What are the main differences between 京都弁(Kyoto-ben) and 大阪弁(Osaka-ben)

Question

These two dialects will sound very similar to an untrained ear. Can anyone highlight the main differences between these two dialects?

Answer 1

According to this Chiebukuro question, there isn't that much of a difference in accents or words/phrases, and it's mainly the differences in the negative forms of カ変 (kuru) and サ変 (suru) verbs:

• Standard Japanese: 来ない・しない
• Osaka-ben: けえへん・せえへん
• Kyoto-ben: きいひん・しいひん

However, it should be noted that there is some overlap and some people in Kyoto use the Osaka forms and vice-versa.

Here are a few other notable differences mentioned:

• いらっしゃい is only said as おこしやす (and おいでやす) in Kyoto, not in Osaka. According to a different Chiebukuro question, おいでやす is said to first-time customers and おこしやす is said to regular customers.
• え（～よ） on the end of verbs and the てね in よし（～してね） is used much less frequently in Osaka than in Kyoto.
• はる is frequently added as an auxiliary verb to indicate a light degree of politeness. In Osaka-ben it apparently only indicates respect (尊敬{そんけい}) when used, but when used in Kyoto-ben it's also more broadly used as 丁寧語{ていねいご}. Apparently one of the answerers feels uneasy when it's used with animals as in 犬が走ってはる, but says it's perfectly normal to say this kind of thing in Kyoto.
• ～ねん used on the end of verbs isn't used as much in Kyoto-ben as it is in Osaka-ben. あの人何かしているよ in standard Japanese can be あの人なんかやってんで～？ in Osaka-ben and あの人なんかしてはるよ？ in Kyoto-ben. However, the Kyoto-ben してんで and Osaka-ben やっとるで are often interchanged, and even in Osaka some people still use してんで.
• It's mentioned that many people in Osaka talk at a faster pace and have a slightly "rougher" tone than in Kyoto.
• Additionally, I think one other very commonly used word that wasn't mentioned might be おぶ used in place of お茶 in Kyoto.

Links which might be useful:

• At http://www.arkys.net/kyotoben.html there's a list of comparison phrases (mainly comparing standard Japanese with Kyoto-ben, but I think it still might be useful.)
• http://www.akenotsuki.com/kyookotoba/ for an in-depth look at Kyoto-ben (and many relevant words/phrases) and at the College of Liberal Arts at the University of Texas for an incomplete translation of that same site. Particularly the list of differences between Osaka-ben and Kyoto-ben.
• http://www1.ocn.ne.jp/~tsujii/language.html for a more comprehensive list of words used in Kyoto by Maiko and Geisha.

(I'm mainly translating this because I wanted to know more myself so there are probably errors, but it's CW so feel free to edit/add to this!)

Answer 2

Syockit already suggests in the answer, but to expand on this, consonant-ending verbs take different negative forms:

Negative forms (WRITE-NEGATION)

• Kyoto dialect: 書かへん (kak-ahen)
• Osaka dialect: 書けへん (kak-ehen)
• Hyogo dialect: 書きひん (kak-ihin)

Since the negative form of Osaka dialect is confusing with the potential form, Osaka dialect prefers the long form potential form.

Negative potential forms (WRITE-POTENTIAL-NEGATION)

• Kyoto dialect: 書けへん (kak-e-hen)
• Osaka dialect: 書かれへん (kak-are-hen)
• Hyogo dialect: 書けひん (kak-e-hin)

Answer 3

What I see often is that Kyoto-ben has this emphasis expression "～え" sentence ending, like "ええお天気どすえ", "いきまっせ!" (ますえ contracted to まっせ), while Osaka-ben will use "～で" sentence ending, like "そないあほなことすると怪我するで。気をつけなあかんで。". Osaka is more likely to use わ ending.

Also, some verbs like 来ない are pronounced differently: Kyoto is きいへん while Osaka is けえへん (or was it the other way around? What about こおへん?)

Answer 4

Off-topic

I'd say the most prominent difference is the intonation, i.e. the one that literally catches your ear first, is the intonation. Osaka-ben (and Kansai-ben in extension) has almost opposite accent patterns compared to Tokyo-ben (and Kanto-ben in extension).

For instance, the word 橋 (bridge) and　箸 (chopsticks) are both written はし in Hiragana, but are pronounced with a different accent. This doesn't always make them easy to distinguish, however, since a Kantou-ben speaker would say the first with an H-L pattern (first syllable in a high tone, the second syllable in a lower tone) and the second with an L-H pattern, while for an Kansai-ben speaker it would be exactly the opposite!