The is a Japanese

Japanese language

is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...

 dialect

Japanese dialects

The comprise many regional variants. The lingua franca of Japan is called hyōjungo or kyōtsūgo , and while it was based initially on the Tokyo dialect, the language of Japan's capital has since gone in its own direction to become one of Japan's many dialects...

 spoken in western Aomori Prefecture

Aomori Prefecture

is a prefecture of Japan located in the Tōhoku Region. The capital is the city of Aomori.- History :Until the Meiji Restoration, the area of Aomori prefecture was known as Mutsu Province....

.

Tsugaru-ben is reputed to be too divergent from standard Japanese for those who are not native speakers, to the point that even people living in the same prefecture may have trouble understanding it. In 1988, fans of the Tsugaru dialect proclaimed October 23 to be . October 23 is the anniversary of the death of Kyōzō Takagi (:ja:高木恭造), a famous poet who wrote in the Tsugaru dialect.

In Tsuruta

Tsuruta, Aomori

is a town located in the Kitatsugaru District of northeastern Aomori Prefecture in the Tōhoku region of Japan. As of 2009, the town had an estimated population of 14,395 and a density of 310 persons per km²...

, there is an annual summer in which teams of foreigners create short skits or performances, usually humorous, using Tsugaru-ben. In June 2009, a short segment featuring the competition was broadcast nationally on NHK

NHK

NHK is Japan's national public broadcasting organization. NHK, which has always identified itself to its audiences by the English pronunciation of its initials, is a publicly owned corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee....

.

Examples

The words are sometimes very different from those of standard Japanese.

English	standard Japanese	Tsugaru dialect
I	watashi	wa
you	anata	na
cute	kawaii	megoi
friend	tomodachi	keyagu
countryside	inaka	jago
but	keredo	batte
same	onaji	futozu
very	totemo	tage/gappa
cold	tsumetai	shakkoi
noisy	urusai	sashine
irritating	ira-irasuru	kacha-kuchane
money	(o-)kane	jenko
forehead	hitai, (o-)deko	nazugi

External Links

Tsugaru Dialect Day Tsugaru-ben dictionary Suzumeko (Aozora Bunko

Aozora Bunko

Aozora Bunko is a Japanese digital library. This online collection encompasses several thousands of works of Japanese-language fiction and non-fiction. These include out-of-copyright books or works that the authors wish to make freely available....

) - a Tsugaru-ben short novel by Osamu Dazai

Osamu Dazai

was a Japanese author who is considered one of the foremost fiction writers of 20th-century Japan.-Biography:-Early life:Dazai was born , the eighth surviving child of a wealthy landowner in Kanagi, a remote corner of Japan at the northern tip of Tōhoku in Aomori Prefecture...