TheIyo dialect (伊予弁,Iyo-ben) ofJapanese is spoken by people fromEhime Prefecture inJapan. The name is a remnant of the Ehime area's historical name,Iyo Province.

Accents vary somewhat by geography within the prefecture. The southern area is particularly influenced by theKyūshū dialect, while the central and eastern districts have accents similar toKansai dialect.

The Iyo dialect has numerous characteristics that differentiate it from standard Japanese grammar.

• ya (や) replacesda (だ) as the plain form attributivecopula, much like in the dialects of Hakata and Kansai
• ken (けん) replaceskara (から) as in "because"

• yaken (やけん) is used instead ofdakara (だから)

• oru (おる) replacesiru (いる) as the verb "to be" for animate objects in casual usage

This leads to two alternate conjugations of the continuative form (～ている-te iru):

• -toru (～とる) is a contraction of-te oru
• V-stem +-yoru (～よる) is a slurring oforu

Example: "What are you doing?" (何してるの？nani shiteru no? in standard Japanese) becomes either

• nani shitoru no? (何しとるの？) or
• nani shiyoru no? (何しよるの？)

• n (ん) as a contraction of sentence-finalno (の)

Example: The second "What are you doing?" above,nani shiyoru no? is often contracted tonani shiyon? (何しよん？) ornani shon? (何しょん？)

• ya andwai (わい) can be emphatic sentence-final particles, likeyo (よ)
• Negative potential forms ("can'tX") are sometimes expressed asyō + V-neg. (yō is an alternative form of 良く yoku which underwent the u-onbin found in many western Japanese dialects, so more literally it is, "well/often don'tX")

Example: "Can't do" (できないdekinai in standard Japanese) becomesyō sen (ようせん）

"Can't go" (行けないikenai in standard Japanese) becomesyō ikan （よう行かん)

• Especially among the elderly,kogai (こがい),sogai (そがい), anddogai (どがい) are used for "this (kind of~)", "that (kind of~)", and "which (kind of~)", respectively (konna こんな,sonna そんな,donna　どんな in standard Japanese).
• zonamoshi (ぞなもし) is the most famous sentence-final particle of Iyo dialect due to being used inBotchan, a famous novel byNatsume Sōseki, but the usage is now obsolete.

These patterns are found mostly in the Nanyo (southern) region:

• ga (が) replacesno (の) in some contexts:

• "Explanatory/inquisitiveno" — "What are you doing?" (何してるの？nani shiteru no? in standard Japanese) becomesnani shiteru ga? (何してるが？)

In combination with the alternate form of the continuative mentioned above, this is usually rendered asnani shiyoru ga? (何しよるが？)

• "Although-noni" (～のに) — "But that's what you said!" (そう言ったのに！sō itta noni! in standard Japanese) becomessō itta gani! (そう言ったがに！)

• Especially inYawatahama,-teya (てや) is an emphatic suffix, usually seen insōteya (そうてや), which is equivalent tosōdayo (そうだよ)

This is thought to be a contraction along the lines ofsō ya to itta ya →sō yatte ya →sōteya

Some of the vocabulary in the dialect is readily understandable by speakers of standard Japanese, but many items are so different as to cause significant confusion. An example often proffered by locals iskaku かく, "to move/carry". For instance, it might be used in the context of a classroom—"Move your desk" (机をかいてtsukue o kaite). This would be incomprehensible to a non-local; a speaker of standard Japanese would interpret this as either "draw a desk" or "scratch your desk".

• Takao Kitō, Atsushi Shimizu (2002). Kyō no Iyo-ben: Iyo gogaku no tame ni. Aoba tosho Publishing.ISBN 4-900024-59-7

• IkataWiki: Iyo dialect - Analysis of Iyo dialect grammar
• Iyo dialect dictionary (Japanese)
• Vocabulary list (Japanese)

• Japanese dialects

• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Language articles with IETF language tag
• Dialects of languages with ISO 639-3 code
• Languages without ISO 639-3 code but with Glottolog code
• Dialect articles with speakers set to 'unknown'
• Articles containing Japanese-language text