Most notably, the distinction and irregular conjugation pattern of the shimo nidan or "lower bigrade" ending -(y)uru, which corresponds to standard Japanese -eru, is still preserved in the dialect.
Typically, context will provide the meaning, though temporal adverbs such as 今日 kyu "today", 今 inma "now" or 明日 ashita "tomorrow" may be used for clarification.
This applies to most areas of Kagoshima with some exceptions: namely, the peripheral islands, such as Ōsumi (including Tanegashima) and Koshikijima, do not reduce the endings.
When used predicatively, verbs in their imperfective form are commonly appended particles such as ど do and が ga in order to add more emphasis to the statement being said.
When used attributively, the verb is simply followed directly by the word or phrase it modifies: 書っ人 kaʔ futo (or kaffuto) "a person who writes".
For example, 稼ぐ kasegu "labour" becomes kaseida, which is then coalesced as kaseda, whereas 繋ぐ tsunagu "tie" becomes tsunouda, which reduces to the form tsunoda.
The same phenomenon can be observed with the -ku ending: while most verbs would become -ita, such as 書く kaku "write" → kaita → kete, some also become -uta, such as 退く noku "step aside" → nouta → nota.
This can be achieved by simply replacing the final -u in the underlying plain form with -a, and then tagging on the negative suffix: kaku → kakan "not write", wakaru → wakaran "not understand", etc.
For example, the underlying verb 見ゆる miyuru becomes 見えん mien "not be seen", and 投ぐる naguru becomes 投げん nagen "not give up".
The first line of the 11th century classical novel The Tale of Genji provides an example of its use: "(...) ito yamugoto-naki kifa-ni-fa ara-nu ga (...)", translated as "though (she) is not quite of a nobel birth".
[6] Negative commands or orders are informally marked by tagging on the suffix -na to the plain form: 行く iku "to go" → 行っな inna, iʔna (most regions), 行くな ikuna (Tanegashima, Koshikijima), 行っだ idda (Yakushima) "don't go".
Thus, the underlying verb 食もる tamoru "eat" would become 食もい tamoi (< tamori), instead of just reducing to the root as in standard Japanese.
There may, however, be some irregularity when deriving nouns or compounds, as verbs ending with the plain stems -u and -ru may become a moraic obstruent as opposed to the vowel /i/.
The verbs やる yaru, やす yasu and やんす yansu, for instance, act as honorific auxiliaries and are frequently used in imperative constructions as in 食もいやんせ tamoi-yanse "please eat" or 遊っびゃんせ asubbyanse "please play" (also 遊っやんせ asuʔ-yanse), which would be the equivalent of 食べなさい tabenasai and 遊びなさい asobinasai in standard Japanese.
Similarly, the verbs もす mosu (or もうす mōsu in Tanegashima) and もんす monsu, sometimes written as 申す and 申んす,[12] will add a degree of politeness akin to the standard Japanese ending ます -masu.
Thus, for 食もる tamoru "eat" and 読む nomu "drink", the polite forms would be 食もいもす tamoi-mosu and 飲んもす non-mosu respectively.
For example, the underlying verb 会う au "meet" would become あうて aute, which is then coalesced to the form おて ote.
The te form is then combined and merged with the verb, becoming ちょる -choru or in some areas とる -toru, which have ぢょる (じょる) -joru and どる doru as their respective voiced counterparts.
[14] Otherwise, the underlying stem will usually be doubled and subsequently glided in order to avoid a hiatus, resulting in the form 書っきゃい kakkyai for "please write".
[12] This form is also noticeably used in conjunction with the verb ごたっ gotaʔ (ごたる gotaru), or its variants ごあっ goaʔ and ごちゃっ gochaʔ,[1] to indicate desire or express a wish to do something.
For example, the verb 食う kuu "to eat" shown in the table becomes 食えば kueba like in standard Japanese, which is then contracted to 食ぇば kweba.