Hey hey hey! I have several things for today! First, G-Dragon was the only winner at the MAMA’s from Big Bang, which was a surprise to everyone. The all girl group 2NE1 cleaned up! Several artists (including Super Junior and SHINee) boycotted (because of their management company and the way that the MAMA awards are decided). I was glad GD won Best Album of the Year though. He’s worked really hard, producing songs in Korea and Japan with Big Bang and also working on his solo album and tour.
For a giggle, here’s a K. Will version of G Dragon’s Heart Breaker (K-Dragon??? ) at “Chocolate”:
Now let’s throw in some random grammar to get the brain working on this lovely sunny Sunday!
Dialects and “National Language”
Japanese is the de facto official language of Japan. There is a form of the language considered standard: hyojungo (標準語), meaning “standard Japanese”, or kyotsugo (共通語), “common language”. The meanings of the two terms are almost the same. Hyojungo or kyotsugo is a conception that forms the counterpart of dialect. This normative language was born after the Meiji Restoration (明治維新 meiji ishin, 1868) from the language spoken in the higher-class areas of Tokyo for communicating necessity. Hyojungo is taught in schools and used on television and in official communications.
Generally known as “国語” (kokugo = national language), this means that everyone basically speaks and pronounces things in exactly the same way. So although a Scot, a Londoner, a New Yorker and Aussie would all pronounce “Mary”, “Marry” and “Merry” in different ways, in Japan everyone pronounces the sounds almost the exact same way.
Instead, Japanese dialects change the ends of words. For example in Kansai they tend to add “hen” to the ends of words instead of “masen” so “shirimasen” (I don’t know) becomes “shirahen”. But it’s really easy to pick up and only really used in bars or with friends.
Differences in the copula "da" (short form of "desu" - to be)
Dozens of dialects are spoken in Japan. The profusion is due to many factors, including the length of time the archipelago has been inhabited, its mountainous island terrain, and Japan’s long history of both external and internal isolation. Dialects typically differ in terms of pitch accent, inflectional morphology, vocabulary, and particle usage. Some even differ in vowel and consonant inventories, although this is uncommon.
The main distinction in Japanese accents is between Tokyo-type (東京式 Tokyo-shiki) and Kyoto-Osaka-type (京阪式 Keihan-shiki), though Kyushu-type dialects form a third, smaller group.
Dialects from peripheral regions, such as Tohoku or Tsushima, may be unintelligible to speakers from other parts of the country. The several dialects of Kagoshima in southern Kyushu are famous for being unintelligible not only to speakers of standard Japanese but to speakers of nearby dialects elsewhere in Kyushu as well. This is probably due in part to the Kagoshima dialects’ peculiarities of pronunciation, which include the existence of closed syllables (i.e., syllables that end in a consonant, such as /kob/ for Standard Japanese /kumo/ “spider”). A dialects group of Kansai is spoken and known by many Japanese, and Osaka dialect in particular is associated with comedy. Dialects of Tohoku and North Kanto are associated with typical farmers.
The Ryukyuan languages, spoken in Okinawa and Amami Islands that are politically part of Kagoshima, are distinct enough to be considered a separate branch of the Japonic family. However, many Japanese common people tend to consider the Ryūkyūan languages as dialects of Japanese. Not only is each language unintelligible to Japanese speakers, but most are unintelligible to those who speak other Ryukyuan languages.
Recently, Standard Japanese has become prevalent nationwide (including the Ryukyu islands) due to education, mass media, and increase of mobility networks within Japan, as well as economic integration.
<
