I have tried to ask people this type of question on many occasions and the answer is always the same, but people are notoriously bad at evaluating their own language, so I ask here:
Apart for pitch, which I know will differ significantly from region to region, what kinds of phonetic or phonological differences are there between the different dialects of Japanese, particularly between Kansai and Tokyo?
For instance, I'm always told that if a person from Osaka spoke with Standard Pitch Accent, they would sound exactly like a person from Tokyo, that there is essentially no other difference. Except I know there are slight differences, such as with devoicing. Does anyone know more about this?
EDIT: I'd like to be more specific. In a context where a native speaker of Kansaiben says a word or phrase that either sounds the same in standard Japanese, or where he happens to use standard Japanese, provided he gets the pitch right, are there typically any sounds that would tend to be pronounced differently and that would give away that person as a non-native speaker of Tokyouben, for instance?
If an American from New York and another from New Orleans say the same phrase they are unlikely to sound the same, even if they naturally used the exact same words. I'm wondering if the same concept of "accent" can apply to the pronunciation of particular sounds within Japanese dialects, specifically Kansaiben.
