What is the Japanese dialect spoken by Taro, Makoto and Miyako in Ghost Hound? It doesn't sound like Kansai Ben or the standard Tokyo dialect.
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I just listened to a quick clip of the dialogue. It's some dialect from the Kyūshū region. That's all I can tell, but a native speaker could probably pinpoint it more accurately. – Logan M Sep 16 '13 at 18:05
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I'm not familiar with Japanese dialectology, so all I can really tell is that (as Logan M noted) it's a dialect from Kyushu or thereabouts. Luckily, the internet seems to know more.
- This Chiebukuro entry, presumably written by a native speaker, thinks that it's Hakata dialect (spoken in Fukuoka, Kyushu).
- This interview with Chiaki KONAKA (who did the screenplay for Ghost Hound) notes that the story's setting is inspired by Fukuoka, and that effort was made to make the dialects portray the setting effectively.
- Some dude on Amazon Japan mentions how he can feel that the script has been modeled on the speech of the Fukuoka area.
None of this is really authoritative, but it is suggestive.
One possible source of confusion for us here is that it might be that people are just defaulting to describing the dialect in question as Fukuoka dialect since Fukuoka is the largest city in Kyushu (i.e. it's possible that the people I have linked above do not have direct experience distinguishing among varieties of Kyushu Japanese).
Aside - if you like the Kyushu dialect, you should watch Kids on the Slope. Lots of Kyushu Japanese in that one.
