Hichiku dialect

Hichiku Japanese
Native to	Japan
Region	western Kyūshū
Language family	Japonic Japanese Kyūshū Hichiku Japanese
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	hich1237
ELP
Hichiku dialect area (orange)

The Hichiku dialect Hichiku hōgen (肥筑方言) 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-