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Sendai dialect
Native to	Japan
Region	Tōhoku
Language family	Japonic Japanese Eastern Japanese Southern Tōhoku Japanese Sendai dialect
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Northern Tōhoku dialects (navy), Southern Tōhoku (med. blue), and the transitional Eastern Kantō dialects (azure)

The Sendai dialect (仙台弁, Sendaiben), is a Southern Tōhoku Japanese dialect spoken in and around the city of Sendai in the Tōhoku region, in the central northern coast of Honshū.

Phonology

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Glottal
Nasals	m	n		ŋ	ɴ
Stops	p b	t d		k g
Fricatives	ɸ	s z	ɕ			h
Affricates		ts	tɕ dʑ
Liquids		ɾ
Semivowel			j	w

High-Vowel Neutralisation and Palatalisation

The consonant inventory is almost identical to that of Standard Japanese but with a different distribution. In Standard Japanese, the palatal series was produced with palatalisation of alveolar consonants before the front vowel /i/ and the semivowel /j/; s => ɕ, t => tɕ, d => dʑ. However, in the Tōhoku dialect they were formed by the palatalisation of /k/ and /g/ and the semivowel /j/; k => tɕ, g => dʑ (kigahatteiru => chihatteɾu “feeling nervous”; benkyou => benchou “studying”) and a shift of /ç/ which was formed by palatalisation of /h/ before /i/ and the semivowel /j/, towards /ɕ/ (hito => shito “person”). Palatalisation of alveolar consonants never happened in the Sendai dialect, instead being neutralised to [ɨ] and merging with /su/, /tsu/ and /zu/ respectively. For example, the words /sushi/, /susu/ “soot”, and /shishi/ “lion” are rendered homophonous, where they are all pronounced /susu/. Because of this, the Tōhoku dialect (and so the Sendai dialect) is sometimes referred to as Zūzū-ben.

Chart of yotsugana pronunciation. The green zone including most of Tohoku region means that the four yotsugana sounds have completely merged, as zi = di = zu = du.

Intervocalic Voicing

All unvoiced stops (including affricates) become voiced intervocalically. For example, the word /kato/ “trained rabbit” is pronounced [kado]. However, unlike high-vowel neutralization, this does not result in new homophones, as all voiced stops are prenasalized. For example, the word /kado/ “corner” is pronounced [kaⁿdo]. This is particularly noticeable with /ɡ/, which is nasalized fully to [ŋ], for example /ichigo/ “strawberry” is pronounced [ɨd͡ʑɨŋo]. This is also possible in Standard Japanese (see Japanese phonology) but not with the other stops. This distribution of medial voicing and prenasalization is thought to be a conservative pronunciation reflecting the original Old Japanese state.

Lack of /r/

In general, the Sendai dialect uses the [r] phoneme less than in Standard Japanese and is usually replaced with a geminated consonant of some sort, for example Standard Japanese 後 /ushiro/ “back, behind” is pronounced /ussho/ and Standard Japanese 野良猫 /noraneko/ “stray cat” is pronounced のっつぉねご /nottsonego/. The cause of the gemination is most likely due to /shiro/ being pronounced as /shisho/ and then reduced to /ssho/.

Vowels

Vowels of Standard Japanese on a vowel chart. Adapted from Okada (1999:117).

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
Mid	e		o
Open		a

In the Sendai dialect, as with other Tōhoku dialects and similar to some Ryukyuan languages, the moraic nasal phoneme [ɴ] (romanised /n/) can behave like a vowel. This is possible in Standard Japanese but only at the end of a word, for example さん [sáɴ] “Mr, Mrs” but 三 [saɴ́] “three”. However, in the Tōhoku dialect it can also occur at the start of a word, for example んめ /nme/ [m̩me] “good (at something), skilful, delicious) which is cognate to Standard Japanese うまい /umai/ of the same meaning. This most commonly occurs when the う /u/ vowel comes before a nasal, most commonly /m/. The vowels of the Sendai dialect are very similar to their Standard Japanese equivalents which can be found in the vowel chart of the right.

Grammar

The biggest variation in the Sendai dialect is its morphology, especially in particles and tense morphology, among others.

Word Choice

The most distinctive feature of the Sendai dialect is what is called ‘Ora Onna’. That is, the impolite masculine first person singular pronoun おら /ora/ (Standard Japanese 俺 /ore/) can also be used by women. This, among other things, makes speakers of other dialects think that this dialect is “unfit for women” or women using this dialect are not “ladylike”.