Japanese dialects

Japanese
Geographic distribution	Japan
Linguistic classification	Japonic Japanese
Subdivisions	Eastern Japanese Western Japanese Kyūshū Hachijō ?
Glottolog	japa1256  (Japanesic) nucl1643
Map of Japanese dialects (north of the heavy grey line)

The dialects (方言, hōgen) of the Japanese language fall into two primary clades, Eastern (including modern capital Tokyo) and Western (including old capital Kyoto), with the dialects of Kyushu and Hachijō Island often distinguished as additional branches, the latter perhaps the most divergent of all. The Ryukyuan languages of Okinawa Prefecture and the southern islands of Kagoshima Prefecture form a separate branch of the Japonic family, and are not Japanese dialects, although they are sometimes referred to as such.