Can you say them? A collection of Hakata-dialect tongue twisters
What Hakata dialect words do you all know?
If you live in Fukuoka Prefecture or around Kyushu, it’s probably a familiar dialect, but for people in other regions, you might even wonder, “How do you pronounce that?”
Examples include “nanshiyouto,” “yaken,” and “yoka.”
These are expressions often used on TV by the comedy duo Hakata Hanamaru-Daikichi.
In this article, we’ll introduce some tongue twisters in the Hakata dialect!
Since we have the chance, don’t just watch the videos—give them a try yourself!
Can you say them? A collection of Hakata-dialect tongue twisters
Ottotto totto-tte.
I’d like to introduce this tongue twister that feels satisfying to say: “Ottotto totto-tte tte ittotta to ni, nande totto-tte kuren katta totte itto-o to.” On the page it makes no sense at all, right? It means: “I wanted you to save some Ottotto snacks for me—why didn’t you keep them?” There are many parts pronounced ‘to,’ so be careful not to get tangled up.
The trick is to insert brief pauses at phrase breaks.
I heard Kayō Yamamoto used to go to this high school.
There’s a relatively short and easy tongue twister: “Koko no kōkō ni Yamamoto Kayo ga kayottottarashii ken ne.” Yamamoto Kayo is a local TV personality active mainly in Fukuoka and beloved by locals.
In the tongue twister, it means “It seems Kayo Yamamoto used to attend this high school.” It’s a tongue twister that really reflects Fukuoka, especially the Hakata dialect.
If it feels hard, try taking a quick breath at the ‘ga’ part.
Please buy me a KitKat.
There’s a famous Hakata-dialect tongue twister.
It goes: “You said, ‘Why didn’t you buy a KitKat when I told you to buy one?’ so I had to go buy a KitKat, but I forgot to buy it, and now I have to go out to the store again, which is such a hassle.” It’s quite long, so even just reading it is tough.
In short, it’s saying, “I wanted you to have bought a KitKat in advance, but since you said you forgot to buy it, I have to go buy it now—what a pain.”
In conclusion
We introduced tongue twisters that have been featured on social media and TV shows. If you know any tongue twisters in the Hakata dialect, please let us know via the contact form! We’ll add them as we go.