Except for pitch, what are the differences in pronunciation between Kansaiben and Tokyoben?


I have tried to ask people this type of question on many occasions and the
answer is always the same, but people are notoriously bad at evaluating their
own language, so I ask here:

Apart for pitch, which I know will differ significantly from region to region,
what kinds of phonetic or phonological differences are there between the
different dialects of Japanese, particularly between Kansai and Tokyo?

For instance, I'm always told that if a person from Osaka spoke with Standard
Pitch Accent, they would sound exactly like a person from Tokyo, that there is
essentially no other difference. Except I know there are slight differences,
such as with devoicing. Does anyone know more about this?

* * *

**EDIT:** I'd like to be more specific. In a context where a native speaker of
Kansaiben says a word or phrase that either sounds the same in standard
Japanese, or where he happens to use standard Japanese, provided he gets the
pitch right, are there typically any sounds that would tend to be pronounced
differently and that would give away that person as a non-native speaker of
Tokyouben, for instance?

If an American from New York and another from New Orleans say the same phrase
they are unlikely to sound the same, even if they naturally used the exact
same words. I'm wondering if the same concept of "accent" can apply to the
pronunciation of particular sounds within Japanese dialects, specifically
Kansaiben.




As you have already picked up on, the intonation (change in pitch) of words is
vastly different.

A common example is the pronunciation of the word 日本.

> Osaka:  
>  _Starts high, and pitch lowers_  
>  にほん【HLL】
>
> Standard:  
>  _Starts low, and pitch raises and then lowers_  
>  にほん【LHL】

However this is not the only difference between Kansai-ben and Standard
Japanese, here are some other differences regarding pronunciation.

  * Speakers tend to pronounce the usually silent う at the end of words such as です/ます.
  * There is a tendency to replace the M sound in some words with a B sound. A common example is the word さむい which is pronounced さぶい or even just さぶ。
  * The extended pronunciation of some vowels (長音), is ignored in some cases. A common example is in the volitional form of verbs. どこか行こうか would be pronounced どこか行こか.
  * The copula だ, becomes や, and as such だろう becomes やろう.
  * Words can be vastly different. おもしろい/おもしろくない becomes おもろい/おもない. しんどい is used instead of つかれた. I think even the names of some fish can differ in kansai-ben.

Kansai-ben even has it's own keigo forms of verbs, and multiple other verb
conjugations unique to the region.

As you can see, Kansai-ben is not just the intonation/pronunciation of words.
If someone from Osaka were to speak with standard Japanese intonation, they
would sound very much like someone from Osaka.

This kind of question pops up quite often, maybe it deserves its own community
wiki page?

