you (onegaishimasu
)
166 DICTIO NARY
-tari-re (See 44) please do this for hirnlher
(contraction of -shite yari)
-taro:ro (See44) I'll do it forhimlher/you (contraction
of -shite yaru)
-tatte please do it for him/her (-te agete )
Shokuji tsukuttatte.
Please make him something to eat.

tena-tena-teya - casualrequest;
attached to -te form of verb (-te )
Misetetsudatena.
Would you give m e a hand at the shop?

-ten - (See 45) past tense verb conjugation (-tan da )
-ten nen - (See 45) progressive (-ing) verb conjugation (-te
iru - -teru - )
tereko mixed upin the wrong order (tagai chigai )
Shorui ga tereko ni natteru wa.
You put the pages in the wrong order.

-toki do it; contraction of te oki (-nasai )
Ot6san ni ayamattoki!
!
Apologize to your father!
toko (See 53) place (tokoro )
toko contraction of teok6 (-te oku - )
K ynomi ni iku no yametoko.
Let's forget about going out drinking tonight.

n progressive form of verb conjugated to te form with -te
changed to ton (-te iru )
Nani tabeton?
?
What are you eating?
Tora-kichi devoted Hanshin Tigers fan
oru progressive verb conjugation (-te iru -teru
)
Nani shitorun?
?
What are you doing?
-totte contraction of -toite (-te oite - )
Bideo tottotte.
O
Please set the V C R for me.
tsubureru break (kowareru )
Kono shapen tsubureteru wa.
This pencil'sbusted.
tsukotetsukote to use; -te form of tsukau
(tsukatte )
Moshi yokattarakore tsuk6te.
Feel free to use this if you like.

168 DICTIO NARY
uchi I(watashi )
Uchi no kuruma.
M y car.
Uchi toko.
M y home/office/spouse.
uchira w eour (watashitachi )
Uchira nopurojekuto.
Our project.
umai delicious (oishii )
Kono resutoranumai de.
This restaurant is really good.

utt6shii (See 23) gloomydreary
w a (See 30) neutral sentence ending (yo )
waya screw -upruined (mecha-kucha )
Konna ame no nakakimono kitara waya ni naru wa.
If Iwear m ykimono out in this rainit will be ruined.

ya (See 15) (da )
yakedo (dakedo )
yan (jan janai no )
Ano hitokakko eyan.
DICTIONARY 169
That guy's handsome.
-yan suffix attached to names between friends (-kun )
yanai (janai )
AnD mise shimatterun yanai?
?
That shop'sclosedisn'tit?
yanka (janaika )
Anta unten dekehen yank.
You can't drivecan you?

yanke (janaika )
Kantan yanke!
! -
It'seasyI'm telling you!
yarashii vulgardisgusting (iyarashii )
yaro ( d a r o )
Ashitayakyu suru yarD?
?
We're playing baseball tomorrowright?
y a m (See 54) give (ageru )
yate (See 60) Iheard that. ..(datte );I'm sure that. ..
(dayo )
yatcha personthing (yatsu da )
yalta (datta )
Kino no shiaido yatta?
170 DICTIO NARY
?
H o w was yesterday's game?
yattara (dattara )
Arne yattaralanpu chushi yana.
If it rainscamping is cancelledright?
yossha (See 55) yesokaygreat
yo (See 24) verymuchoftenwell (yoku )
yoke (See 39) a lotmany (takusan )
yosan (See 39) a lotmany (takusan )
yii (See 25) to speak (iu )
yuta said (it)
Kakaricho ga so yutan?
?
Did the manager say so?
yute (See 25) to say; -te form (itte )
zukkoi (See 40) cunningsneaky (zurui warugashikoi
)
Index
The first appearance of main word entries and their dictionary appearance are
indicated in boldface type.
ahoah6 18-19147
ahokusa 147
akan 2021-2340147
Akashi 11118120
Akashi-yaki 120
akko 147
akogare 89
arne 15
ansan 148
antaantahan 2065148
arahen 42148
arigat6s a n 67
atashi 112
atashira 104112
Awaji 11
baito 109
bara-zushi 122
benky6 suru 93148
bochi-bochi 56-5778148
boke 71
butarnan 122
butatama 119
chan-chan 72
chau 132425148
choch6choi 142148
Colonel Sanders 86
dabo 149
darnetora 81
de 36436575148
dekehendekihin 3550
dekka 148
denna 56148
dent6 no issen 81-82
do- 133-34148
do a h o 1 3 3
171
172 IN D EX
doi n a k a 133145
donai 70148
donai shiten 149
donai sho 149
donai suru 115117149
donai yatta 21149
donkusai 88149
doshitan 149
do sho m o nai 150
dosu 52
do-sukebe 133
doya 150
e 52
e 252640150
egui 150
kagen 26
ekakkoshii 25150
erai 62124-26150
erai kotcha 47125
erai m e ni ota 141
etchi 45
famikon 44
gametsui 150
gana 150
geiko 151
geinin 151
gera 151
Gion 151
gobi 35
gokurosan 67
goneru 151
gossangossosangottsuosan 114
151
gottsui 145859151
gyosan 98151
hagaii 89151
-han 1365151
Hanshin 798299151
haru 32-3349115151
hayo 130152
-hen 33-3435103152
-henkatta 34
Hirakata 11
Hiroshima 1229
hokasu 139091112152
honahonara 404259139152
honde 152
hondemo 152
honja. 139152
honma 272875101152
honnara 59139152
Honshu 11
horu 91152
hotto 122
hottoite 91
Hyogo 11
Ibaragi 11
ichamon 152
ichibiri 126153
ichibiru 126153
ikanago 121
ikatama 119
ikezu 126-27153
ikinahare 49
ikkomo 153
iko 134096153
irachi 153
irau 127153
irota 127
Ise 11
itchan 153
itchomae 153
jetto flisen 83
jibun 137145153
kaimon 99
kainakaina 75100-2112154
kakko 25145154
kamahenkamehen 154
kanan 92
kanawan 91-93115154
Kankli 98
kannin suru 92117154
Kansai 11 46-54118154
Kansai Kokusai Kliko 98
Kanto-daki 62122
kashiwa 122
kate 13435143145154
katsu-katsu 154
Kawachi 47
Kawachi-ben 47
Kawaramachi 155
ke 47
khen 35155
keigo 3249
Kentucky Fried Chicken 86
kettai 58-59155
kiihenkiihin 35155
Kinki Chiho II
Kita 72155
kitsune 122
Kobe 52-53122
Kobe beef 12I
koerukoeteru 155
kokeru 13156
kora 13156
Koreatown 122
korya 156
kosobai 13156
Koshien 8083156
INDEX 173
kote 156
kota 1498156
kuu 22
Kyoto 113248-52
lucky seven 83-84
-mahen 13156
m ahyo 13
maido 28157
maiko 157
makashi 157
makashitoki 157
makeru 93-95157
m akka 157
makudo 122
mamushi 122
manzai 70157
manzai-shi 157
massara 129157
-masse 157
mecha 158
megeru 158
metcha 28-293042158
m i-mii 89135-36142145158
Mie 11
miiko 122
Minami 72158
modan-yaki 119
mokarimakka 4760158
mokattemakka 60158
mokkai 158
mo k o 83
morota 14158
-mota 3637158
mota 14158
M t. Rokko 8083
mucha 159
174 IN D EX
mutcha 28-29159
-n (negative verb conjugation)
103-4159
n (sentence ending for questions)
159
nana 40425366159
Nada 118
Nagoya II
-nahare 49
Nanba 7071.. 72
nanbo 293042159
nangi 128-29159
Naniwa 159
nankin 122
Nankin Machi 122
nanmo 159
Nanpa Bashi 86
naosu 160
Nara 11 3254
nen 3536160
neya 160
Nishinomiya 11
non 40136--38143160
nukasu 160
nukui 13. 160
obahan 160
oba-han 65
ochokuru 160
ochazuke 51
ohayo-san 6778
ojii-han 70
Okayama 11 29
kini 283042161
omae 2073-76
omaera 18
omedeto-san 67
ornoroi 1314606175161
orareru 31-32
oru 303243161
Osaka 1147-48
Osaka-ben 1147-48
ossan 42161
ta 141161
otchan 161
orera 43104
pachiru 161
pakuru 161
-ra 104161
rakii sebun 83-84
reik6 122
retii 122
roketto fiisen 83
Rokko 8083161
Rokko Oroshi 79-8183161
sainara 139161
sakaini 161
-san 5067162
Sannomiya 162
sara 129162
sarapinsarappin 129162
se 75114
sehen 35162
sen 162
sena akan 23
sentence endings 2433354047
51-526667159
sessh6na 162
seya 1394146163
seyakara 163
seyakedo 89163
seyattara 113-14163
shanai 95-96117163
shibaku 163
Shiga 11 54
shii 136163
shiihin 35163
shimota 363742163
shindoi 146178126163
shi no rodo 84
shiran 103113
shitatte 117164
shitente 163
shitoku 42
shitotten 114
shiyo 164
sho 13164
shomonaishomonai 129-30164
sonai 164
sonnara 59139164
sonnan 134-35164
sora 13125164
sorya 164
soyasoya 13165
soyattarasoyattara 38165
suimasen 31
sukebe 45
suki ya na 62165
suki ya nen 36165
sukkya na 165
sukkya nen 165
sumahen 165
suman 31 165
sunna 126
sunmahen 31 165
sunmasen 31 165
Taigasu 7984165
takote 145165
takoyaki 120
INDEX 175
tamaran 92
-tan 165
tanomu 6897112117165
tanonmassa 97
tanuki 122
-tari 107166
-tare 166
-taro 105-6166
-taru 105-6166
tarui 137
-tatte 166
-ten 107--8114166
-tena 19166
-ten nen 1975108166
tereko 166
tereya 74
tetchiri 121
-tya 19166
-toki "166
toko 19130-31166
-toko 137167
-ton 52167
tonkatsu 122
tora 84
Tora-kichi 7984167
Torakki 85
-toru 32167
-totte 128167
-to 52
tsubureru 167
tsukemon 99
tsukkomi 71
tsukotetsukote 1437167
Tsuruhashi 122
uchi 104131168
uchitoko 131141143
uchira 104168
176 IN D EX
udon 120
umai 99168
Umeda 72
utt6shii 63168
w a 42-4367-68168
wakarahen 103
wakaran 103
wakatora 85
Wakayama 1154
ware 47
waya 168
ya 133738168
ya 115
yakedo 168
yaki-niku 122
yan 37168
-yan 44169
yanai 145169
yanka 37169
yanke 169
yarashii 169
yaro 133745169
yaru 131-32133169
yatcha 63169
yate 99138-39142169
yatta 24133169
yatta 133
yattara 37114170
yo 126476170
yoke 98-99170
yomeyome-han 65
yosan 98170
Yoshimoto 70-71
yossha 132-33170
yiita 64170
yiite 14170
yii 4364170
zukkoi 99170

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T h e dialects a n d culture

of the Kinki region

D C Palter & Iaoru Horiuchi Slotsve

Kansai-ben speakers often repeat the same word twice. This is

SUZUKI: D o you mind if Itake your wife out on a date?

Can Ieat this pork roll?

I've got to buy a new car.

Ihave to read the newspaper.

I've got to work.

Your presentation was a big hitright?

That's a pretty car.

Nice weatherisn't it.

It's really hot today.

That girl'sreally beautiful .

Thanks for your patronage.

Hello/ Thanks for calling/ Thanks for coming.

8.nanbo how much

N o matter h o w much Itry explaining to the Tokyo head officethey fail

Will you be in tomorrow?

The train'salready gone.

Iused up 3000 yen.

Kino neuchi no oko.san Kawaramchi ittan da.

Probably the most difficult aspect of Kyoto-ben for foreigners to pick

This literally translates as H ow about eating ochazuke (rice soup)?"

K yto honma ni kirei ya wa. o

[ma no shigotosusunden no?

How's the project progressing?

I've got a lot of work to do.

He's really big.

Heywhat are you up to?

Kono eigaomorokatta nil.

This type of work is tough.

Ihad a rough day today.

It's pretty ugly out today.

That guy is really slimy!

Ican'tdo this well.

Please tell that to her.

It'sgood enough. /Igive up.

Idon't mind. /N o thanks. (formal)

Idon't mind. /N o thanks. (slightly less formal)

Ishould quit being your partner.

In that caseI'm out of here.

Ileft m yumbrella on the train.

I'm frustrated with myself.

I'm throwing away this garbage.

Throw these documents away for m ewill you?

There's no way Ican beat him.

Ican't stand the heat.

Ican't stand the heat.

Nice necklace! H o w much was it?

W h e n can you have this report finished?

Sorry Ikept you waiting so long.

H o w can Ipossibly do all this work?

W h o would want to work for such a company?

I'll buy those clothes for you.

I'll come pick you up tomorrow.

I'll go tell them for you.

I'11 fix the bicycle for you.

I'11 make you something to eat.

Please loan him some money.

Y o u should call her.

Iwent to school yesterday.

I'm writing a report.

I'm currently dating Matsushita.