How d'ye do?
Sunday, June 26, 2011 at 10:06AM This search turned up very few hits. It seems people all over Japan utters the standard phrase “Hajimemashite” (初めまして) when meeting someone for the first time. That’s to be expected, I suppose. Why, even loquacious Americans can become rather stiff and uncomfortable around strangers. Dôzo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.
Aomori
In Hachinohe
はじめやんして
Hajime yanshite
(Possibly used throughout the former Morioka han, present-day Aomori and Iwate.)
Miyage
ど~も~
Dômô
In Nishimorokata-gun
はじめっじゃんそか
Hajimejjannsoka
(Standard Japanese: はじめてでしょうか)
In Sendai
おんや、まんずまんず
Onya, manzumanzu
(Can also be used when you receive something.)
Akita
あら、初めでだんしな
Ara, hajime dedannshina
はずめでだんす
Hazume dedansu
(~だんす, dedansu is Akita-ben for desu)
Southern Akita prefecture
あったことねぇやな、はじめてだよな
Atta koto nê yana. Hajimete dayona
(A casual way of saying to a friend’s friend, “We haven’t met, have we? How d’ye do?)
Fukushima
ちわ~
Chiwah
(Probably a contraction of konnichiwa)
Chûbu - Niigata
初だの~
Not sure if this is read “Hatsu da noh” or “Haji da noh”, but it’s probably the latter.
Sado-ben, spoken on Sado Island
どこさんさぁ
Dokosansâ
(Because it’s an island and everyone already knows everyone else rather than say, Nice to meet you, they ask where you’re from: どこの出身 -- Doko no shusshin?)
Aichi - Nagoya-ben
おみゃあさん、はじめてだなも
Omyâsan, hajimete danamo
(Apparently only older women use this phrase nowadays)
Kansai - Ôsaka
まいど
Maido!
Seems like they say this a lot in Ôsaka.
Shikoku - Tokushima
おうたことないんちゃう
Ôta koto nain chau
(Standard Japanese: 今までに会ったことはないでしょうか -- We haven’t met before, have we?)
Okinawa
はじみてぃ、やいびーんやーさい
Hajimichi, yaibîn yâsai
(A casual, and rather long way of saying hajimemashite)
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