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Mixing two dialects

Elgin

先輩
23 Oct 2003
662
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I live on the line which separates Kyoto and Osaka, I know its both Kansai ben but there's still some differences. So is mixing a problem?
 
Luc said:
I live on the line which separates Kyoto and Osaka, I know its both Kansai ben but there`s still some diffrences. So is mixing a problem?

No problem.

I'm a native Kansai ben speaker.
Osaka ben, Kyoto be, Nara ben, and Kobe ben are mixed together in my Kansei ben,
and I have not had any troubles caused by my Kansai ben.
🙂
 
Thanks for the reply, I was worrying since people from Osaka speak much faster and harder then people in Kyoto.
 
Kansai-ben is Kansai-ben...although there are difference between the different varieties, everyone who grew up speaking it is accustomed to hearing the different types. If anything, it will mark where you're from.

I also speak the dialect (I lived in Kyoto last year), but I find it best to strike a balance appropriate to your speaking level. I left Japan proficient but not fluent, so at the end I was speaking with a pretty strong Kyoto accent, using a lot of めっちゃs, a lot of なs, subbing や for だ in the middle of sentences as well as the end (やけど、やから、 etc.), and using standard negation about half of the time with ~へん and classical negations for 分かる and 知る filling up the rest. I found that if I spoke Kansai-ben beyond that point (i.e. ~とる instead of ~てる) people gave me strange looks, like they thought I was trying too hard.

So that's my thought on the matter. For reference, I'm nikyuu proficiency, although I've made some significant strides in the five months since I took that test and now do fansub translations. By contrast I have a friend who's passed ikkyuu, works as a professional translator, and speaks hardcore Kansai-ben with her Kansai boyfriend. It's all about pacing yourself 😅
 
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