Kansai Dialect - History

History

Kansai dialect has over a thousand years of history. When the Kinai region centered on the ancient Imperial capitals such as Nara and Kyoto were the center of Japan, an archaic form of Kansai dialect was the de facto standard Japanese. Classical Japanese literature was written in the archaic Kansai dialect and it had an influence on all of the nation including the Edo dialect, the predecessor of modern Tokyo dialect. When political and military center of Japan was moved to Edo under the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Kantō region grew in prominence, Edo dialect took the place of Kansai dialect. With Meiji Restoration and the transfer of the imperial capital from Kyoto to Tokyo, Kansai dialect became fixed in position as a non-standard local dialect.

As the Tokyo dialect was adopted with the advent of a national education/media standard in Japan, some features and intraregional differences of Kansai dialect have diminished and changed. However, Kansai is the second most populated urban region in Japan after Kantō, with a population of about 20 million, so Kansai dialect is still the most widely spoken, known and influential non-standard Japanese dialect. Kansai dialect's vocabulary is sometimes introduced into other dialects and even standard Japanese. Many Kansai people are attached to their own speech and have strong regional rivalry against Tokyo.

Since the Taishō period, the manzai form of Japanese comedy has been developed in Osaka, and a large number of Osaka-based comedians have appeared in Japanese media with Osaka dialect (See also Yoshimoto Kogyo). Because of such associations, Kansai speakers are often viewed as being more amusing or talkative than average other dialects' speakers. Tokyo people even occasionally imitate Kansai dialect to provoke laughter or inject humor.