Following on from Tosa-ben Card Game (龍馬・土佐弁かるた) I thought it may be interesting for some people if I were to do a series of short posts relating to the vocabulary that I learn from the game.

Even if not, I’m learning that maintaining a Gaelic blog is helping me learn the language so hopefully this will help me with Tosa-ben.

Third in the series is うどみゆー which is pronounced udomiyuu, the meaning is ‘to be in uproar’ or ‘to be in a state of disturbance’. The ゆー at the end indicates that this is present tense progressive form so the meaning would be ‘is currently in a state of uproar/disturbance’.

The common Japanese equivalent for うどみゆー is 大騒ぎしている (__おおさわ__ぎしている – ohsawagi shiteiru).

The example sentence on the card is:

うどみゆーぜよ　国中が　龍馬がなぐれたとゆー　「大政奉還」で

うどみゆーぜよ　__きにちゅう__が　__りょうま__がなぐれたとゆー　「たいせいほうかん」で

udomiyuu zeyo kunichuu ga Ryouma ga nagureta to yuu “taisei houkan” de

共通語：大騒ぎしているよ　日本中が　龍馬が苦労したという　「大政奉還」で

__おおさわぎ__しているよ　__にほんちゅう__が　__りょうま__が__くろう__したという　「たいせいほうかん」で

common Japanese: ohsawagi shiteiru yo nihonchuu ga Ryouma ga kurou shita to iu “taisei houkan” de

Now for the part of the post which is likely to go through various transformations as I’m corrected by my はちきん(hachikin) wife or family and friends from Kochi!

English : Throughout the country people are talking about how Ryōma succeeded through the struggle to bring about “taisei houkan”.

*大政奉還 (たいせいほうかん – taisei houkan) was the restoration of power to the Emperor (from the military leaders who ruled Japan for hundreds of years until this point in time). Ryōma Sakamoto was the integral figure in effectively ending Tokugawa (the reigning military family) rule, unifying a newly self-aware Japan and opening Japan up to outside influence. Sadly, he was assassinated before his efforts finally came to fruition.

This card was pretty tricky for me to translate hence the clunky sentence in English.. If you can translate it more cleanly then please leave your suggestion below in the comments section.

So, now to the rest of the sentence and a look at other Tosa-ben (if any) at play in this example.

• ぜよ (ze yo)– though I suspect this may be shared with other dialects, ぜよ is the Tosa-ben alternative to ですよ which is an emphasised copula, with ぜ being the copula and よ providing the emphasis.
• とゆー (to yuu) – this is just a different pronunciation of the standard という which in this context means ‘to say’.
• 国中 (kunichuu) – again I don’t believe that this is Tosa-ben but it is more likely to have been used at the period of time that the card and example represents as Japan wasn’t so much of a singular, unified entity at the time and most likely (in my humble opinion) it would have referred to the Tosa han (territory) rather than Japan itself.
• なぐれた – this is the past potential form of なぐる which I’m told is old Tosa-ben and must be roughly equivalent to 苦労する which means ‘to succeed through a struggle’.. sort of 🙂

いや、ほんとに! B’zがバグパイプを演奏! 私の友人である金子誠さんは、非常に上手なパイパーであるだけでなく（私たちの結婚式で演奏してくれました）、ハイランドダンスのチャンピオンでもあります（私たちの結婚式で踊ってくれました）。

誠さんには「Bagpipe The Be Wee Pleasure - B’z Tribute」という5曲入りのCDがあり、これはその4曲目です。

金子誠さんはinvidious.kavin.rocks で検索できます。

Following on from Tosa-ben Card Game (龍馬・土佐弁かるた) I thought it may be interesting for some people if I were to do a series of short posts relating to the vocabulary that I learn from the game.

Even if not, I’m learning that maintaining a Gaelic blog is helping me learn the language so hopefully this will help me with Tosa-ben.

Second in the series is いらばかしよった which is pronounced irabakashiyotta*, the meaning is ‘to show off’ or ‘to flaunt’ though this is in past tense progressive form so the meaning would be ‘was showing off’ or ‘was flaunting’.

• the っ signifies a short pause in the pronunciation generally protrayed in English for pronunciation purposes as a double consonant.

よった (yotta) is the past tense of the Tosa-ben ゆう (yuu) which is one of two present tense continuous forms (the other is ちゅう (shichuu)), this differs from common Japanese where there is only one present tense continuous form and that is ~ている (~teiru).

The first ゆう represents present progressive tense, for example I am doing my homework now (not finished) would be おらは宿題しゆう (おらはしゅくだいしゆう – ora wa shukudai shiyuu).

Whereas ちゅう expresses perfect tense for example, I have already done my homework would be おらは宿題しちゅう (おらはしゅくだいしちゅう – ora wa shukudai shichuu). The past tense for ちゅう is ちょた.

Some verbs cannot be connected with ゆう but more information on this can be found on the Tosa Wave Blog.

The common Japanese equivalent for いらばかしよった is 見せびらかしていたよ (みせびらかしていたよ – misebirakashiteita yo).

The example sentence on the card is:

いらばかしよった　龍馬さんが　晋作に　もろーた　短筒を

いらばかしよった　__りょうま__さんが　__しんさく__に　もろーた　__たんづつ__を

irabakashiyotta Ryouma(Sakamoto)-san ga shinsaku ni morouta tandzutsu wo

共通語：見せびらかしていたよ　龍馬さんが　(高杉)晋作に　もらった拳銃を

__み__せびらかしていたよ　__りょうま__さんが　(たかすぎ)__しんさく__に　もらった__けんじゅう__を

common Japanese: misebirakashiteita yo Ryouma(Sakamoto)-san ga Shinsaku(Takasugi) ni moratta kenshuu wo

Now for the part of the post which is likely to go through various transformations as I’m corrected by my はちきん (hachikin) wife or family and friends from Kochi!

English : Ryouma (Sakamoto) was showing off the handgun he received from Shinsaku (Takasugi)

The rest of the sentence is pretty easy to explore this time as it is basically consists of peoples’ names (Ryouma Sakamoto and Shinsaku Takasugi) and alternative vocabulary for a pistol/handgun.

• もろーた would appear to just be Tosa dialect’s pronunciation of もらった which means to ‘receive’.

いや、ほんとに! B’zがバグパイプを演奏! 私の友人である金子誠さんは、非常に上手なパイパーであるだけでなく（私たちの結婚式で演奏してくれました）、ハイランドダンスのチャンピオンでもあります（私たちの結婚式で踊ってくれました）。

誠さんには「Bagpipe The Be Wee Pleasure - B’z Tribute」という5曲入りのCDがあり、これはその3曲目です。

金子誠さんはinvidious.kavin.rocks で検索できます。

Following on from Tosa-ben Card Game (龍馬・土佐弁かるた) I thought it may be interesting for some people if I were to do a series of short posts relating to the vocabulary that I learn from the game.

Even if not, I’m learning that maintaining a Gaelic blog is helping me learn the language so hopefully this will help me with Tosa-ben.

First up is あっぽろけ which is pronounced apporoke**, the meaning is ‘to be surprised’ though the card game uses it to mean ‘very surprised’ as their common Japanese equivalent is 大変驚いた (たいへんおどろいた – taihen odoroita).

** the っ signifies a short pause in the pronunciation generally protrayed in English for pronunciation purposes as a double consonant.

The example sentence on the card is:

あっぽろけ　シケでおらんなった万次郎が　海の向こうから　もんてきた

あっぽろけ　シケおらんなった__まんじろう__が　__うみ__の__む__こうから　もんてきた

apporoke shike orannatta manjirou ga umi no mukou kara montekita

共通語：大変驚いた　暴風雨でいなくなった万次郎が　外国から　帰ってきた

__たいへんおどろ__いた　__ぼうふうう__でいなくなた__まんじろう__が　__がいこく__から　__かえ__ってきた

taihen odoroita boufuuu de inakunatta manjirou ga gaikoku kara kaettekita

Now for the part of the post which is likely to go through various transformations as I’m corrected by my はちきん (hachikin) wife or family and friends from Kochi!

English : (John) Manjiro was very surprised that the storm had disappeared when he returned from overseas.

Regardless of whether that is an accurate translation into English or not I’m curious as to which of the other components of the Tosa-ben sentence are actually Tosa-ben and which are just common slang.

• おらんなった would appear to be Tosa-ben as おらん means ‘doesn’t exist’ or ‘isn’t there’ hence why I translated おらんなった as ‘had disappeared’.
• シケ comes up on google translate as ‘storm’ so it’s clearly not Tosa-ben.
• 海の向こう seems to be pretty standard Japanese but possibly in a form more commonly used in Kochi than 外国? It certainly is closer to ‘overseas’ and more pleasing than 外国’s literal translation as ‘outside country’, more commonly ‘foreign country’ or ‘abroad’.
• もんてきた feels Tosa-ben-like (土佐弁ぽい) and after a wee internet search I found it on this list of Tosa-ben words so that’ll be a tick.

いや、ほんとに! B’zがバグパイプを演奏! 私の友人である金子誠さんは、非常に上手なパイパーであるだけでなく（私たちの結婚式で演奏してくれました）、ハイランドダンスのチャンピオンでもあります（私たちの結婚式で踊ってくれました）。

誠さんは「Bagpipe The Be Wee Pleasure - B’z Tribute」という5曲入りのCDを持っていて、これはその2曲目です。

金子誠さんは

先日のロンドン旅行の帰りに、妻が無印良品のなかなか素敵なお土産を買ってきてくれました。

日本のお城の押し絵の3Dパズル／模型です。 現在、EUのストアでは購入できませんが、ドイツのストアでは（在庫切れですが）販売されています。

最後の写真（最初の3枚の背景になっている）は、日本で付き合っていた頃に妻が作ってくれた吊るし飾りです。

I consider myself very fortunate to be married to a hachikin (はちきん), a strong (mentally, physically, emotionally, alcohol-ly) woman from Kōchi prefecture in Shikoku. Not least of all because our relationship has introduced me to breathtaking Kōchi countryside, the exceptionally accepting and very friendly people of the prefecture, a couple of ancient drinking games and a famous samurai about whom I have learned much and have much more to learn.

Moreover, one of the unexpected bonuses of our relationship was (and still is) the introduction to Tosa-ben (土佐弁), or the Tosa dialect. Tosa is the ancient name for the province of Shikoku that is now modern day Kōchi prefecture. Despite being very lacklustre in my attempts to speak and/or learn standard Japanese, I was surprised to discover that I find Tosa-ben fascinating, infinitely more so than textbook nihongo.

There is something about speaking a Japanese dialect that is a good leveller, though not suitable for many situations the ‘bens’ are affected versions of casual Japanese and so speaking to someone in Tosa-ben or any dialect brings everybody down or up to the same level. As a non-native Japanese speaker stumbler, I’ve long struggled with applying the relevant level of politeness to my specific environs and generally resultantly cobbled together a hotch-potch of casual form, polite form and uncustomary stuttering when I communicate.

So I find the idea of speaking in a dialect which is bound to casual form as a very refreshing, attractive prospect. It also helps greatly that my in-laws all speak largely in Tosa-ben so this enables me to pick up vocabulary relatively quickly and (with the help of alcohol) to communicate with them in an acceptable manner.

Unfortunately, like most language related knowledge or memory, if you don’t use it you lose it and I’ve already forgotten about half of the Tosa-ben that I’ve picked up on my few visits to Kōchi. Therefore, this blog post, which will hopefully run into a series, is multi-functional: it allows me to share some fascinating non-standard Japanese with you; it enables me to study and learn more Tosa-ben and it also allows you to correct me! I’m sure I’ll get a lot of Tosa-ben speakers who are also fluent in English reading this blog.. ..

By way of a disclaimer, as I’ve hinted at above, my standard Japanese is pretty poor and I’m a beginner in the ways of Tosa-ben.. so this series of posts probably shouldn’t be relied on as a serious study resource.

Before we get on to mentioning any Tosa-ben however, a wee story. On my first visit to meet the in-laws in Kōchi we visited a lot of family friends and extended family. lot’s of people were eager to meet me and to gauge my opinion of their hometown etc. One of the visits was to Mr Tequila‘s mother, who was a lovely lady who promptly provided us with tea on our arrival. After finding out that I was interested in learning more Tosa-ben she presented me with a gift! 「龍馬・土佐弁かるた」- a card game called Ryōma Tosa-ben karuta (no idea what the last word means). Sakamoto Ryōma is a very famous and very influential samurai in the intricate weave of Japan’s history.

The card game consists of a CD and 2 sets of 45 cards, reading cards (読む札) and pickup cards (取り札). The reading cards have a phrase incorporating a highlighted Tosa-ben word as well as a stanard Japanese alternative for the phrase. The pickup cards have a picture and the same Tosa-ben word, with the first character highlighted, as well as having the standard Japanese phrase. The CD has each of the Tosa-ben phrases orated, presumably. So how do you play the game I sense you internally querying.. I haven’t the slightest idea!

When I’ve asked my hachikin how its played I’ve been told its really easy, you match one card with the other.. That certainly sounds easy but for someone who hasn’t ever played the game before it isn’t a particularly thorough description.

So for over two years I’ve sat with this much appreciated gift that I haven’t been able to play with even once. Then just last night when I was positioning the box for a photograph, I discovered that the instructions are printed on the side of the box. Here they are in full.

「龍馬・土佐弁かるた」は、高知の方言を読み上げて札を取る遊び方ですが、共通語を読み上げ、それを高知の方言に置き換えて(推理して)札を取る遊び方もできます。

読み札には、土佐弁（あいうえお側順）と共通語の２通りの文章を記載しています。読み手は、どちらか一方の文章を読み上げます。

取り札には、土佐弁の見出し文学とイラストを記載していますので、いずれかをヒントにしてすばやく取り札を取ります。

付属の読み手CDをランダム（シャッフル）再生機能付きCDプレーヤーで再生すれば、読み手がいなくても「龍馬・土佐弁かるた」を楽しめます。お好みで読み札と読み手CDを使い分かけて遊べます。

「龍馬・土佐弁かるた」にはかつて耳にしてきた土佐弁と異なる表現があるかもしれません。方言は、地域・時代・世代などによって使い方が変化するものであることを、あらかじめご了承ください。

Now all that remains is for me to translate this in the hope that they are a little less vague than my previous instructions.

I’ll delve a bit more into examples of Tosa-ben in subsequent posts but I’ll leave you with a small selection of simple Tosa-ben terms.