tohokuben

東北弁

Group of Japanese dialects spoken in the Tōhoku region. Usually considered the stereotypical "rural hick" accent.

This dialect family is infamous of its lax pronunciation of vowels (/i/ and /u/ in particular) and insertion of voiced stops and nasals between syllables. It also has a tendency to use be or -ppe in place of the standard darou and -rou.

Rural farmer characters often speak some variety of the Tohoku dialect family. Younger characters whose native dialect is Tohoku tend to be embarrassed of their accent. As such they will usually strive to pronounce words properly in Standard Japanese, with their native accent only slipping out in emotional moments or when they are speaking to family members (this tends to be a plot point).

Tohoku dialects are usually adapted into English as a heavily rural 'hillbilly redneck' accent.

Notable characters who speak Tohoku dialects