Saga dialect

Many of Saga's dialectical properties are variants, in particles or conjugations, of standard Japanese.

• Words are often repeated twice.
• The sentence-ending particle "よ" (yo) becomes "ばい" (bai) or "たい" (tai).
• The contrastive conjunction "ばってん" (batten) (somewhat equivalent to English's "however") replaces standard Japanese equivalents.
• The operative particle "を" (o) is replaced with "ば".
  • Ex.:手紙ば書いた=Wrote [a] letter.
• The particle "が" (ga), when referring to other people, is replaced with "の" (no).
  • Ex.:黒君の書いた=Kuro-kun wrote [it].
• Traditional masu-form keigo is replaced by the suffix "～しんさつ" (shinsatsu), "～しんさる" (shinsaru), "～しよんさつ"(shonsatsu), or "～しよんさる" (shonsaru).
  • Ex.:手紙をかきよんさった=Wrote [polite] [a] letter.
• The direction particles "に" (ni) and "へ" (he) are replaced with "さい" (sai).
  • Ex.:学校さい行く=Go to school.
• The explanatory "の" is replaced by "と" (to).
  • Ex.:手紙を書いたと？= Wrote [a] letter [explanation request].
• The continuative conjugation "～ている" (teiru)becomes "とっ".
  • Ex.:書いとっ=[Someone is] writing.
• In the passive conjugation of a verb, "れ" (re) is taken out and "る" (ru) becomes a long vowel, or doubles the next consonant.
  • Ex.:書かれる (writing; passive voice) becomes replaced with 書かるう or 書かるっ.
• I-adjectives have their "い" (I)s replaced with "か" (ka)s.
  • Ex.: cold (寒い) becomes 寒か.
• Na-adjectives sometimes have a か added on, reminiscent of the above characteristic. This seems to happen more in the south.
  • Ex.: じょうず (joozu) becomes じょうずか (joozuka).
• Pronunciation is similar to Hakata dialect in the following: "sa, shi, su, se, so" become "sha, shii, shu, she, sho". In addition, Saga-ben also has the unique pronunciations of "za, zu, ze, da, ga," and "na" rendered as "ja, ju, je, ja, gya," and "nya", respectively.
• "～ない" (nai) conjugations become "ん" (n) the "ない" adjective itself becomes "なか" (naka)). This reflects the negative archaic/rude conjugation in standard Japanese. For example, whereas 食べん would be rude in eastern Japan, in Saga-ben it is standard.
  • Ex.:分からない becomes 分からん
• The Saga-ben version of 好きじゃない is either 好かん or 好きじゃなか
• I-adjectives' "い"s become "さ" (sa) in when the speaker wants to add strong emphasis.
• I-adjectives' continuative form's "く" (ku) becomes a modifying "う" (u) that elongates and possibly changes the vowel of the character before it.
  • Ex.:interesting (continuative) (おもしろく (omoshiroku)) becomes "おもしろう" (omoshiroo); fun (continuative) (楽しく) becomes 楽しゅう.

Saga-ben contains much characteristic vocabulary. Examples are included (with standard Japanese, where applicable) in the following table:

• Saga-ben was heavily spoken in the 2006 film, and now television series, "Gabai bā-chan" (lit. fantastic grandma). The title itself is in Saga-ben.
• The protagonist of Zombie Land Saga Minamoto Sakura speaks in Saga-ben, specifically the Karatsu variant.

• Japanese dialects