Japanese/Dialects/Toyama

Some notable aspects of Toyama dialect:

  1. Pauses in sentences are often accompanied by a pitch vibration.
    • あのねぇ ano nee
    • それで sore de
    • そこへ行って soko e itte
      In each of these examples, the pitch goes up-down-up-down, or even up-down-up-down-up-down. Pitch intervals can be as much as as 5-8 whole steps.
  2. no is replaced by が ga (except in the possessive).
    • そうなの? sou na no? becomes そうなが? sou na ga?
    • できないので dekinai no de becomes できないがで dekinai ga de
  3. ka as a question marker is replaced by っけ kke
    • 分かるか wakaru ka becomes 分かるっけ wakaru kke
  4. いる iru becomes おる oru or おん
    • ここにいる koko ni iru becomes ここにおる koko ni oru or ここにおん koko ni on
  5. てる -te ru (contraction of ている -te iru) becomes とる -toru or とん -ton
    • 分かってる wakatteru becomes 分かっとる wakattoru or 分かっとん wakatton
  6. ない -nai becomes -ん
    • できない dekinai becomes できん dekin
    • 分からない wakaranai becomes 分からん wakaran
    • だれもいない dare mo inai becomes だれもおらん dare mo oran

Putting everything together, you can get the very comical phrase:

  • トンガ行っとんが知っとんが? Tonga itton ga shitton ga?
    meaning トンガに行っているのを知っているの Tonga itte iru no o shitte iru no? or "Did you know he went to Tonga?"