Dialect card

A dialect card (Japanese: 方言札^?, Hepburn: hōgen fuda) was a system of punishment used in Japanese regional schools in the post-Meiji period to promote standard speech. It was modelled after similar policies in Europe, particularly the French Vergonha.

During the Edo Period under the Tokugawa shogunate most Japanese people could not travel outside of their home domain. As a result, regional Japanese dialects were relatively isolated and became increasingly distinct. After the Meiji Restoration the government, in emulation of the European nation states, sought to create a standard Japanese speech. A Tokyo dialect, specifically that of the upper-class Yamanote area became the model for Standard Japanese, widely used in schools, publishing, and radio broadcasting. By the early twentieth century, the Ministry of Education and other authorities instituted various policies to reduce or suppress regional differences.

The use of Hogen fuda was most prominent in the Tohoku, Kyushu and Ryukyu Islands (including Okinawa) as they are geographically and linguistically most distant from the Tokyo dialect. The issue is most prominent in regard to Ryukyuan languages as there are groups, such as the Kariyushi Club, which advocate the languages to be officially recognised by the Japanese government as a language (and Ryukyu as a nation). While many mainland regional "dialects" in Japanese are also unintelligible and at least the Tsugaru "dialect" in north is considered just as distinct as Ryukyuan, there is no movement in mainland Japan for regional dialects to be recognised as languages.

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