The use of Kansai-ben is closely associated with comedy throughout most of non-Kansai Japan. This is due both to the prevalence of comedians from Osaka in Japanese media as compared to people from other cities and regions, and to the willingness of Osaka comedians to use their own dialect while on stage. Because of this association, speakers of Kansai-ben are often viewed as being more humorous or more witty than the average Tokyoite. Tokyo people even occasionally imitate Kansai-ben to provoke laughter or inject humor into a situation.
Historically, nearly every village in the Kansai area had a style of speech which differed somewhat from its neighbors; it was once possible for well-travelled people to identify the particular area from which a speaker came. Due to the increasing influence of the Tokyo and Kanto dialects over the last four hundred years, the intraregional differences have been declining across all of Kansai. However, citizens of each major city and prefecture still take some pride in their particular dialectical variations, and this has preserved a number of differences between each area in the region.
The primary dialects of Kansai-ben can be roughly divided into cities. There is Osaka-ben, the most famous and well known. Following it are Kyoto-ben, known for its indirectness and politeness, and Kobe-ben known for its -tō/-ton verb conjugation. Others include Nara-ben, Wakayama-ben, Shiga-ben, Mie-ben, and Hyogo-ben.
Dropping of the final -i of adjectives, which is also seen in Classical Japanese, are often done in casual Kansai-ben speech while not so often in Standard Japanese. In their place the last vowel is stretched out for a second mora, sometimes with a tonal change for emphasis. By this process omoroi "interesting, funny" becomes omoroo, and atsui "hot" becomes atsuu. This is also seen in Tokyo-ben, which is the basis of Standard Japanese.
The Standard Japanese copula da is replaced by the Kansai-ben copula ya. The inflected forms maintain this difference, giving yaro for darō, yakara for dakara. It should be noted that ya is only used informally, and desu is used for the polite copula. However informality is more prevalent in all Kansai-ben speech than it is in the standard language.
Long vowels in inflections of Standard Japanese are typically shortened in Kansai-ben. This is particularly noticeable in the volitional conjugation of verbs. For instance, ikō "let's go" is shorter in Kansai-ben as iko; shō, the contracted form of shiyō "let's do" in Standard Japanese, is simply sho in Kansai-ben. The common phrase of agreement, sō da "that's it", is said so ya in Kansai-ben.
Oddly, in direct opposition to the shortening of long vowels in inflections, Kansai-ben shows a recurring tendency to lengthen vowels at the end of monomoraic nouns. Common examples are kii for ki "tree", and too for to "door".
A frequent occurrence in Kansai-ben is the use of h in place of s in suffices and inflections. Some palatalization of s is apparent in most Kansai speakers, but it seems to have progressed further in morphological suffices than in core vocabulary. This process has produced the Kansai -han for Standard -san, -mahen for -masen, and -mahyo for -mashō, among other examples. In casual speech, the negative verb ending -nai is often replaced with further abbreviated -hen, as in ikahen "not going" instead of the standard ikanai.
The geminated consonants found in Standard Japanese verbal inflections are usually replaced with long vowels in Kansai-ben. Thus, for the verb iu "to say", its past tense in Standard Japanese itta "said" becomes yūta in Kansai-ben. This particular verb is a dead giveaway of a native Kansai-ben speaker, as most will unconciously say yūte instead of itte even when well practiced at speaking in Standard Japanese. Other examples of geminate replacement are waratta "laughed" becoming warōta, and moratta "received" becoming morōta or even mōta.
Another difference in sentence final particles which strikes the ear of the Tokyo-ben speaker is the nen particle. This is much the same as the Standard Japanese noda (noda > noya > neya >nen).
The emphatic particles zo and ze heard so often in the mouths of Tokyo men are nowhere to be heard in the Kansai region. Instead, the particle de is used, especially in the phrase akan de, equivalent to Tokyo's dame da. It probably arose from the same variation which gave rise to the Western Japan replacement of z- with d- in words such as denden for zenzen "never, not at all". However, despite the similarity with ze, the Kansai de does not carry nearly as heavy or rude a connotation, influenced by the lesser stress on formality and distance in the Kansai region.
Another widely recognized Kansai term is aho. Basically equivalent to the Standard baka "idiot, fool", aho is both a term of reproach and a term of endearment to the Kansai speaker. Where a Tokyo citizen would almost certainly object to being called baka, being called aho by a Kansai person is not necessarily much of an insult. Being called baka by a Kansai speaker is however a much more severe criticism than it would be by a Tokyo speaker.
The idea behind mōkarimakka is that supposedly Osakans are all engaged in some sort of mercantile activity, since Osaka was historically the center of the merchant culture throughout the Edo era and earlier. Certainly the phrase developed among shopkeepers, and today can be used to greet a business proprietor in a friendly and familiar way, but it was probably never a universal greeting and certainly is not today. It can however be used in a joking manner with any Osakan, and will at least result in a smile and a few laughs, along with the mā, bochi bochi denna response.
The latter phrase is also specific to Osaka, in particular the term bochi bochi. This means essentially "so-so", i.e. getting better little by little or not getting any worse. Unlike mōkarimakka, bochi bochi is used in many situations to indicate gradual improvement or lack of negative change. For the foreigner used to the repetitive question "Can you really understand Japanese?", responding with bochi bochi ya nā is sure to astound and amuse listeners. Also, bochi bochi can be used in place of the Standard Japanese soro soro, for instance bochi bochi iko ka "It's about time to be going".
Another Osaka-specific term is gottsui which can be equivalent to the Standard totemo as well as the adjective ookii. Used for emphasis, this has slowly been replaced by mutcha or metcha which is more widespread throughout the Kansai area, but is still used conversationally in the Osaka region. The final -i can be dropped as with adjectives. Used by a speaker who habitually uses metcha or mutcha, this term implies a greater emphasis. It can also be used alone to mean a large size, as in gottsui ki "huge tree".
Based on -haru, the verb conjugation suffix -nahare can be used in place of the standard construction -nasai to indicate a request.
In Kyoto-ben, the honorific suffix -san which in Standard Japanese is reserved for people (and other animate objects in children's speech) can be used for well-known inanimate locations as well.
The negative verb endings -hen and -mahen found throughout the Kansai region are pronounced -hin and -mahin in Kyoto.