The are a group of the
Japanese dialects
The of the Japanese language fall into two primary clades, Eastern (including modern capital Tokyo) and Western (including old capital Kyoto), with the dialects of Kyushu and Hachijō Island often distinguished as additional branches, the latter ...
spoken on
Shikoku
is the smallest of the List of islands of Japan#Main islands, four main islands of Japan. It is long and between at its widest. It has a population of 3.8 million, the least populated of Japan's four main islands. It is south of Honshu ...
.
The Shikoku dialects are:
* Awa dialect (
Tokushima Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Tokushima Prefecture has a population of 682,439 (1 February 2025) and has a geographic area of 4,146 Square kilometre, km2 (1,601 sq mi). Tokushima Prefecture b ...
, formerly known as
Awa Province)
*
Sanuki dialect (
Kagawa Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kagawa Prefecture has a population of 949,358 (as of 2020) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, smallest prefecture by geographic area at . Kagawa Pr ...
formerly known as
Sanuki Province)
*
Iyo dialect (
Ehime Prefecture
is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Ehime Prefecture has a population of 1,334,841 and a geographic area of 5,676 km2 (2,191 sq mi). Ehime Prefecture borders Kagawa Prefecture to the northeast, Toku ...
, formerly known as
Iyo Province
was a Provinces of Japan, province of Japan in the area of northwestern Shikoku.Louis-Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tosa''" in . Iyo bordered on Sanuki Province to the northeast, Awa Province (Tokushima), Awa to the east ...
)
*
Tosa dialect (
Kōchi Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located on the island of Shikoku. Kōchi Prefecture has a population of 669,516 (1 April 2023) and has a geographic area of 7,103 km2 (2,742 sq mi). Kōchi Prefecture borders Ehime Prefecture to the northwest and Tok ...
, formerly known as
Tosa Province
was a province of Japan in the area of southern Shikoku. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Tosa''" in . Tosa bordered on Awa to the northeast, and Iyo to the northwest. Its abbreviated form name was . In terms of the Gokishichidō syst ...
)
** Hata Dialect (
Hata district, westernmost of Kochi)
The Shikoku dialect has many similarities to the
Chūgoku dialect group in grammar. Shikoku dialect uses ''ken'' for "because", and -''yoru'' in progressive aspect and -''toru'' or -''choru'' in the perfect. Some people in Kōchi Prefecture use ''kin'', ''kini'', or ''ki'' instead of ''ken'', -''yō'' (Hata) or -''yū'' (Tosa) instead of -''yoru'', and -''chō'' (Hata) or -''chū'' (Tosa) instead of -''choru''.
The largest difference between Shikoku dialect and Chūgoku dialect is in
pitch accent
A pitch-accent language is a type of language that, when spoken, has certain syllables in words or morphemes that are prominent, as indicated by a distinct contrasting pitch (music), pitch (tone (linguistics), linguistic tone) rather than by vol ...
. Except southwestern Ehime and western Kochi (yellow area on the right map), many dialects in Shikoku use the Kyoto-Osaka-type accent or its variations, and are similar to
Kansai dialect
The is a group of Japanese dialects in the Kansai region (Kinki region) of Japan. In Japanese, is the common name and it is called in technical terms. The dialects of Kyoto and Osaka are known as , and were particularly referred to as su ...
, but Chūgoku dialect uses a Tokyo-type accent.
The differences between ''zi'' and ''di'' and between ''zu'' and ''du'', which have been lost in standard Japanese, have been preserved in the southern part of the Shikoku dialect region.
References
{{Japanese language
Japanese dialects
Shikoku region
Culture of the Shikoku region