Hichiku dialect

The Hichiku dialect (肥筑方言 Hichiku hōgen) is a group of the Japanese dialects spoken in the western Kyushu. The name Hichiku (肥筑) is constructed by extracting a representative kanji from Hizen (肥前), Higo (肥後), Chikuzen (筑前) and Chikugo (筑後), names of old provinces in there.

Hichiku Japanese
Native to	Japan
Region	western Kyūshū
Language family	Japonic Japanese Kyūshū Japanese Hichiku Japanese
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	hich1237
Hichiku dialect area (orange)

The Hichiku dialect includes:

• Hakata dialect (western Fukuoka Prefecture, formerly known as Chikuzen Province, especially Hakata district in Fukuoka)
• Chikugo dialect (southern Fukuoka Prefecture, formerly known as Chikugo Province)
  • Ōmuta dialect (Ōmuta)
  • Yanagawa dialect (Yanagawa)
• Chikuhō dialect (central Fukuoka Prefecture such as Iizuka)
• Saga dialect (Saga Prefecture)
  • Karatsu dialect (northern Saga Prefecture centered Karatsu)
  • Tashiro dialect (easternmost Saga Prefecture centered Tashiro)
• Nagasaki dialect (Nagasaki Prefecture)
  • Sasebo dialect (northern Nagasaki Prefecture centered Sasebo)
  • Hirado dialect (Hirado Island, west of Nagasaki Prefecture)
• Kumamoto dialect (Kumamoto Prefecture)
• Hita dialect (Hita, southwestern Oita Prefecture)
• Iki dialect (Iki Island of Nagasaki Prefecture)
• Tsushima dialect (Tsushima Island of Nagasaki Prefecture)
• Gotō dialect (Gotō Islands of Nagasaki Prefecture)

References