Mino Dialect - Parts of Speech

Parts of Speech

Up until the Taishō period, the Japanese used ja (じゃ) for copulas and adjectival nouns, which has since evolved into de aru (である). Because the Mino dialect continued to use ja after this evolution, it is still occasionally referred to as a "ja-language." However, the Mino dialect has since evolved, too, and ya (や) is the general term used for copulas and adjectival nouns. Standard Japanese emphasizes copulas with yo, such as da yo (だよ), but the Mino dialect attaches te (て) to the ya copula, leading to emphases such as ya te (やて). It is thought that these developments show the influence of the Kansai dialect, as the Nagoya dialect continues to use da for copulas and adjectival nouns.

The main difference between verbs in the Mino dialect and in standard Japanese is seen in the negative form. The verb "to eat" (食べる taberu) is written as tabenai (食べない) as a negative in standard Japanese. In the Mino dialect, nai is replaced by n (ん) or hen (へん), leading to forms such as taben (食べん) or tabehen (食べへん). The verb "to go" would similarly be written in the negative form as ikan (行かん) or ikahen (行かへん).