The Hokkaido Dialect: A Standardising Dialect?

Sammanfattning: This thesis explores the standardisation process of the Hokkaido Dialect, a Japanese variety spoken on Japan’s northernmost island. This dialect, in turn, will be compared to the island of Okinawa and its regional equivalent Uchinaa-Yamatoguchi. These islands are parallel to each other as they share similar historical and political events. To investigate the standardisation process and to be able to compare it to Uchinaa-Yamatoguchi, a survey was conducted. The aim of the survey was to investigate the usage of Hokkaido Dialect and the users’ attitudes towards the dialect among three different generations of Dosankos, people from Hokkaido. This study concludes that the standardisation process has been long in the making but that it has slowed down over time. Furthermore, evidence shows that the young generation is more positive about the Hokkaido Dialect than past generations. Based on this, one can conclude that rather than standardising, the dialect is stabilising.