Tokyo dialect

Tokyo dialect (東京方言, Tōkyō-hōgen) refers to the Japanese dialect spoken in modern Tokyo.

Overview

The dialect in modern Tokyo is often considered to equate standard Japanese, though in fact the Tokyo dialect differs from standard Japanese in a number of areas. Noticeable earmarks of the dialect include the frequent use of sa (さ), which is roughly analogous to "like" as used in American English slang;　jan (じゃん), which is a contraction of ja nai ka (じゃないか isn't that right?) and came from the Shizuoka and Kanagawa dialects; and tsū (つう) in place of to iu (と言う to say or is called). It is also not uncommon for the Tokyo dialect to change the -iru (～いる) stem of the present progressive to -n (～ん), as in tsutten nō (つってんのー　[someone] is saying) versus to itte iru no yo (と言っているのよ) of standard Japanese.

Shitamatachi dialect

The Shitamachi dialect (下町言葉 Shitamachi-kotoba), or Edo dialect (江戸弁 Edo-ben), a fast-fading dialect of old families from the eastern Tokyo area of Shitamachi, is another example of a Tokyo dialect that differs from standard Japanese. This dialect is primarily known for its lack of distinction between some phonemes which are considered wholly distinct in all other Japanese dialects. Most famous is the decreased distinction between hi (ひ) and shi (し), so that hidoi (酷い terrible) becomes shidoi, and shichi (七 seven) becomes hichi. Though it also includes a few distinctive words, today it is largely indistinguishable from the standard speech of Tokyo other than the phonemic difference.