I thought "karau" and "hawaku" were standard Japanese! 3 things Familiar in the Hakata dialect

There are many different dialects in Fukuoka and Hakata . Some are easy to understand, like "XXXXbai" and "XXXXttai," while others are incomprehensible to people from other prefectures, and some are used by locals without realizing they are dialects. This time, we will introduce Familiar dialects in Fukuoka and Hakata .

Familiar Fukuoka

2020.04.02 (Last updated: 2025.11.22)

Yamada-Zenjido | 2020.04.02 (Last updated: 2025.11.22)

Yamada-Zenjido

Table of contents of this article

1. When I unconsciously say "hawaku" or "karau" to people from other prefectures, they respond with a strange feeling.

I thought "karau" and "hawaku" were standard Japanese! 3 things Familiar in the Hakata dialect

The words "hawaku" and "karau", which are commonly used in Kyushu, are also genuine dialect words.

In standard Japanese, "hawaku" means "haku" and "karau" means "to carry," but for people from Kyushu, these terms may sound strange.

Others examples of dialect words that people in Kyushu consider to be standard Japanese include "naosu" (to clean up) and "harakaku" (to get angry).

2. When I hear Kushida Shrine, I reenact the Torimon commercial.

When you hear Kushida Shrine, Familiar often hear the Fukuoka dialect recreating the Torimon commercial.

When talking about having visited Kushida Shrine, a mini-comedy skit often breaks out, with people asking, "Did you ask Kushida-san for help?" "That's a secret!" "Kosuka!"

For people in Hakata, it feels like it's started again, but people from other prefectures don't really understand what it means.

This is a recreation of a commercial for Meigetsudo's Hakata Torimon snack, and depicts an exchange that takes place in a scene where Hakata -born manga artist Hasegawa Hosei visits Kushida Shrine in Hakata with his manga characters.

The final line, "Kosukaa!", means "unfair" and is commonly used in Kyushu.

By the way, it is thought that the "ba" in "Namba (= what)" is a variation of "〇〇 o ba."

Expressions such as "Excuse me" are archaic expressions that are occasionally used, but it seems that this phrase remains strong in Hakata even today.

3. I was shocked to learn that "rigou" is a dialect word.

I was shocked to learn that "riai"is a dialect word in Fukuoka.

The word "riago" is used when cars pass each other on a narrow road.

This expression is understood in the western part of Japan, such as Kyushu, but becomes less understood the further east you go.

Originally, it was a railroad term used when trains were passing each other, but it came to be used to describe cars as well, and took root mainly in the Kyushu region to mean "cars passing each other on a narrow road."

This is a rare pattern in which a word has taken root like a dialect, changing its meaning slightly from its original use.

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However, if you try to explore the roots and meanings of dialects that you use without really thinking about them, you can make some interesting discoveries.

And there may be some words that you use regularly, thinking they are standard Japanese, that are actually dialect words.