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I have two questions regarding the style of the classic story 風の又三郎 by 宮沢賢治.
([Full text available on
青空文庫](http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000081/files/462_15405.html))

1) Most of the characters use a dialect which I believe is 岩手弁, which comes
from the author's home region. Is this dialogue still spoken today in much the
same form, or has it aged/evolved over several centuries? Also, would this
dialogue in that era (around 1930s) be spoken by country people, city people,
or both?

2) The book is written with a surprising level of politeness I haven't seen
before. For example, most descriptive text uses 敬語, even to the extent where
ですます調 is used mid-sentence (i.e. ...行きますと...). Also, the teacher's speech when
speaking to children is overly polite (ex: ”静かにするのです" instead of ”静かにしなさい").
Is there a cultural/historical/regional reason for this extra politeness?
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2016-10-17T16:23:14.877
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2016-10-18T10:50:48.107
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politeness dialects literature
Dialogue and politeness level in 風の又三郎
1) I'm not good at 東北弁 at all, but like any other dialects in Japan, 東北弁 is
rather quickly disappearing. I believe only old people in rural areas of
Tohoku region can speak fluent 東北弁 today. Even in this novel written more than
80 years ago, 東北弁 is used as a role-language that represents country kids (先生
uses standard Japanese).

2) Fairy tales and folklore (e.g., 桃太郎, シンデレラ) are usually conveyed in this
style. 宮沢賢治 is more like a 童話作家 than a 小説家, so I think this writing style was
natural to him. People may intentionally choose this writing style when they
write an allegorical story or children's story (for example, see
[蜘蛛の糸](http://www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000879/files/92_14545.html) by 芥川龍之介).
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2016-10-18T06:27:32.747
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I did not read that book, so I will assume that you are correct with your
assumption that it is Iwate-ben.

I live in Touhoku in a region very close to Iwate and I must say that the
dialects are nearly non existent in the big cities. But my wife's
grandparents, who were raised around the 1930 in a very rural place and
although I have been very fluent in Japanese for many years, I can absolutely
not communicate with them at all. Even most native Japanese cannot communicate
with them. My point is, the language has been evolving insanely quickly, and
80 years is a very long time ago.

As for 静かにするのです, it seems about right. Even though they used です instead of だ
it still feels quite bossy.
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2016-10-18T06:33:41.533
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answer