Diversity of Expression in Regions Characterized by the frequent use of Dialects : Dialects Used by Nursing Home Residents in the Context of Meals

This study aims to develop an app of teaching materials to facilitate the learning of dialects. The app is designed to help foreigners engaged in nursing and caregiving, “hear and understand” dialects used in the Kumamoto City region. Prior to the preparation of the teaching materials, a questionnaire survey pertaining to the Kumamoto dialect commonly used by nursing home residents was circulated among the 40 Japanese nursing home employees participating in this study. This paper analyzes and draws inferences about the Kumamoto dialect based on the data collected through the survey. The survey first extracted sentences typically uttered by nursing home residents in the contexts of “meals,” “complaints with regard to pain/symptoms,” and “daily life.” These sentences were based on Senmon Nihongo Nyumon: Bamen kara Manabu Kaigo no Nihongo (Introduction to Specialist Japanese: Learning Nursing Care Japanese in Context), a Japanese language textbook for foreigners involved in nursing and caregiving. The Japanese employees were asked to convert these sentences into the Kumamoto dialect, which is common among nursing home residents.” For instance, they were expected to describe “After a meal as mo kuiowatta-bai. (I have finished eating).” In this way, 512 Kumamoto dialect sentences used in response to standard sentences (11 sentences) in meal contexts were analyzed in this study. The sentences thus obtained were classified as“ expressions that explain situations: noun + ga + change of state verb/adjective,” “expressions that encourage others’ actions,” and “expressions that explain someone’s own actions.” A statistical analysis was conducted on the data obtained, and the following characteristics became clear. It was found that all the adjectives belong to the “ka”-gobi dialect form (in the Kumamoto dialect, the predicative/attributive conjugative suffix of the adjective becomes “ka”), such as the dialect forms “naka (not),” “kataka (hard [in texture]),” koyuka (thick),” and “ooka (a lot).” With regard to postpositional particles, the nominative postpositional particle “ga” changes to “no” or“ N” in many cases. Finally, in many instances, the accusative“ wo” changes to“ ba.” While postpositional particles and adjectives typically correspond with standard Japanese, phrases in regional dialects vary significantly. For example, there are nine variations of expressions that correspond to the noun“ miso-shiru” (miso soup); some of these include“ miso-syuru” and “miso-otsuyu.” Furthermore, the expression translating to “The miso-shiru is getting cold” is expressed in different ways, using the dialect verbs“ hiyuru (getting cold)” or “samuru (getting cold)” as well as the adjective“ cold.” Finally, several variations in the use of the predicate exist, including “hie-toru (It’s cold),” “hiete-shimo-toru (it’s gotten cold),” “sameto-rasu (It’s cold),” and“ us-samechi-shimo-toru (it’s gotten cool)”. Presumably, in real-life communication scenarios, standard language may also employ several combinations of vocabulary and grammatical forms to express the same phenomenon. However, this survey confirmed that in regions that frequently use dialects in their social activities, even more diverse expressions may appear through aspects unique to the dialect, including phonological changes and grammatical forms. The dialect-learning materials for foreigners engaged in nursing and caregiving in regions that frequently use dialects in social activities need to cover how postpositional particles and adjectives in regional dialect forms correspond to standard Japanese, as well as commonly used dialect forms. Through a detailed analysis of the characteristics possessed by the phonological and grammatical expressions observed in this survey and a consideration of their frequency, the development of teaching materials may be planned.