page_title: Tōhoku dialect
section_title: Phonetics
hierarchical_section_title: Tōhoku dialect / Phonetics
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 日本語の四つ仮名の分布図 English: Japanese yotsugana distribution map
context_page_description: The Tōhoku dialect, commonly called 東北弁 Tōhoku-ben, is a group of the Japanese dialects spoken in Tōhoku Region, the northeastern region of Honshū. Toward the northern part of Honshū, the Tōhoku dialect can differ so dramatically from standard Japanese that it is sometimes rendered with subtitles in the nationwide media and it has been treated as the typical rural accent in Japanese popular culture.
context_section_description: A notable linguistic feature of the Tōhoku dialect is its neutralization of the high vowels "i" and "u" (Standard [i] and [ɯᵝ]), so that the words sushi, susu ('soot'), and shishi ('lion') are rendered homophonous, where they would have been distinct in other dialects. In light of this, Tōhoku dialect is sometimes referred to as Zūzū-ben. The vowels tend to be neutralized to [ɨ] in Northern Tohoku dialect and [ɯ̈] in Southern Tohoku dialect.
  In addition, all unvoiced stops become voiced intervocalically, rendering the pronunciation of the word kato ('trained rabbit') as [kado]. However, unlike the high-vowel neutralization, this does not result in new homophones, as all voiced stops are prenasalized, meaning that the word kado ('corner') is pronounced [kaⁿdo]. This is particularly noticeable with /ɡ/, which is nasalized fully to [ŋ] with the stop of the hard "g" [ᵑɡ] almost entirely lost, so that ichigo 'strawberry' is pronounced [ɨzɨŋo]. Standard Japanese can do this with /ɡ/ too (see Japanese phonology), but not with the other stops.
  This distribution of medial voicing and prenasalization is thought to be a conservative pronunciation reflecting the original Old Japanese state.
caption: Chart of yotsugana pronunciation. The green zone including most of Tohoku region means that the four yotsugana sounds have completely merged, as zi = di = zu = du.
exif: {}