The Touhoku dialect is known as touhokuben and zuzuben. If you're in Sendai, the largest city in north-east Japan, they may refer to it as Sendaiben. In all of these cases, "ben" means dialect.

These days, you're not likely to hear the touhoku dialect being used as it is considered country slang. If you are a gaijin and use this dialect in a joking manner, you will no doubt impress any Japanese to whom you are speaking.

Several phrases in touhoku dialect:

  • omoshee go da - omoshiroi, which means 'interesting, funny'
  • omosheegatta - omoshirokatta, past tense of omoshiroi.
  • obandesu - Good evening, konbanwa
  • obandegozaimasu - A more formal way of saying good evening
  • beko - ushi, meaning cow.
  • igatta igatta - yokatta, it was good.
  • un da un da - sou desu ne, agreement to what the speaker is saying

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