関西弁シリーズ：「めっちゃ」・「ごっつい」等

There a handful of stand-alone vocabulary words that are mainly unique to 関西弁, so let's cover a few here briefly:

「めっちゃ」：This is used in place of 「とても」, but can be used in places where 「とても」often would not be chosen by a native speaker. 

例文：　めっちゃおいしい！

「ごっつい」：This can be used similarly to 「すごい」. 

例文：　ごっついなぁ！

「すげい」：A simple sound change on the standard 「すごい」. 

例文：　彼、すげい！

「ほんま」：A replacement for 「本当」, both can take the particle 「に」. 

例文：　ほんまに難しいわ！

例文：　ほんま。

「マジで」：This is a replacement for one of the uses of 「本当に」. It is used for cases where you question if something is really true, think it might be a joke/lie/trick, or can't believe something. 

例文：「田中ってさ、満点とった」・「マジで！？嘘やろう？」

I hope these are helpful to you! If you watch Japanese TV, especially comedians, you'll certainly encounter a lot of these words used regularly. 

また明日ね！

関西弁シリーズ：「〜てもええ」

In 関西弁, the simple 「いい」takes a basic vowel change to become 「ええ」. 

標準語：食べてもいい？・いいんじゃない！

関西弁：食べてもええ？・ええんじゃない！

標準語：言っていいの？・うん、いいよ。

関西弁：言ってええの？・うん、ええよ。

Not all cases of 「いい」can conveniently turn into 「ええ」, but it's pretty flexible. 

For those curious as to why I'm going to spend as much as three weeks on this dialect, there's a simple reason. Although it's not found in most textbooks, it is the one dialect that has found its way into all different kinds of media throughout Japan, including TV, movies, novels, and more. 関西弁 is certainly the most important dialect in Japan, from a widespread recognition point of view. 

それでは、明日は、「めっちゃ」・「ごっつい」など、よく使われている単語を勉強しましょう！期待していますよね！

関西弁シリーズ：「〜へん」

When it comes to the Kansai dialect, few structured grammatical changes are more prevalent and necessary to know than the negative verb ending 「〜へん」. It's usage is simple and straightforward, and so you can take it easy today. For the purposes of this series, 「標準語」(ひょうじゅんご) will represent the standard dialect, and 「関西弁」represents Kansai dialect (かんさいべん). Please note the difference between 「標準語」and 「関東弁」. The former is the standard of Japanese found to be the most commonly understood and used in nation-wide communication, and the latter (かんとうべん) is a dialect unique to Tokyo and the surrounding areas, and includes deviations from what is considered 「標準語」. For example, in 「関東弁」, a negative verb such as 「効かない」may become 「きかねぇ〜」. Also, 「じゃない」often becomes 「じゃねぇ」. 

Alright, here we go:

標準語：分からない・聞こえない・見えない・行かない

関西弁：分からへん・聞こえへん・見えへん・行かへん

標準語：貸してくれない？

関西弁：貸してくれへん？

It's just that simple. For almost all verbs, you simply take the 「〜ない」and replace it with 「〜へん」. For those of you curious as to how this change in pronunciation took place, it may be helpful to change how you think about it. It's easy to think that everything started with the standardized language (標準語), but that's not the case here; each area developed its own linguistic habits, and so this is not necessarily a case where the sound of the standardized language became the sound you see here. 

Tomorrow, let's look at the Kansai version of 「〜てもいい」. じゃまたね！

自然な日本語のシリーズ： 「あれっ！」

Although it's common place within even typical textbooks, you absolutely need to know what this interjection is used for, because it's used a lot.

「あれ」, especially when it follows with an abrupt stop, as in 「あれっ！？」, is used to indicate a sort of confused surprise, or to indicate that things don't appear as they should. For example, if you are confident you put your wallet on the chair beside you, and then you look to find it missing, you might exclaim, 「あれ？」.

In fact, one time when I was riding my bicycle back home from the church, I happened upon another member heading towards the church. Because the evening activities were just starting, he was confused as to why I was heading away from the church and not towards it. I passed by quickly, but heard him say, 「あれっ？」.

A good one to know and use... じゃね！

自然な日本語のシリーズ： 「って」

Piggy-backing off of yesterday's post, we'll cover the colloquial use of 「って」as a substitute for 「は」. If you can master the use of this one (which should be easy), you'll sound pretty "casual natural." Just don't over use it, deal?

「って」takes the form of the more elementary and basic particles you were taught about in your classes, including 「と」. It's not universal, however, and only takes the place of certain uses.

• サメって、おいしいの？
• 僕ってさ、天才だろう　（天才　＝　てんさい）
• それって、あたしの分？　（あたし　＝　"cutesy" form of 私）
• フォカスって、なに？　（って　＝　というのは）
• 国の名前って言語によって違う

Also, it can replace the 「と」in many more complicated grammar constructions:

• というのは　＝　って
• といえば　＝　っていえば
• といったら　＝　っていったら
• というより　＝　っていうより

It's more popular to use this construction when it saves time, so uses that don't clearly reduce the sounds you make are less common.

じゃ、またね！

自然な日本語のシリーズ： 「さ」

This one is bigger with the guys than the gals, but both can use it. It's basically a meaningless interjection that carries even less meaning than 「なんか」; at least, in my opinion it does.

This one, however, can often be the starting point of what you are about to say: 「さ、行きましょうか？」. It can be used in similar ways to 「なんか」: 「それはさ、彼女ってさ、すごい美人だろう！」.

This is often used in the following way with perhaps the most well-known interjection that appears in textbooks: 「あのさ、僕ってさ. . .」.

For those confused by my use of 「って」, don't be confused into thinking that it signifies the normal meaning (indicating a quotation or general concept of something spoken by another). In this case, it's used almost exactly like 「は」would be as a sort of topic marker.

Listen for the varied uses of 「さ」, and you'll be that much closer to sounding pretty darn natural in your Japanese! また、楽しんで学びましょう！

自然な日本語のシリーズ： 「だよな〜」

In the other portion of this blog, 「おかしいなぁ！」, I'm currently talking about the conglomeration of different forms of the story of 「電車男」, a story about an Otaku who rescues a girl on the train and begins to court her. In that story's drama series form (it's also a movie, book, play, etc), the main character is particularly distraught that when he tries to call the girl back on his mobile phone, the battery dies... and this after he tried so hard to get away from work for a while to make the call!

In that moment, he says to himself, 「だよな〜」. It's exactly what it seems like it's saying, carrying the meaning of the simple 「だ」with the emphasis of 「よ」and the expressiveness of 「な」. A rough English translation might be, "That just figures," or "That just has to happen, doesn't it!" Another rough translation might be, "Why me!?" Ultimately, translation fails us again...

We won't find many written forms of this interjection, at least not to my knowledge, so you'll have to keep your ears wide open for this one. And, next time something bad happens to your that just "has to happen," you can say, 「だよな！」

またな！