What Japanese Dialect is Used in Dragon Ball?

[DBZfan29]

I was reading on Wikipedia that Japan has different types of dialect. I never knew this. My question is - which type of dialect is used in the series? Is it just a general type? And, when you learn Japanese is say college, is the same dialect as Dragon Ball or another type? I'm just confused.

[B]

Various characters use different dialects, reflecting their personality/accents. Gohan speaks very politely, while Goku's speech pattern is a lot more uncouth. There's a ton more. Herms may or may not have made a guide about this.

[Kendamu]

And, when you learn Japanese in say college, is the same dialect as Dragon Ball or another type? I'm just confused.

When I took Japanese, we mainly learned standard polite form. This is mostly what you'll hear out of someone like Gohan or Kuririn. I used to get points taken off in 101 and 102 (where politeness was stressed more) for speaking more casually (or sometimes like a hick) like Goku.

[VegettoEX]

It's the same as if you're having a conversation with someone from... oh, let's pick a location at random... Fort Worth, Texas. They're most likely going to have a southern drawl to their speech pattern, but you're both speaking good ol' American English (THE BEST KIND THERE IS), and you'll (for the most part) perfectly understand each other.

It's the same in just about every language throughout the world. Regional differences (along with things like education level) all contribute to how someone speaks.

Way back in 2004, Daimao answered for us with regard to Goku's speech pattern:

It's a Tohoku (Northeast Japan) dialect variant, I believe, though different from the Tohoku dialect that Chichi and Gyumao use. Theirs has some quirky grammar elements to it, with proper pronunciation, whereas Goku's speech is just the opposite--fairly standard grammar, with some non-standard pronunciation. It's somewhat like comparing a Texas drawl to a Georgia one--you'll probably hear "y'all" from both, but they're still different enough that you can distinguish the two in other areas.

That non-standard pronunciation is exaggerated by Masako Nozawa, as well (probably to help distinguish Goku's character from his sons). She does a lot of ad-libbing of these pronunciation quirks (specifically, "ai," "ae," and "oi" verb combinations often come out as "ee"), since they aren't always scripted. Mayumi Tanaka does the same thing with Yajirobe and his Nagoya dialect, presumably so he doesn't sound so much like Kuririn (whose speech is quite standard).

With Japanese being such a formal and polite language (something incredibly difficult to explain to someone who knows nothing about other languages), we always describe (Future) Trunks as having pretty textbook-Japanese speech. He uses all the -masu forms of endings to be super-polite, and doesn't really skip over words that may otherwise be left out.

If you want to go back and listen to a really rough early podcast episode, it looks like we covered a bunch of them in Episode #0014.

[Hujio]

It's the same as if you're having a conversation with someone from... oh, let's pick a location at random... Fort Worth, Texas.

Random, huh? That location seems a little shady to me.

[Dr. Casey]

I remember reading that Tenshinhan uses more polite language when speaking to Master Roshi during the 22nd Budokai than he does when speaking with anyone else (A different form of "I", I think, along with some other changes). Does the polite speech he uses when in the presence of Roshi eventually become his standard way of speaking during the years following the 22nd Budokai, or does his speaking style remain as coarse and rough throughout the whole series (Even if he uses that speaking style for better purposes afterwards, being that he's less rude and offensive after that tournament)?

[penguintruth]

It's pretty obvious just listening to the characters speaking that some speak differently than others, not just in tone, but delivery. Its one of the little eccentricities that help to color them, especially in Goku or Chi-Chi's case.

[MajinVejitaXV]

It's the same as if you're having a conversation with someone from... oh, let's pick a location at random... Fort Worth, Texas. They're most likely going to have a southern drawl to their speech pattern, but you're both speaking good ol' American English (THE BEST KIND THERE IS), and you'll (for the most part) perfectly understand each other.

I dunno about that. I look back at videos of myself from when I was younger and I barely understand myself due to the crippling accent

(Historical note and relevance: I moved to Virginia from Dallas, TX (which is right next to Fort Worth) in 1989 when I was 5 years old )

-Corey

[caejones]

This made me think that the 'multiple dialects' thing gave off a "mandarin / Cantonese" impression, though from what I understand, Japanese dialects aren't quite so completely-different-language-ish... (Though I've heard things about west / southwest Japan dialects...? Well, Julian's gotten around just fine in Osaka, right? ^_^ ).
N'yeah... with three semesters in both Mandarin and Japanese, I'd be more confident in my ability to make sense of Osaka Japanese than Cantonese... but I'd be more confident in my Japanese than Mandarin in general... .
... I still get lost trying to listen to Japanese DB most of the time, though. ^^

[kinoko]

I remember reading that Tenshinhan uses more polite language when speaking to Master Roshi during the 22nd Budokai than he does when speaking with anyone else (A different form of "I", I think, along with some other changes). Does the polite speech he uses when in the presence of Roshi eventually become his standard way of speaking during the years following the 22nd Budokai, or does his speaking style remain as coarse and rough throughout the whole series (Even if he uses that speaking style for better purposes afterwards, being that he's less rude and offensive after that tournament)?

Before his change of heart, Tenshinhan basically speaks to Kame-sennin the same way he speaks to everybody else: rudely/arrogantly and using masculine, informal speech patterns.

After the 22nd Budoukai, however, he does indeed use polite language when speaking to Kame-sennin. (Of course, Tenshinhan uses formal speech to address his own martial arts masters, but that's to be expected.)

And I'd have to check, but I think he might have done the same with Lunch in the anime.... it's kind of been a while since I watched any episodes of DBZ. D:

Otherwise, his style is pretty informal, just not as arrogant as it was before the change of heart. I'm not sure if there's a specific dialect there (I'm horrible with Japanese dialects... unless it's a fairly distinct one like Kansai-ben). So, if anyone can enlighten me.... ^_^

[MCDaveG]

What I heard, that in Dragon Ball and other anime, you can hear the one and only hyōjungo, which is standard Japanese and it's not considered as dialect but opposite of it..... Japanese is a lot simmilar to Czech language with it's rules with some minor details, there we have lot of dialects and in normal life, nobody actually is talking and using standard Czech language and that's a lot confusing for lot of foreigners, because they can't simply understand what we are talking about and in each region of republic, people are using different intonation, form of words or brand new words not used in other regions....

Those things that most people are talking about here are not dialect, these are only forms of standard Japanese, because as somebody already know, you can say even ''I'' in hella lot ways which are representing who exactly you are, or what you think you are......
Also, next think is that you can speak in formal or informal way and if you are talking polite or impolite.....

As it's stated, standard Japanese is the official Japanese used in Japanese media, like TV shows, magazines, commercials and radio broadcast + in office measures of course.
Dialects are only spoken in each different areas....

I'm not a linguist, so if somebody have more details please

[kinoko]

Beware the long-ass post:

MCDaveG's brought up a lot of good and interesting points, which I'd like to bounce off of in this general info-y post. ^^ Plus, I just have a fascination with linguistics in general.

Now, "standard" Japanese is the Tokyo variant; since Tokyo is the capital, it makes some sort of sense. It's the form of Japanese that is taught in schools and is accepted as the “proper” way of speaking the language. The difference between a “language” and a “dialect”, and whether Tokyo Japanese is a dialect or language depends on who you ask and then some (it's a question with a lot of grey area).

Some say that no matter what variation of language you speak, you are speaking a dialect of that language. So, if you were to accept that definition, even ole cut-and-dry Tokyo Japanese is a dialect. Maybe even your own street has its own dialect. ^^ When my linguistics professor brought this view up in class, I thought it was interesting because I think we are kind of bought up socially to believe that the “standard” way of speaking is the “right” way, which is the language, and all the other variants are dialects. But that's a good example of the next point:

Classifying Tokyo Japanese, or any standard form of a language, as a dialect or a language gets trickier when social, political, and historical factors are brought into play.

Social - Tokyo Japanese may be viewed as “proper”, but that's really giving it a label according to society's own ideals and sense of hierarchy (in a sense, the whole “a language is a dialect with an army and a navy” thing comes into play). But, if you live in the backwoods and speak a variant of the language that is not standard Tokyo Japanese, then your way of speaking is labeled a dialect, with the connotation of being “substandard”.

There are also political and historical factors, which I hate to exclude... but I'm not really well-versed in them. As far as I know, though, the political side is a lot like the social; and historical linguistics deals with how languages are related to one another.


(More stuff.) Prescriptive and descriptive grammars - Prescriptive grammar is the stuff they teach you in school, the dos and don'ts. For example, in English class, we're taught that prepositions do not go at the end of sentences. Descriptive grammar, however, deals with the way people actually speak and what fellow native speakers consider grammatical. An English-speaker can and does end sentences with prepositions and it's usually accepted as grammatical. The point I'm trying to make is that no one really speaks the language that's taught in school. Grammar rules aren't a bad thing, though; IMHO, one of the really cool things about language acquisition is that there are all these tiny grammar “secrets” and things to learn and use and play with because you know how they're supposed to work. It's cool, but Maybe that's just me. XD

But then you have the internet and people doing absolutely crazy things, good and bad, with the language (YouTube, I'm looking at you)... and sometimes it causes brain breakage, but maybe that's just another one for the whole “how language is labeled according to social hierarchy” thing. Or not. I'm not sure.


Anyway, that's some linguistics stuff. I hope it does more good than harm and isn't too nerdy or lecture-y or anything. (Man, longest post I've ever made here...... ) Uh, linguistics is fun! Languages are awesome!

[MCDaveG]

Damn kinoko, long applause and ovations!!! Long but really interesting post.
What you're highliting with that in Tokyo spoken Japanese, that's actually the case of I can say almost all of the countries?
When you're learning Spanish, you're learning the Castillian dialect, which is spoken in Madrid and thus official.....
You can officially use it in Castilia, no prob, here comes Catalania, Valencia, Galego and Vasque..... man, you can talk in official spanish here, but people here will mock you or make that they don't understand....
Also when I as foreigner was learning English at school, it was Oxford English, claimed to be spoken in London.....
And you are right, with differencies in our using of language...
I prefer US writing, like theater instead of theathre and color instead of colour..... I'm also reading A in american way + I'm total idiot in making sentences which are time related, like present perfect or past continuous....

And yes, you and you proffesor are right, we werealso learning this at school, that actually every form of language differed by region is dialect and the official language is also dialect, which is actually mostly spoken in capital cities....

With that saying that it's impossible to tell which dialect is proper, for me it's simply that official, because with this there you go with not that rare phenomena, that people in each region will tell you, that their way of using the language is the proper way......