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Nagoya dialect tongue twisters are exquisite! A fun collection where your tongue gets tied in knots with regional dialects

Nagoya dialect tongue twisters are exquisite! A fun collection where your tongue gets tied in knots with regional dialects

Last updated:2026/3/5

10 years as a kindergarten teacher / elementary school teacher / junior and senior high school teacher / childminderkepiko
Graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, Faculty of Music (now: Department of Music Culture and Education, Early Childhood Music Education major). In elementary school, my homeroom teacher was Jun Kusaba, a game researcher. After graduating from university, I worked for 10 years as a kindergarten teacher and for 7 years as an after-school childcare instructor, then took a post as a music teacher at an international school in Singapore. In addition to music education, I also engaged in activities that shared Japanese culture, traditional games, and recreational play, working with many children. Afterwards, through freelance writing, planning, and editing work at Shogakukan, I met many delightful adults and experienced the joy of communicating and conveying ideas. Leveraging the perspective cultivated in educational settings and my experience as an editor, I aim to deliver practical information—focusing on fields related to music and children—that values both input and output. Hobbies include instruments, singing, handcrafts, toys, drawing, traditional play, the outdoors, books, DIY, and crafts. Special skill: spinning-top tricks.
A Vocaloid producer who is also a music writerAraki Jakkan
I’ve worked in a variety of roles—regardless of pro or amateur settings—including live event PA, cameraman for video and photography, restaurant staff, and logistics center staff. I now spend my days as a part-time writer. I’ve contributed to music and manga websites with feature/review articles, and wrote the liner notes included as a bonus for 1st PLACE Inc.’s “IA SUPER BEST.” As for my music background, I started playing guitar in junior high and focused on band activities during my school years. For over 15 years since then, up to the present, I’ve continued releasing original tracks as a Vocaloid producer. My areas of expertise are Japanese rock, Vocaloid, and manga.

Dialects, including Nagoya-ben, have a distinctive sound and rhythm that you can’t experience with standard Japanese.

Tongue twisters that make use of those dialect features pack a slightly different kind of fun, with strings of unfamiliar sounds that can tie your tongue in knots.

In this article, we introduce tongue twisters that feature unique Nagoya-ben expressions—like ones themed around KitKat and words such as “tokin tokin.” Enjoy this playful word game unique to dialects that will make you want to say them out loud and repeat them again and again!

Nagoya dialect tongue twisters are exquisite! A fun collection where your tongue gets tied in knots with regional dialects

Pencils and sharpened points

Nagoya dialect tongue twisters! Pencils and “kintokin”! Were there others besides the KitKat tongue twister?!!!

Pencils and sharpened points

There’s a tongue twister that uses expressions unique to the Nagoya dialect.

It goes: “Kondon toki wa tokin-tokin no enpitsu motte kan to kan.

Teka chanto kezutto kan to kan tte itto kan to kan.” The first thing that catches your attention is “tokin-tokin,” right? This word describes a pencil tip that’s sharpened to a fine point.

In the tongue twister, it’s basically saying, “Next time, I have to bring a pencil.

Or rather, I really need to make sure it’s properly sharpened, and I should say so too.” Because it includes unfamiliar dialect words, you could say the difficulty level is on the higher side.

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Oh yeah, I split my bike and ended up messing it up, so I had to hurry and go kick the bike.NEW!

“Speaking of which, my bike ended up breaking, so I had to hurry to the bike shop” is a dialect phrase used around Nagoya and Mikawa, and it’s also known as a tongue twister.

It means, “Come to think of it, my bicycle broke, so I had to quickly go to the bike shop.” “Sou iya” corresponds to the standard “sou ieba” (“speaking of which”), “ketta” means “bicycle” and is commonly used in Aichi Prefecture, “kowakete matta” means “ended up breaking,” “chatto” means “quickly” or “in a flash,” and “ikanakankatta” means “had to go.” Because similar sounds repeat, it becomes a bit tricky to say quickly, making it a fun sentence.

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I gotta buy some KitKats.

There’s a tongue twister that plays on the KitKat product name: “Kit Kat kattokan to ikankatta noni, anta ga kattokan katta node, ikankatta kanda wa.” It’s pretty confusing, isn’t it? In simple terms, it means something like, “We were supposed to buy a Kit Kat, but you didn’t buy it in advance, so that was no good.” The phrases “katto” and “katta” keep appearing, so pay attention to those and give it a try.

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In conclusion

Tongue twisters woven with distinctly Nagoya-dialect sounds like “kanto” and “tokintokin” reveal their depth the more you say them out loud. Because dialect tongue twisters include turns of phrase you don’t usually use, your tongue is more likely to get tied up—and that often leads to a good laugh. Start casually with familiar topics and enjoy the charm of the Nagoya dialect together with your family and friends.