Kansai Ben 5 関西べん

So it's time for another posting of Kansai-ben. I'm afraid this one will be a bit on the light side. My main contact for info on Kansai-ben has left the country. So these few notes are the best I can do at the moment. I also had a bit of help during my last trip that I greatly appreciate.
Though they are sparse, these two pieces of Kansai-ben are pretty useful. Enjoy.

Of course with any accent the tone of the speech is pretty important. Japanese is lacking in tonal quality. Often times Japanese will have a difficult time understanding an English speaker's Japanese. This is because English speakers will add tonal inflection to their speech, making the words and sentences sound funny. Interestingly enough. Kansai-ben is easier for English speakers to pick up because it has some tonal inflection to it.

For instance.... Think of the way a 5 year old would say, "I don't wanna..." in protest. (A tonal quality I hear quite often these days......)

Overlay that same tone to the saying, "Hon-ma kai-na." (本間かいな). That makes a pretty good semblance of how one would say, "I don't believe it," in Kansai-ben. Honmakaina can often times be heard in combination to "Nande ya nen." (Get out of here!). The emphasis of nandeyanen is difficult for us Americans. We tend to emphasise YaNEN, instead of "nan-DE-yanen." This inflection is a bit foreign and I can't really think of an equivalent English sentence. These are my two favorite phrases! Honmakaina!!! Nandeyanen!!

So the final bit of Kansai ben that I have for you is how to say, "Isn't it X". X can be anything like, hot, cute, ugly, fast.... for example: たとえば。。。。
-Isn't she cute, "彼女はかわいちゃう。。。"
-Kanojo (she) wa kawai-chau.... kawai is cute... add chau and it becomes isn't she cute...

-Isn't she tall "彼女は高いちゃう
-Konojo (she) wa takai-chau.... takai is tall.... add chau and it becomes isn't she tall....

-Isn't this boring? "これはつまらないちゃう"....
-Kore (this) wa tsumaranai-chau.... tsumaranai is boring.... add chau and it becomes isn't this boring... not implying that this post is boring..... is it?

The standard Japanese phrase replacement would be to use "jya-nai" instead of chau... I find using chau to be a bit easier.

I'll keep my ears to ground as far as more Kansai-ben goes and keep you posted!
-For an example of bad tonal use listen to the song "domo arigato mister roboto.."
-For an example of good tonal use listen to how Uma Thurman says, "aRIgatou" when saying thank you to Sonny Chiba in 'Kill Bill'. (She is ordering Sushi from the sword maker.)

-Oh, I may have a chance to put out some Hokkaido-ben here in the near future... I'll keep you posted... though my heart will always be in Kansai!

-This photo is taken just inside the terminal at Kansai Airport.


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