The Saga dialect (佐賀弁) is a dialect of the Japanese language widely spoken in Saga Prefecture and some other areas, such as Isahaya. It is influenced by Kyushu dialect and Hichiku dialect. Saga-ben is further divided by accents centered on individual towns. The Saga dialect, like most dialects of rural Kyushu, can be nearly unintelligible to people who are accustomed to standard Japanese. A popular urban legend has it that two Saga-ben speakers met up in Tokyo and bystanders mistook their dialect for Chinese.

Characteristics

Many of Saga's dialectical properties are variants, in particles or conjugations, of standard Japanese.

これ, それ, あれ, どれ (kore, sore, are, dore) Series

The Demonstrative series is uniquely pronounced in Saga-dialect.

Vocabulary

Saga-ben contains much characteristic vocabulary. Examples are included (with standard Japanese, where applicable) in the following table:

Cultural references