Hichiku dialect

The Hichiku dialect is a group of the Japanese dialects spoken in western Kyushu. The name Hichiku (肥筑) is constructed by extracting a representative kanji from Hizen (肥前), Higo (肥後), Chikuzen (筑前) and Chikugo (筑後), the names of old provinces.

• Hichiku dialect
• Chikuzen dialect (western Fukuoka Prefecture, formerly known as Chikuzen Province, includes the Hakata dialect of Hakata district in Fukuoka)
• Chikugo dialect (southern Fukuoka Prefecture, formerly known as Chikugo Province)
• Ōmuta dialect (Ōmuta)
• Yanagawa dialect (Yanagawa)
• Saga dialect (Saga Prefecture)
• Karatsu dialect (northern Saga Prefecture centered Karatsu)
• Tashiro dialect (easternmost Saga Prefecture centered Tashiro)
• Nagasaki dialect (Nagasaki Prefecture)
• Sasebo dialect (northern Nagasaki Prefecture centered Sasebo)
• Hirado dialect (Hirado Island, west of Nagasaki Prefecture)
• Kumamoto dialect (Kumamoto Prefecture)
• Hita dialect (Hita, southwestern Oita Prefecture)
• Iki dialect (Iki Island of Nagasaki Prefecture)
• Tsushima dialect (Tsushima Island of Nagasaki Prefecture)
• Gotō dialect (Gotō Islands of Nagasaki Prefecture)

Common characteristics of this group entail among others:

-adjectives ending in -ka instead of -i

-the ending -u or derivations instead of -ku

-copula -bai and -tai

-particle -to instead of -no

-palatized pronunciation of -se- as -she-

References