Japanese (Hiroshima)

Hiroshima-ben (広島弁) is the dialect of Hiroshima Prefecture in the Chūgoku region of western Honshu, Japan, with ~2.8M speakers. It belongs to the Chūgoku dialect group of Western Japanese, intermediate between Kansai-ben to the east and Yamaguchi-ben to the west. Distinguished by the assertive sentence-final particles -jaken/-jakee (causal: 'because', vs. standard -kara), -jagena (hearsay), the -toru/-yoru aspect distinction (resultative vs. progressive — a Western-Japan feature lost in standard), and a famously rough register associated with the Hiroshima yakuza film genre (Battles Without Honor and Humanity, 1973-1974). Heavily featured in NHK Asadora drama 'Massan' (2014) and the Carp baseball team's local culture.