Kansai-ben Research Fan Club

Welcome to the MAL Kansai-ben dialect research fanclub! ＭＡＬ関西弁同好体研究部へようこそ！ <strong>First, this club is indeed named after the widely-known Kansai dialect, however it also includes others such as Hakata-ben (Fukuoka) or Hokkaidô-ben, to name a few.</strong> Kansai-ben refers to the handful of dialects spread over the Kansai (a.k.a. Kinki （近畿）) region in Japan, south-west from the Kantô region where lies Tôkyô. The most distinguishable accents in the Kansai region are indeniably the famous Ôsaka-ben, followed by the Kyôto-ben and the less famous Kôbe-ben, among others. Ôsaka-ben has a strong link to comedy, notably in the "Manzai" stand-up comedy duos, which associate a Tsukkomi (the straight man) with a Boke (the funny man), who speaks nonsense or shows funny attitudes, and is scolded by the Tsukkomi both verbally and physically, in an humorous way praised by people all over Japan. Yet unfortunately, Kansai-ben is also lightly subject to critics from Tôkyô native inhabitants, who claim it as a rude and rural language. On the other hand, Kyôto-ben rather has an image of a motherly soft dialect, spoken by grandma's to their grandsons, and in the past by geishas to their clients. Starters may find it difficult at first to differentiate it from conventional Japanese （標準語）, but as one becomes used to hearing the Japanese language, the distinction comes naturally. Moreover, the usage of those dialects in anime can portray the laid-back, gentle or humoristic attitude often adopted by some characters. Kansai-ben is characterized by peculiar stress patterns, stronger than those of conventional Japanese (alike English language one would say) and, being a dialect, has more importance and charm as a spoken language. Add to that slightly different grammar structures and vocabulary. It is said that a Tôkyô person trying to speak Kansai-ben is very likely to sound fake and weird because of improper stressing, yet the usage of Kansai-ben by Tokyo-jin is a common comedic strategy to lighten up conversations by throwing in random expressions (such as "nandeyanen" or "eraikoccha"). As I am <strong>not</strong> speaking one of those dialects, let alone being Japanese, there might be some mistakes or wrong statements above. Should them be, please refer them to me so that I could fix them up. For starters, get a hand on <strong>Lovely Complex</strong> or <strong>Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai</strong>. You'll get loads of Ôsaka-ben for your ears pleasure! By the way, I put on the list all the characters from those two series, but I doubt all of them actually speaks Ôsaka-ben, I will check later and remove characters if necessary. Feel free to join and show your love or quit as you please!