The grammatical particles ( joshi) used in the Kagoshima dialects of Japanese have many features in common with those of other dialects spoken in Kyūshū, with some being unique to the Kagoshima dialects. Like standard Japanese particles, they act as suffixes, adpositions or words immediately following the noun, verb, adjective or phrase that they modify, and are used to indicate the relationship between the various elements of a sentence.
Unlike central Japanese dialects, particles in the Kagoshima dialects are bound clitics, as they have the effect of resyllabifying the last word they attach to. So, for example, the standard forms hon o "book ", kaki o "writing " and mari o "ball " would be realized as , and ( ← ) in most of northern and central Kagoshima, and , and ( ← ) in parts of Kagoshima's southern mainland.Shibatani (1990), p. 210
Resyllabification has also led to the reanalysis of some particles in a few dialects. For instance, the topic particle (w)a has been completely superseded by the form na in Izumi, which in most mainland dialects is merely a variant of (w)a after a moraic nasal.
Resyllabification rules
When a word is followed by a particle that starts with a vowel (such as the topic particle a, the accusative particle o or the dative particle i), the final syllable of that word will be fused with the particle and be subject to Kagoshima's vowel coalescence rules as well as other sound changes occurring in the regional dialect. As a simple example, when the word kore "this" is followed by the topic particle , it becomes korya "this=". A secondary sound change in Mainland Kagoshima then causes the medial ry to become y, giving the common form koya "this=".
Two main exceptions to this rule exist:
If a word's underlying form ends in a moraic nasal (i.e. ), an epenthetic is inserted between the word and the particle. For example, hon "book" becomes honna when fused with the topic particle. If a word's underlying form ends in a long vowel or sequence of vowels, then an epenthetic consonant is sometimes inserted between the word and the particle. In the case of topic particle a and the accusative particle o, the epenthetic consonant is . In the case of the dative particle i, the epenthetic consonant is . This rule is not consistently applied across all dialects of Kagoshima.
The following table shows how particles change the final syllable of words in the mainland Kagoshima dialects.
+ Resyllabification in mainland Kagoshima Meaning Underlying form Pronunciation in isolation Topic particle ( (w)a) Accusative particle ( o) Dative particle ( i) this writing or or ball song hitting , or person study book
The rules of resyllabification differ only slightly in peripheral areas. The following table shows how particles change the final syllable of words in the Sato dialect of the Koshikijima Islands.
+ Resyllabification in the Sato village of Koshikijima Meaning Underlying form Pronunciation in isolation Topic particle ( (w)a) Dative particle ( i) this thing song hitting ticket river lye
Note: The accusative particle ( o) is not listed above because the Sato dialect replaced it with the particle ba. For example, the accusative form of koi "this" is simply koi ba.
And the following table shows how particles change the final syllable of words in the Tanegashima dialects.
+ Resyllabification in Tanegashima Meaning Underlying form Pronunciation in isolation Topic particle ( (w)a) Accusative particle ( o) Dative particle ( i) this or person sugar now time candy oil mountain care
Note: Blank entries indicate that examples could not be found or inferred from the source.
Historical attestation
The phenomenon of resyllabification (or particle fusion) is first attested for the Kagoshima dialect in the 18th-century works of Gonza, a Japanese castaway from Satsuma who was taken to Saint Petersburg, Russia around 1733-1734. Under the supervision of assistant librarian Andrei Bogdanov, Gonza helped produce several reference works on the Japanese language in Russian, including an introductory, a grammar and a dictionary. These works provide the oldest glimpse into the Kagoshima dialect.
For the most part, the works of Gonza show that the topic particle a and the dative particle i followed the same rules as they do today, fusing with the final syllable of the preceding word and being subject to the same exceptions that exist today. The accusative particle wo, however, was independent and shows fusion in only a couple recorded examples.
+ Topic particle a Meaning Recorded example Modern standard Japanese Thief núsda nusuto wa Cow, heifer úsha meushi wa Autumn akyà aki wa Night yorà yoru wa I óra ore wa
+ Dative particle i(recorded as n after a long vowel) Meaning Recorded example Modern standard Japanese Country kúni kuni ni Person ftè hito ni Garden níwe niwa ni One generation íchden ichidai ni I óre ore ni
+ Accusative particle wo Meaning Recorded example Modern standard Japanese Write a character ʒó kak ji o kaku What nányu nani o Country kún wo kuni o Me ói wo ore o
Comparison with Amami and standard Japanese
The following table gives an overview of some of the main particles used in Kagoshima as compared to those used in Northern Amami, a language group spoken directly to the south of the Kagoshima dialects, as well as standard Japanese.
+ Comparison of particles between Kagoshima, Amami and standard Japanese Kagoshima Amami Standard Japanese Kagoshima city Ei, Minamikyūshū Koshikijima Kikai Ura Sani Genitive ga, no ŋa,no / N ga, no nu ga / ka, nu nu / n no Nominative ŋa ŋa, nu ka, nu / n ga, nu ga, no Accusative o / u o / u, Ø ba Ø ba Ø o Accusative (topicalized) oba / uba oba / uba yooba / ooba / ba ba Dative i / ni i / N i / ni nyi nji ni ni Purposive ke ge kyaa / ikyaa kai, kachi / ɡachi, kanyi, en iga / ga iga / ga Locative / Directional i / ni, see i / N, same, ʑe de ʑi, ʑeɴ, en nan, nantï, ji, nanji nantï, (t)chi ni, e, de Instrumental de ʑe shi si de Instrumental (means of travel) kara kara Ablative gara kara ra / raga raga kara Comitative / coordinating to to to tu tu tu to Comparative yokka / yoka yokka yuukya yukka (n)kuma nika yori Terminative gii, zui, made dʑui zui, made gari, madi garï garï made Quotative to, chi to, chi to, tte chi, ten chi tchi to, tte 1. These forms are not attested in the referenced source, but are inferred based on the Kagoshima City forms and known sound changes in Minamikyūshū.
Overall, Kagoshima and Amami varieties appear more similar to each other when it comes to the overlapping use of the genitive and nominative particles, the use of a topicalized accusative particle (absent in standard Japanese), the use of a purposive particle that is separate from the dative particle, and the use of multiple terminative particles. When it comes to dative, locative, directional and instrumental particles, Kagoshima is more similar to standard Japanese than it is to Amami, as Amami varieties use a number of different particles for these cases. Kagoshima also uses a regular accusative particle like standard Japanese, whereas most Amami varieties do not.
Index of particles A-Z index
bakkai batten chi de (1) de (2) do don doma ga gaa gii hozu i ina ka (1) ka (2) kara ke (1) ke (2) mo / n mon mon ka na na(n)do naa / nee / nii no o (o)ba see seka shiko to (1) to (2) to (3) (w)a (w)ai / (w)a / i yara yokka yoo zui
Index by meaning
also and / with as if at / in / to because but emphatic markers even for example from just more than of / 's object markers question markers quote markers only or roughly tag markers ("eh?", "right?") topic marker ("as for") to the extent of towards until / up to with / using
Syntactic case-marking particles
Case-marking particles are short lexical items that attach to the end of nouns, verbs or adjectives and help indicate their grammatical relation within a phrase, clause or sentence.
To illustrate, the following example shows how the word "cat" is explicitly marked to indicate that it is the subject of the transitive verb, while the word "fish" is marked to indicate that it is the object of the verb within the phrase "The cat ate the fish".
Subject Object Action猫 が 魚 を 食いもしたneko ga io o kuimoshitacat fish ate "The cat ate the fish"
Note that most case-marking particles do not have a direct translation in English, as modern English mostly relies on word order, although it does have some basic subject (aka nominative) and object (aka accusative) marking in personal pronouns such as "he" versus "him".
Ablative kara Like standard Japanese, the particle kara is used to indicate a time or place from which something begins. In this sense, it can generally be translated to "from" in English. Regional variants of this particle include kaa and ka. In the Higashimorokata district of Miyazaki specifically, the form kai is used.
Unlike standard Japanese, this particle is not used to mark a reason. Instead, the Kagoshima particle de is used for that purpose. For example, in the standard Japanese sentence machi kara totte kuru mono desu kara "because it was bought from town", the first instance where kara is used to mean "from" remains unchanged in Kagoshima, while the second, where it's used to mean "because", is replaced by the particle de:
In a few Kagoshima dialects, the particle kara can be used in two additional ways that are different from standard Japanese.
(1) In the first, it can be used to indicate the means used to arrive to a situation (such as the means of transportation), overlapping with the standard particle de "by" in this sense. For example:
The particle kara does not replace the other usages of de "by". For instance, it cannot be used to mark the tool used to achieve an action. So in the sentence "to write with a brush", de would be used.
(2) In the second, it can be used to mark the agent in an adversative-passive sentence, replacing the standard particle ni. For example:
It is worth noting that both usages of kara in (1) and (2) above may have once been more widespread in Japan, as they were historically attested in Diego Collado's Ars Grammaticae Iaponicae Linguae (Grammar of the Japanese language), published in 1632. Examples of the first taken from his work include "(he) came by ship" and "(he) came on foot" (spellings modernized). An example of the second would be "(he) was killed by Pedro".
Accusative o (1) The particle o is a case particle that marks the direct object in a sentence. Depending on the word that precedes, it can also be pronounced u.
Like the particles a and i, when o is added to a word, the final syllable of that word will be subject to resyllabification. For instance, koi "this" becomes koyo "this=".
Example:
oba and ba The particle oba or ba marks a topicalized direct object. This form historically derives from a contraction of the accusative marker wo and the topic particle ɸa (modern day wa ~ a). In several Western Kyūshū dialects, ba has completely replaced the particle o as the accusative marker. However, the use of the particle ba within the Kagoshima dialects is restricted mainly to the Koshikijima Islands and is not as widespread elsewhere. Considered an archaism in Standard Japanese, the form oba, pronounced uba in Southern Kagoshima, is more frequently used instead. In contrast with the particle o, oba can be described as an emphatic accusative; that is, it places more emphasis on the direct object.
Examples:
Comparative yokka