Dialects in Yamagata Prefecture are roughly divided into two types: Inland and Shonai (coastal).
Yamagata-ben was used for comic effect in the Japanese film Swing Girls, 2004, to suggest that the film was set in a rural, 'backward' location.
However, some Yamagata residents feel that the film used the dialect in an unnatural and patronising way.
The dialect has also had Japan-wide exposure through Daniel Kahl, an American who has made a TV career as the gaijin talent who can speak fluent Yamagata-ben.
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