you loan me 10 million yen?
| (b) expletive | |
| MITSUI: | Anta no kabu, hanbun ni sagatta de. |
| ITOH: | Akan. |
| 三井： | あんたの株、半分に下がったで。 |
| 伊藤： | あかん。 |
| MITSUI: | The value of your stock fell by half. |
| ITOH: |
In this case, although akan is used as an expletive, it has more of a tone of regret than anger. Anta あんた is an informal word for "you." It is a contracted form of anata あなた, but is much more informal. It is used by both men and women, as opposed to omae お前, which is a rougher word for "you" used only by men.
| ANNOUNCER: | Hanshin, hōmuran utaremashita. |
| TORAKICHI: | Akan. |
| アナウンサー: | 阪神、ホームラン打たれました。 |
| トラキチ： | あかん。 |
| ANNOUNCER: | A home run was hit off of Hanshin. |
| TORAKICHI: |
| (c) no good, bad | |
| MIKA: | Shiken donai yatta? |
| TOMOKO: | Akankatta wa. |
| 美香： | 試験どないやった？ |
| 友子： | あかんかったわ。 |
| MIKA: | How was the test? |
| TOMOKO: | Miserable. |
Tomoko obviously should have studied harder. Donai yatta どないやつた means "how was it?" Akankatta is the past tense of akan.
| (d) don't do that! | |
| DAUGHTER: | Hona, ite kuru wa. |
| MOTHER: | Akan yo. |
| 娘： | ほな、行て来るわ。 |
| 母： | あかんよ。 |
| DAUGHTER: | I'm going out now. |
| MOTHER: | No you're not. |
This usage is heard quite often when parents are telling their children what they are not allowed to do.
| KENSUKE: | Kono butaman, hutte ē? |
| KYŌTA: | Akan de. |
| 健助： | この豚マン、食ってええ？ |
| 京太： | あかんで。 |
| KENSUKE: | Can I eat this pork roll? |
| KYŌTA: | No! |
Note that this example is typical of male speech only. Women use taberu 食べる instead of kuu 食う for the verb "to eat." Akan, especially followed by the particle de, sounds rough and in female speech would probably be followed by yo instead.
The same conversation between two women might be as follows:
| MIKA: | Sono butaman tabete mo ē? |
| TOMOKO: | Akan yo. |
| 美香： | その豚マン食べてもええ？ |
| 友子： | めかんよ。 |
Akan nen and akande are also often used to mean "no" or "you can't."
(e) must (used as a double negative)
Atarashii kuruma, kawana akan.
新しい車、買わなあかん。
I've got to buy a new car.
Shinbun yomana akan.
新聞読まなあかん。
I have to read the newspaper.
In this usage, the verb is conjugated as the standard negative form (i.e., -nai) with the final-i sound clipped off and followed by akan. This structure is identical in meaning to the -nakereba naranai form, but is much more colloquial. Suru is usually conjugated as sena akan せな あかん.
Shigoto sena akan.
仕事せなあかん。
I've got to work.
3. chau ちやう (a) no, different, wrong; (b) isn't that right?
(a) Chau is the clipped form of chigau 違う. This contraction is widely used throughout Kansai in place of chigau.
| chau de | ちゃうで | you're wrong |
| chau, chau | ちゃう、ちゃう | that's wrong |
| KENSUKE: | Denshadai nihyaku en ya na. |
| KYŌTA: | Chau, chau. Ninyaku gojū en yade. |
| 健助： | 電車代二百円やな。 |
| 京太: | ちゃう、ちゃう。二百五十円やで。 |
| KENSUKE: | The train fare is 200 yen, right? |
| KYŌTA: | No, it's 250 yen. |
Because chau is a verb ending in -u, it can be conjugated to chaimasu ちやいます for slightly more formal situations.
| KAKARICHŌ: | Omae no happyō, daiseikō yattan chau? |
| HIRASHAIN: | Zannen nagara, chaimasu wa. |
| 係長： | お前の発表、大成功やったんちゃう？ |
| 平社員： | 残念ながら、ちゃいますわ。 |
| BOSS: | Your presentation was a big hit, right? |
| EMPLOYEE: | No, unfortunately not. |
Yatta is the Kansai version of datta だった.
(b) In the first line of the above dialogue and in the following examples, chau is used in a manner similar to a sentence-ending particle meaning "isn't that right?" The standard equivalent is janai? じやない？ or sō ja nai? そうじやない？
Are, Nozomi chau?
あれ、望ちゃう？
Isn't that Nozomi?
Mō ē chau?
もうええちゃう？
That's enough already, don't you think?
Sore de jūbun yattan chau?
それで十分やったんちゃう？
That was good enough, right?
4. ē ええ good, that's enough
Ē replaces ii いい, which usually means "good," but can mean "no" or "that's enough" or just about anything else depending on the context. Although usually written as ē ええ, the pronunciation is actually between ē and ei. Ē can be used anytime ii is used in standard Japanese. It is used extensively in Kansai and throughout much of the southern half of Honshu. But don't confuse this with the ē that means "yes," which is used throughout Japan.
Ano kuruma, kakko ē nā.
あの車、かっこええなあ。
That's a pretty car.
Kakko かっこ is a contraction of kakkō 格好, which means "appearance" or "shape," and is often used with ē to denote something that looks good, or with warui or waru for something ugly. By changing the order, however, we get the word ēkakkoshii ええ格好しい, which means pretentious, something very much disliked in Kansai.
Like ii, ē preceding a noun is a very common pattern.
Ē tenki ya nā.
ええ天気やなあ。
Nice weather, isn't it.
Ē