Japanese/Dialects/Kanto

関東弁 (kantouben) is generally regarded as standard Japanese. It seems to only differ, however, in slang used and some pronunciation. Nevertheless, it is a dialect in its own right, especially when compared to the other variations of Japanese, and will be treated here as such. It, as all other dialects discussed, will be compared with standard Japanese.

Pronunciation

There are few major differences in pronunciation. One worth noting appears in the Tokyo-ben (東京弁) section.

Intonation

(no sources found yet)

grammar constructs

negative form

The negative form used in the Kanto region is the one used in standard. I list it here because it is different when compared to negative forms of other areas.

• ～ない is the negative imperfect tense verb ending, and
• ～なかった is the negative perfective tense verb ending.

 example: 行かない　（いかない） will not go

need to...

Because the construct of "need to" is just a combination of the negative form of a verb and another word, it is really just a matter of the difference in negative forms. However, as these constructs are often contracted, it is worth noting the differences. The standard "need to" form looks like the following:

• ～なくては　いけない/ならない/だめ/etc...
• ～なければ　いけない/ならない/だめ/etc...

and in Kanto they are contracted, respectively, as follows:

• ～なくちゃ　いけない/ならない/だめ/etc...
• ～なきゃ　いけない/ならない/だめ/etc...