Verbal morphology of the Kagoshima dialects of Japan
The verbal morphology of the Kagoshima dialects is heavily marked by numerous distinctive phonological processes, as well as both morphological and lexical differences. The following article deals primarily with the changes and differences affecting the verb conjugations of the central Kagoshima dialect, spoken throughout most of the mainland and especially around Kagoshima City, though notes on peripheral dialects may be added. Like standard Japanese, verbs do not inflect for person or plurality, and come in nine basic stems. However, contrary to the standard language, all verbs ending with the stem "-ru" conjugate regularly as ichidan verbs, though irregularities are present in other forms.
Most notably, the distinction and irregular conjugation pattern of the "shimo nidan" or "lower bigrade" ending "-(y)uru", which corresponds to standard Japanese "-eru", is still preserved in the dialect. However, "kami nidan" or "upper bigrade" verbs ending in "-iru" have merged with all other verbs ending in "-ru", in a similar fashion to other Kyushu dialects like that of Ōita.
Imperfective.
The imperfective form, also known as the plain, the dictionary or the non-past form, is primarily used to mark a generic, affirmative action and generally overlaps the present and future tenses in English. So, for instance, a statement like 彼やあそけ行っ "aya asoke iʔ" could mean either "he is going over there" or "he will be going over there". Typically, context will provide the meaning, though temporal adverbs such as 今日 "kyu" "today", 今 "inma" "now" or 明日 "ashita" "tomorrow" may be used for clarification.
With regards to its conjugation paradigm, the imperfective form ends in "-u" for all verbs as in standard Japanese. Notably, however, the resulting stem is reduced according to the dialect's phonological rules. Thus, for ichidan verbs, "-u" will either coalesce with the previous vowel of the verb or become a moraic obstruent, while for nasal stems it reduces to a moraic nasal and for obstruents, a moraic obstruent. This applies to most areas of Kagoshima with some exceptions: namely, the peripheral islands, such as Ōsumi (including Tanegashima) and Koshikijima, do not reduce the endings.
When used predicatively, verbs in their imperfective form are commonly appended particles such as ど "do" and が "ga" in order to add more emphasis to the statement being said. In this way, 俺や書っど "oya kaddo" "I will write (it)" adds more insistence or assertion than saying 俺や書っ "oya kaʔ" alone. When used attributively, the verb is simply followed directly by the word or phrase it modifies: 書っ人 "kaʔ futo" (or "kaffuto") "a person who writes".
Perfective.
The perfective or completive ending "-ta", and its allomorph "-da", marks an action or an event as a whole, often one that has previously taken place. It is thus frequently referred to as the "past tense" in English descriptions, though this is not always the case. In Southern Tanegashima, this ending is pronounced "-tō" and has "-dō" as its allomorphic variant.
In contrast to standard Japanese, verbs ending in "-u" will take on the form "-uta" rather than "-tta", as in "omou" → "omouta" → "omota". Similarly, a number of verbs with the morphological ending "-gu" will become "-uda", while others will tend towards "-ida". For example, 稼ぐ "kasegu" "labour" becomes "kaseida", which is then coalesced as "kaseda", whereas 繋ぐ "tsunagu" "tie" becomes "tsunouda", which reduces to the form "tsunoda". The same phenomenon can be observed with the "-ku" ending: while most verbs would become "-ita", such as 書く "kaku" "write" → "kaita" → "kete", some also become "-uta", such as 退く "noku" "step aside" → "nouta" → "nota".
Negative.
Negation is expressed by appending the suffix "-n" at the end of a verb in its imperfective stem form. This can be achieved by simply replacing the final "-u" in the underlying plain form with "-a", and then tagging on the negative suffix: "kaku" → "kakan" "not write", "wakaru" → "wakaran" "not understand", etc. The two main irregularities in this form relate to verbs that stem in "-ru" and "-su" in their plain forms. Verbs with the stem "-ru" may take on the ending "-tan" instead of "-ran", especially if the preceding syllable is a devoiced one. So the negative form of the verb "shiru" "know" is "shitan" rather than "shiran", as the syllable "shi" is devoiced. The alternative ending "-yan" is much more rare, occurring only in a few regions, and most prominently only when the preceding syllable contains a non-devoiced . For verbs with the stem "-su", the ending may be realized as either "-san" or "-han" with no rules governing its use other than speaker and dialect preference.
Verbs whose underlying imperfective form ends in "-uru" ("-eru" in standard Japanese), otherwise known as "shimo nidan" or "lower bigrade" verbs, are also noticeably irregular. For such verbs, the entire ending become "-en" when negated. For example, the underlying verb 見ゆる "miyuru" becomes 見えん "mien" "not be seen", and 投ぐる "naguru" becomes 投げん "nagen" "not give up".
Contrary to popular belief, the suffix "-n" does not derive from a relaxed pronunciation of the standard negative form "-nai", as demonstrated through the discrepancy between such forms as "minai" → *"miran" "not see", and "shinai" → *"sen" "not do". Further, considering the phonological characteristics of the dialect, the form "-ne" would be expected if such were the case. Rather, the negative suffix "-n" derives from the older attributive suffix "-nu", which can still be encountered in various literary works. And while the oldest examples showing "-nai" date back to the 16th century, "-nu" is attested as early as the 8th century in the Kojiki, and is believed to have already been reduced to its present form "-n" during the Edo period. The first line of the 11th century classical novel The Tale of Genji provides an example of its use: "(...) ito yamugoto-naki kifa-ni-fa ara-nu ga (...)", translated as "though (she) is not quite of a nobel birth".
The past negative form can be accomplished by compounding the regular negative verb form with the past form of the copula, yielding such constructions as "kakanjatta", "kakannyatta", or, more rarely, "kakannatta" "did not write" depending on the region's preferred variant. The form "-nkatta", as in "kakankatta", has also been observed in the Ōsumi and Morokata regions, as well as the city of Kagoshima itself.
Negative commands or orders are informally marked by tagging on the suffix "-na" to the plain form: 行く "iku" "to go" → 行っな "inna", "iʔna" (most regions), 行くな "ikuna" (Tanegashima, Koshikijima), 行っだ "idda" (Yakushima) "don't go". In western Ōsumi, the "-na" suffix commonly co-occurs with the auxiliary verb "yaru", which is then combined to the continuative "i" form of a verb: 行く "iku" → 行っきゃっな "ikkyanna". Formally, negative commands are marked by appending "-ji(n)" either directly to the imperfective ending or to the negative form: 行く "iku" → 行かぢ "ikaji", or 行かんじ "ikanji" "do not go".
Lastly, the negative form can also be used as a suggestive or light imperative when followed by the particle か "ka". Thus, for the verb "eat", 食わんか "kuwan ka" would effectively mean along the lines of "go ahead and eat" or simply "(please) eat". Note that this form is not the same as the standard Japanese construction "-nai ka?", as it functions more as an imperative than a negative question. So a sentence like ゆっくい行かんか "yukkui ikan ka" would mean "(please) go slowly" and not "won't you go slowly?", unless the intonation is explicitly rising.
"i" form.
The "i form", also called the conjunctive, the continuative, the infinitive, the nominative or the "ren'yōkei" form, may be used for two main purposes: deriving nouns from verbs and creating compound constructions. This form can be achieved by simply changing the vowel "-u" of the underlying plain form to "-i", and then applying the necessary sound changes afterwards. Contrary to the standard Japanese language, this form is completely regular for verbs ending with the plain stem "-ru". Thus, the underlying verb 食もる "tamoru" "eat" would become 食もい "tamoi" ( ; "tamori"), instead of just reducing to the root as in standard Japanese.
There may, however, be some irregularity when deriving nouns or compounds, as verbs ending with the plain stems "-u" and "-ru" may become a moraic obstruent as opposed to the vowel . For example, the underlying verb 買う "kau" "buy" could become in its nominal form rather than "buying", also creating a doublet between かっもん and けもん "shopping". Similarly, the underlying verb 知る "shiru" "know" could become rather than , leading to the polite construction 知っもさん "not know" rather than .
Further, when the "i form" is used in a compound construction and the second verb begins with a vowel or a palatal consonant, the underlying stem may:
The use of the "i form" for linking verbs together and creating compounds is especially prominent for adding a nuance of politeness. The verbs やる "yaru", やす "yasu" and やんす "yansu", for instance, act as honorific auxiliaries and are frequently used in imperative constructions as in 食もいやんせ "tamoi-yanse" "please eat" or 遊っびゃんせ "asubbyanse" "please play" (also 遊っやんせ "asuʔ-yanse"), which would be the equivalent of 食べなさい "tabenasai" and 遊びなさい "asobinasai" in standard Japanese. Similarly, the verbs もす "mosu" (or もうす "mōsu" in Tanegashima) and もんす "monsu", sometimes written as 申す and 申んす, will add a degree of politeness akin to the standard Japanese ending ます "-masu". Thus, for 食もる "tamoru" "eat" and 読む "nomu" "drink", the polite forms would be 食もいもす "tamoi-mosu" and 飲んもす "non-mosu" respectively.
"Te" form.
The "te form" or the participle form functions in much the same way as it does in standard Japanese, being able to link different verbs and clauses together, and on its own expressing a slight command. It differs, however, largely in its pronunciation. Depending on the speaker and dialect, it might be pronounced anywhere from , , or , which may or may not be reflected with the spellings て "te", ちぇ "che", っせ(え) "sse(e)" and っしぇ(ー) "sshe(e)". Its voiced counterpart "de" exhibits the same phenomenon, being pronounced , or , which could be written as で "de", ぢぇ "je" or じぇ "je" respectively. The spellings て "te" and で "de" are here favoured, though the affricated pronunciations and are the most common.
The form also differs slightly in its paradigm, as verbs that end with the morphological ending "-u" will take on the form "-ute" rather than "-tte", which is used in the standard language. For example, the underlying verb 会う "au" "meet" would become あうて "aute", which is then coalesced to the form おて "ote". Similarly, a number of verbs with the morphological ending "-gu" will become "-ude", while others will tend towards "-ide". For example, 剥ぐ "hagu" "tear off" becomes "haide", which is then coalesced as "hede", while 急ぐ "isogu" "rush" becomes "isoude" in its underlying form, which is then coalesced as "isode". This can also be observed with the ending "-ku", although to a much lesser extent. Most verbs ending in "-ku" will become "-ite" in this form, so that 書く "kaku" "write" becomes "kaite", which is then coalesced as "kete". A few others will become "-ute", so that 退く "noku" "step aside/down" becomes "noute", which is coalesced as "note". Lastly, for verbs with the stems "-mu" and "-bu", the ending "-nde" may be optionally vocalized as "-ude". So 飛ぶ "tobu" "fly" could become either "tonde" or "tode" ( ; "toude"). And for verbs ending in "-su", the form "-shite" may be reduced to "-ite", so that 貸す "kasu" "lend" becomes "kaite" instead of "kashite", which may be coalesced into "kete".
The continuous or progressive aspect, which is formed with the "te form" followed by the auxiliary いる "iru" in standard Japanese, follows a similar development in most Kagoshima dialects, using the auxiliary verb おる "oru" instead. The "te form" is then combined and merged with the verb, becoming ちょる "-choru" or in some areas とる "-toru", which have ぢょる (じょる) "-joru" and どる "doru" as their respective voiced counterparts. Thus, as the "te form" of the verb 食う "kuu" "eat" is くて "kute", its progressive form would generally be expressed as 食ちょっ "kuchoʔ" "eating", while the progressive form of 読む "yomu" "read" would become either 読んぢょっ "yonjoʔ" or 読ぢょっ "yojoʔ" "reading", reflecting the voicing in its participle forms 読んで "yonde" and 読で "yode". In other dialects, the continuous-progressive aspect is constructed using the "i form" followed by the auxiliary "oru". Some dialects may even make a semantic distinction between the