Tags: Language.
The Yamagata dialect (山形弁 Yamagata-ben) is the local dialect spoken in Yamagata Prefecture Japan. It is a form of Tōhoku-ben and can itself be broken down into sub-regional branches that vary from area to area within Yamagata.Yamagata-ben was used for comic effect in the Japanese film Swing Girls 2004 to suggest that the film was set in a rural ‘backward’ location. However some Yamagata residents feel that the film used the dialect in an unnatural and patronising way.