Akita Dialect (Zowie)

This is at the Namahage Museum. During the performance, they used heavy Akita Dialect. 

Over the past few weeks, I have been trying to learn Akita dialect from classmates, online, and from first-hand experiences. Akita Dialect is known for its relaxed pronunciation being compared to a “lazy” way of speaking. There can be subtle differences, for example, instead of “taberu” (to eat) they would say “daberu” sounding less clear. There are also a lot of words and phrases that are completely different from standard Japanese. One explanation, I read, about why Akita dialect takes on a relaxed pronunciation is because it is so cold in Northern Japan which makes it difficult therefore leading to an unclear pronunciation. While I don’t know how accurate this is I thought it was an interesting explanation for the variation in the language compared to standard Japanese.

“Damagonabe” also known as “tamagonabe” is a soup dish that contains rice balls, various vegetables such as burdock root and spinach, and meats such as beef or chicken. 

While visiting Oga Peninsula in Akita Prefecture with one of my classes, I got to experience native women speaking with heavy Akita dialect. During a cooking session where local women taught us how to cook a local dish called “Damagonabe” a type of soup, one of my classmates, from Tokyo, (where they speak standard Japanese) expressed how she could barely understand what the women were saying. Personally, I could only notice a few instances when the dialect was prominent because my Japanese is not at a level where I can tell the difference yet.

Akita dialect also has several sounds such as ne and ke that can be used for several different meanings. Here is a list of ne examples which is one of my favorite things I learned!

ない＝ね(ne) = no

ないじゃん＝ねね(nene) = isn’t it?

寝ないじゃん＝ねねね(nenene) = I will not sleep

寝れないじゃん＝ねれねね(nerenene) = I cannot sleep

寝なきゃ＝ねねば(neneba) = I have to sleep

寝なきゃいけないじゃん＝ねねばねね(nenebanene) = I have to go to bed