61081
In [this Wikipedia
article](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagoshima_dialect#Adjectives), in the
table of i-adjectives, I noticed that some of these adjectives were completely
different in the Kagoshima dialect compared to Standard Japanese in a way that
[these phonological
processes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kagoshima_dialect#Phonological_processes),
which affects all words used in the Kagoshima dialect, doesn't explain.

For example, 熱【あつ】い (hot) in Standard Japanese becomes ぬっか in the Kagoshima
dialect, and 恥【は】ずかしい (embarassed) in Standard Japanese becomes げんなか.

I understand that certain parts of Kyushu use -か instead of -い for the plain
and plain negative forms, but what I don't understand is the change in the
stem.

Can someone please tell me if there are specific 'irregular' i-adjectives
which undergo this or if this is typical of i-adjectives in the Kagoshima
dialect?

And if these are typical of Kagoshima adjectives, is there any way of predict
these changes?
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-23T10:13:28.950
61046
2020-01-06T07:12:31.653
2018-08-24T04:26:43.083
31041
31041
question
adjectives dialects i-adjectives irregularities-exceptions
I-Adjectives in the Kagoshima dialect
I don't know Kagoshima-ben at all, but I would be very surprised if ぬっか and
げんなか had any relationship to the standard Japanese adjectives rather than just
being different words, like うまい and おいしい.

It seems obvious that "waika" derives from "warui," but it's hard to imagine a
process that would transform "atsui -> nukii" or "kawaii -> muji". It's not a
stem change; it's a different word that fills the same niche. This happens all
the time in dialects in a way that isn't predictable. In other words, there is
often no good way to predict whether the box for a corresponding word in any
dialect or related language is going to be filled by a word with a standard
phonological change or a completely different word that may or may not have
any hereditary relationship to the word in the source language.

I'm hoping someone with familiarity with Kagoshima-ben can weigh in, however,
because this is really just a high-level linguistic observation.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-08-24T13:31:11.780
61081
2018-08-24T13:31:11.780
25413
61046
answer
I'm the one who wrote the majority of that article (some ~10 years ago!), so I
apologize if that section was a bit confusing when comparing the Kagoshima
forms to their standard Japanese counterparts.

As @mamster pointed out, for some of the entries in that table, the root word
used in Kagoshima is completely different from that used in standard Japanese.
One example, as you noted, was the word "hot". In Kagoshima, the word commonly
used for this is ぬっか _nukka_ "hot" (here, the root is _nuku-_ ), while in
standard Japanese, it's 暑い【あつい】 _atsui_. Standard Japanese does have the word
温い【ぬくい】 _nukui_ , which is from the same root as the Kagoshima example, but it
means "lukewarm" instead.

So it's not just that the Kagoshima dialect is distinctive for its sound
changes, but it also uses different words at times.

This is no different from, say, American English using the word "chips" while
British English uses "crisps"; both have the same meaning, but both are from
different words. British English does use the word "chips", but it represents
what Americans call French fries.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2020-01-05T04:05:06.640
73739
2020-01-06T07:12:31.653
2020-01-06T07:12:31.653
36493
36493
61046
answer