Matagi dialect

{{Short description|Japanese dialect}}

{{Infobox language

| name = Matagi dialect

| nativename = マタギ

| states = Japan

| region = Akita, Aomori

| speakers = 0

| date = 2021

| ref =

| familycolor = Altaic

| fam1 = Japonic

| fam2 = Japanese

| fam3 = Eastern Japanese

| fam4 = Tōhoku

| fam5 =

| isoexception = dialect

| glotto =

| glottorefname =

| image =

| imagecaption =

}}

The {{nihongo|Matagi dialect|マタギ言葉|Matagi kotoba}} is a functionally extinct Japanese sociolect spoken by the Matagi people of Akita Prefecture and other areas of the Tohoku region in northern Honshu, Japan. The Matagi dialect is sometimes called {{nihongo|Yama-kotoba|山言葉||{{literal translation|mountain words}}}}.

Matagi contains various unique words relating to hunting, tools, and rituals, many of which are of Ainu origin.{{cite book | last=Itabashi | first=Yoshizo | title=Advances in Religious and Cultural Studies | chapter=The Origin and History of the Extinct Contact-Induced Language, Matagi | publisher=IGI Global | date=2021 | isbn=978-1-7998-2959-1 | doi=10.4018/978-1-7998-2959-1.ch011 | page=245–264}}{{cite thesis | last=Versluis | first=Mirjam | title=The Matagi language and its relation to the Ainu and Japanese languages | type=MA thesis| publisher=Leiden University | date=2014 | url=https://studenttheses.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/29952 | access-date=2024-12-26}}

A dictionary of Matagi was published by Yoshizo Itabashi (板橋義三) in 2008.{{cite book | first=Yoshizo | last=Itabashi | title=マタギ語辞典 (A Dictionary of the Matagi Language) | publisher=現代図書 (Gendai Tosho) | publication-place=東京 | date=2008 | isbn=978-4-434-11304-8 | language=ja | url=https://www.gendaitosho.co.jp/isbn/isbn978-4-434-11304-8.html}}