Nagoya-ben Lesson 1

Nagoya is a city about halfway between Tokyo and Osaka. Nagoya has things such as… Nagoya Castle, the recent Aichi Expo, and of course, it’s own local dialect.

Let’s learn Nagoya-ben together! We can talk about MISOKATSU, a famous Nagoya food. This is from the Nagoya restaraunt YABATON.

Frame 1 Point Pick-up!

The pig says うみゃ！

In Nagoya dialect, うみゃ (umya) is the same as うまい (umai).

There is a tendancy in Nagoya to use that Mya, Nya, Gya type sound. People from other prefectures think it’s funny. Me too.
Frame 2 Point Pick-up!

The pig says 甘さと相性がいいがね！ (amasa to aisyou ga iigane!)

This means,”it goes well with the sweetness!” He is refering to the spicy mustard he has mixed into his MISOKATSU.

In Tokyo dialect, this would be said いいよね！ (iiyone!) In Nagoya, when stressing a point, you can replace YO with GA.

I have heard peole say いいだがね！ In some occasions as well. Crazy. Ah, here it is next!

Frame 3 Point Pick-Up!

Pig says, 美容健康にもってこいだがね！ (biyoukenkou ni mottekoi dagane!)

This means “It’s good for your beauty health!”

If you say something is にもってこい、it means it’s good for something. In this case, health. This is not especially Nagoya-ben, but Kansai uses this form too.

The end, だがね (dagane), this is Nagoya dialect, and could be said to replace だよね (dayone) that is comonly used in Tokyo dialect.
Frame 4 Point Pick-up!

Pig says, やめられんうまさだぎゃー！ (yameraren umasa dagya!)

This means, loosley, “It’s a taste I just can’t quit!”

やめられん is a form of やめられない (yamerarenai). Can’t quit. うまさだぎゃー！ is just stressing the fact that this taste, is the bomb. When you want to emphasize something in Nagoya-ben, you can end your sentence with DAGYA! だぎゃ！ For impact.

Give it a try! Even if you don’t live in Nagoya! People will love it! (or not.)
- Harvey