After a long hiatus, Mrs. Adamu is back with a blog post about her local dialect, Tochigi-ben. She grew up in Ashikaga through elementary school and spent the rest of her school days in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture. We visit about once a month with her immediate family who still live in Chiba.
During my trips there, in addition to noticing strange Christian signs I’ve managed to pick up some phrases of the local dialect from her relatives. Some examples:
１. 「わりかし」= 意外と
父がよく、「これ、わりかしうまいんだよ」と言う。
Her father says this a lot, especially when he buys sashimi from his favorite roadside merchant.
２．「ごきちゃん」＝ごきぶり
母が「ごきちゃんがでた！」と言う。両親の家にいた時、そんなに何度もでたとも思えないのだが。
A cute term for cockroach. They do appear from time to time.
３．語尾の「ど」
父が使う。きっと栃木弁。
「行ぐど！」＝行くぞ、行くよ。「出たど」＝出たぞ、出たよ。
I use this one mainly as a joke because her family says いぐど！ all the time as if they have a cold.
４．語尾の「（だ）がね」
私が栃木に行ったときに使う。祖母と会話するときなど。
「私、それ言ったがね」＝「私、それ言ったよね」
「お店はこっちだがね」＝「お店はこっちだよ」
This ends up sounding kind of angry a lot of the time.
5. 疑問形語尾の「ん？」
「もう食べたん？」「寝てたん？」「テレビ見てるん？」 (= もう食べたの？ etc)
This one Mrs. Adamu uses herself all the time when talking on the phone to relatives.