This volume is the first full-fledged handbook of Japanese dialects in English. The study of Japanese dialects has a long tradition, and significant contributions have been made in many subfields of linguistics such as geolinguistics, sociolinguistics, philology, phonology, accentology, grammar, and lexicology. While Japanese dialectology is heavily influenced by the Western developments in the field, some original domestic achievements have also been made based on the meticulous fieldwork, the compilation of dialect dictionaries, and the painstaking mapping of dialect features in a large number of dialect atlases. However, most publications of Japanese dialect studies have been in Japanese, allowing only a handful of foreign specialists to take full advantage of the achievements in Japanese dialectology. This volume fills this gap making the Japanese dialect data and their analyses accessible to a wider audience and also informing dialectology specialists as well as sociolinguists in general of the methods of Japanese dialectology and its achievements to date. This volume deals with the mainland dialects (including the Hachijo dialect). Because of the recent trend of considering Ryukyuan languages as sister languages, rather than dialects, of Japanese, a separate handbook is dedicated to them in this series.

Chapter titles

Introduction
Part I: Overview of Japanese Dialectology
Chapter 1: History of dialectology in Japan (Nobuko Kibe, NINJAL; Tetsuo Nitta, Kanazawa University; and Kan Sasaki, Sapporo Gakuin University)
Chapter 2: The classification and division of Japanese dialects (Seiya Abe, Gakushuin University
Chapter 3: Dialect formation of Japanese; Evaluating Yanagita's theory of peripheral distribution of dialectal form (Takashi Kobayashi, Tohoku University)
Chapter 4: Geolinguistics of Japanese (Takuichiro Onishi, NINJAL)
Part II: Topics in Japanese Dialectology
Chapter 5: Sound variations in the mainland Japanese dialects (Masao Aizawa, NINJAL)
Chapter 6: VOT in Japanese dialects (Mieko Takada, Aichi Gakuin University)
Chapter 7: Accent in Japanese dialects (Zendo Uwano, NINJAL)
Chapter 8: Intonation in Japanese dialects (Yosuke Igarashi, Hiroshima University)
Chapter 9: Vocabulary in Japanese dialects (Norio Yoshida, Chugoku Gakuen University)
Chapter 10: Mimetics in Japanese dialects (Koko Takeda, NlNJAL)
Chapter 11: Sino-Japanese words in Japanese dialects (Miyuki Sawamura, Wakayama University)
Chapter 12: Case and related phenomena in Japanese dialects (Kan Sasaki, Sapporo Gakuin University)
Chapter 13: Grammaticalization of aspect and tense in Japanese dialects (Mayumi Kudo, Osaka University)
Chapter 14: Potential expressions in Japanese dialects (Katsumi Shibuya, Osaka University)
Chapter 15: Verbs of giving in Japanese dialects (Mizuho Hidaka, Kansai University; and Yukiko Ueda, Akita University)
Chapter 16: Honorifics and related expressions in Kansai dialects (Chie Takagi, Osaka University)
Chapter 17: Adjectival predications in Japanese dialects (Hiromi Yakame, Konan University)
Chapter 18: Nominalization particles in Japanese dialects (Masayoshi Shibatani, Rice University; and Tetsuo Nitta, Kanazawa University)
Part III: Sketch Grammars of Japanese Dialects
Chapter 19: Hokkaido dialect (Yoshiyuki Asahi, NINJAL)
Chapter 20: Akita dialect (Mizuho Hidaka, Kansai University, and Yukiko Ueda, Akita University)
Chapter 21: Iwate dialect (Nobuhiro Tanaka, Iwate Prefectural University at Miyako)
Chapter 22: Ibaraki dialect (Kan Sasaki, Sapporo Gakuin University)
Chapter 23: Tokyo dialect (Harumi Mitsui, NINJAL)
Chapter 24: Toyama dialect (Izumi Konishi, Hiroshima University; and Masaru Inoue, Reitaku University)
Chapter 25: Gifu dialect (Toshihiro Yamada, Gifu University)
Chapter 26: Shiramine dialect (Ishikawa) (Tetsuo Nitta, Kanazawa University)
Chapter 27: Kyoto dialect (Yukihiko Nakai, Kobe City University of Foreign Studies)
Chapter 28: Kagawa dialect (Yukihiko Nakai, Kobe City University of Foreign Studies)
Chapter 29: Kochi dialect (Makoto Kuno, Kochi University, Professor Emeritus)
Chapter 30: Izumo dialect (Shimane) (Mitsuhiko Arimoto, Yamaguchi University)
Chapter 31: Fukuoka dialect (Tomoyuki Kubo, Kyushu University)
Chapter 32: Nagasaki dialect (Itaru Sakaguchi, Kumamoto University)
Chapter 33: Kagoshima dialect (Nobuko Kibe, NINJAL)
Chapter 34: Hachijo dialect (Akihiro Kaneda, Chiba University)