Japanese Dialects - Classification

Classification

There are several generally similar approaches to classifying Japanese dialects. Misao Tōjō classified mainland Japanese dialects into three groups: Eastern, Western and Kyushu dialects. Mitsuo Okumura classified Kyushu dialects as a subclass of Western Japanese. These theories are mainly based on grammatical differences between east and west, but Haruhiko Kindaichi classified mainland Japanese into concentric circular three groups: inside (Kansai, Shikoku and etc.), middle (Western Kanto, Chubu, Chugoku and etc.) and outside (Eastern Kanto, Tohoku, Izumo, Kyushu, Hachijo and etc.) based on systems of accent, phoneme and conjugation.