Research Report for Cycle 1

My Starting Story and Interests

From what I have heard from seminar members who are from Hokkaido, the Ainu are very familiar to people living in Hokkaido, and even in school, they had opportunities to directly interact with Ainu culture, traditions, and even the Ainu people. I was born and raised in Yamaguchi Prefecture, and when I learned in elementary or junior high school that there is a tribe called the Ainu in Japan today and that the Ainu language exists, I was very shocked because I did not have a concrete image of the Ainu people.

I was also told by a member from Okinawa that there is a Ryukyuan language in Okinawa and that the number of Ryukyuan language users is decreasing. I was wondering why the differences in the languages of both Ainu and Ryukyu, which both exist at the edge of Japan, are so different from each other in the form of dialects in different parts of Japan. I wondered

• Why do we have language differences in the same part of Japan?

• Are there any problems caused by language differences?

• Do people feel something special because of language differences?

I myself am a dialect speaker, and it was not until I became a university student and spoke with people from various prefectures that I realized I was speaking a dialect.

I feel that dialects have both good and bad aspects from my own experience, and it made me realize that what is important thing for this research is to know the voices of 当事者 from their experiences, and what 当事者 think / feel about it.

Thus, I need to research the voices of dialect speakers and their experiences such as communication barriers and effects of dialects. In addition to that, the goal, the end of this research, is to verify why dialects still exist in various regions and what they bring to our lives based on the experiences of 当事者.

• Problems caused by language differences

〇東日本大震災における方言使用の例

①医療

地元職員の通訳を介して治療を行っていたが、患者と1対1になった途端に方言を話さない医者が、患者の言葉が理解できず、何もできない状況に陥った。

②消防

「（ヘリコプターが）オチタ」と聞いて、消防側が「落ちた（墜落した）」と誤解した。

③報道

「（水がなくて）コマッテダ（現在の状態）」というTVインタビュー時の発話を、「困っていた（過去の状態）」と放送時の字幕テロップで誤訳した。

〇法廷での方言使用の例

裁判長 「原告に再び注意します。……方 言での発言は、理解を混乱させま すから、標準語でしゃべって下さ い。」 原告 「裁判長、そげなこついうたら、 ふとおな問題どお。あんた裁判長 「いのちき」ちゅう豊前の方言を 知っちょるか？」 裁判長 「いのちき？」 原告 「知らんじゃろが。くらしちゅう こっちゃ。……そげなん方言も理 解出来んもんに、こん裁判を起こ したわしどうん心は分からんはず じゃ。わしゃ、どげえしてんが、 この裁判は方言でしゃべらしちも らいます。」

学者 Voices

What I've learned

患者である方言話者の地域住民は、医療現場において「医師に無理にその土地の方言を話してもらいたいとは思わない。」「症状について理解してもらい、苦しんでいる自分を理解して受け止めてもらいたい」と話した。この発言によって、改めて、彼らは方言に対して何か特別な扱いを必要としているのではなく、ただ、状況を状況として受け止めてもらいたいのだということに気づかされた。また、方言に関するリサーチを通して、方言は単なる言葉ではなくて、気持ちを表現したり、主張したりする、アイデンティティー（意思）行為であるということを学んだ。このことから、そもそも、方言（言葉）の消滅は問題であるのかという疑問が自分の中で生まれた。方言（言葉）に対する捉え方は人それぞれであるから、どのような意見をもってその質問に賛成/反対なのか知りたいと思った。また、アイデンティティーを表現するものという観点における方言（言葉）は、LGBTの声を上げるときにも同じことが言えるという意見がとても強く印象に残っている。

Summary

Through my Research Cycle 1,I thought which measures do we need, language diversity or language unification from the problems caused by the language differences.

Dialects have both pros and cons. So, it is difficult to choose a side because it depends on the way you look at it. When I have conversation with college friends, it is natural and comfortable for me to speak dialects in such a private scene, then sometimes there are words that the other person does not understand. That exactly made me realize the importance of dialects that they are the words that cannot be paraphrased in other words and significant ways of displaying, expressing, and asserting my identity. What is important thing is to recognition, accept, and respect language diversities.

Sources of Information