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I have recently seen 「やってもた」 used in a Japanese conversation, I don't remember the context exactly, but it was something like：

久々にやってもた。

After asking my Japanese friend, it turns out to be some kind of Osaka-ben expression used instead of 「やってしまった」, where the 「も」 stands for 「しまう」. My friend couldn't give me another use of this so I'm here asking two questions:

  1. Is my explanation of 「やってもた」 accurate?

  2. Can we extract from this example a generic grammatical rule that can be applied to most situation?

I seek to learn Osaka-ben and I'm trying to replace my old habits, so I would be very grateful if you can provide some external resources about this or at least mention your sources.

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  • I've always heard 〜てもた used as an abbreviation of 〜てもらった.
    – istrasci
    Commented Nov 9, 2011 at 15:58
  • Interesting, would that be a colloquial abbreviation or used only in Osaka?
    – Aki
    Commented Nov 9, 2011 at 16:01
  • Not sure. My abilities in Osaka-ben are minimal at best.
    – istrasci
    Commented Nov 9, 2011 at 16:12
  • That might be abbreviation of 〜しもった。 that I heard on Kansai-area before.
    – YOU
    Commented Nov 9, 2011 at 16:12
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    @istrasci: I used to hear and read もろた instead.
    – Axioplase
    Commented Nov 10, 2011 at 3:15

1 Answer 1

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1) It is "やってもうた" or "やってしもた".
2) The form "もうた" or "しもた" are shortened forms of "しもうた". The (auxiliary) verb "しまう" has a stem ending with the glide "w": "simaw-", and underwent different developments in Kansai and Kantoo regarding inflection. In Kantoo, the "w" was interpreted as a consonant, and was used to trigger gemination (a.k.a. [促]{そく}[音]{おん}[便]{びん}) in past tense:

simaw-ta → simatta

On the other hand, in Kansai, the "w" (back glide) was turned into "u" (high back vowel), and then underwent further change of vowels (k.a. ウ音便):

simaw-ta → simauta → simouta

If you are expecting external materials on these sound changes, you may want to study about ウ音便 and 促音便.

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  • 3
    I assume that my japanese friends from Osaka who I talked to yesterday knew what that were talking about with their friends. I was just looking at their conversation and I think it's safe to assume they understand each others. Your answer is quite interesting anyhow, there's always more to learn. BTW, it was indeed やってもた and it's probably not good written Japanese.
    – Aki
    Commented Nov 10, 2011 at 7:00
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    Most young Osakans will probably drop the う when writing (usually text messages), hence becoming もた. They still pronounce it もうた though.
    – syockit
    Commented Nov 14, 2011 at 19:18
  • Isn't しもうた pronounced シモータ, not シモウタ?
    – user1478
    Commented Oct 31, 2017 at 4:53

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