Gunma dialect
群馬弁・上州弁
Gunma dialect area.
Native to	Japan
Region	Gunma
Language family	Japonic Japanese Eastern Japanese Kantō Western Gunma dialect
Dialects	Sankan Heiya Southeast
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

TheGunma dialect (Japanese:群馬弁,Hepburn:Gunma-ben; also calledjōshū-ben (上州弁) inJapanese) is aJapanese dialect spoken inGunma Prefecture.

Along with the Chiba, Saitama, Tama andKanagawa dialects it is considered a WestKanto dialect. Despite sharing the North Kantō region withIbaraki andTochigi, the dialects of these respective prefectures (excluding the area aroundAshikaga in Tochigi) are linguistically considered East Kanto dialects and differ considerably from the Gunma dialect. There is dialectical variation within the prefecture, with three sub-regions being classified: the mountainous area in the north and west of the prefecture, the plain area in the centre and the Southwest area.^[1] The far southeasternŌra District has intermediate features of West and East Kanto dialects.^[2] Similarly to the Saitama dialect, there is noweakening ofg-starting mora.^[3]

The negation auxiliary verbnai (ない), when attaching to the verbkuru (くるto come), becomeskinai (きない) orkinē (きねぇ). However, inAgatsuma District it is conjugated tokonai (こない) orkonē (こねぇ).^[4]

Theparticlebe (べ), used to express volition, invitation and conjecture, is widely used in Kanto dialects, including Gunma (in the case of conjecture it is equivalent todarō (だろう) in standard Japanese). Historically,be was used in all three of these cases, but was influenced by the distinction between-u (-う)(volition) anddarō (conjecture) in standard Japanese, leading to the emergence of a new dialectal phrase by theShowa Era,danbe (だんべ), which became used for conjecture.^[5] When used to express volition,be attaches to the conclusive form ofGodan verbs and to the imperfective form ofIchidan verbs. In Agatsuma, where the negative form ofkuru, konai, is used, it is conjugated askobe (こべぇ) instead ofkibe (きべぇ).^[4]

For adjectives,be attaches to a syllabic nasaln (ん) affected-kari (-かり) ending (-かり → かん), to form examples such as the following:

• too-kanbe (とおかんべits probably far).
• tsuyo-kanbe (つよかんべ(he's) probably strong).

InTone and Agatsuma, there is smalltsu (っ) insertion andbe becomespe (ぺ) like in the following examples.^[6]

• too-kappe (とおかっぺ).
• tsuyo-kappe (つよかっぺ).

Thispe is also used elsewhere in Kantō, most notably in Tochigi and Ibaraki.^[5]

According to an investigation from 1980 to 2010 focussing on Gunma's younger generation, by 2010, the distinction betweenbe anddanbe had diminished and once more onlybe was now used to expressed volition, invitation and conjecture. In addition, a new dialectal expression,nbe (んべ), had begun to spread in 1980 from eastern Gunma and was now widespread across the prefecture. The same study also found that usage of the Ichidan verb [imperfective form +be] (e.g.mi-be (みべ)) and the [adjectival -kari +be] (e.g.too-kanbe (とおかんべ) had fallen markedly and the simple [conclusive form +be] had spread in its place (e.g.miru-be (みるべ) /tooe-be (とおえべ). In the 2010 younger generation sample, the [imperfective form +be], which is widely used across Kantō and Tōhoku, was predominantly used, followed by the Gunma-unique [imperfective form +nbe].Nbe is thought to have originated from the syllabic nasal-affected conclusive form; theru inmiru-be becamen to formminbe, which had thenbe segment taken and used as a separate form.^[7][8]

Other than areas that have a vagueaccent or no accent at all (such as around the town ofItakura), there is little disparity with the Tōkyō standard pitch accent.^[9] In urban areas, three-mora nouns such asasahi (あさひmorning sun),inochi (いのちlife) andkokoro (こころheart/mind) have their first mora stressed, e.g.asahi,inochi,kokoro, in concurrence with the Tokyo standard. In rural areas, however, there is a tendency for speakers to stress the middle mora, e.g.asahi,inochi,kokoro.^[10] A 1984 investigation carried out inTakasaki found that the wordsasahi,kokoro,namida (なみだtear) andhashira (はしらpost) were middle-mora stressed.^[10] Some pitch accent differences with standard Japanese are shown in the table below.

• Japanese dialects
• Culture in Gunma Prefecture

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