Could this be used for a generic trope covering regional accents and dialects in other languages, considered so thick or impenetrable or rustic that they evoke huge laughs or knowing grins from other speakers of "standard" forms of the same language? For instance, in British English, Geordie is thought of as being an impenetrable dialect having more in common with Nordic languages; Birmingham is thought to be thick and clumsy and a "comic" accent; and Norfolk is the Ur-Example for rustic rural dialect. American English points to the Deep South for its version of this trope; Germans seem to find Dusseldorf is their equivalent of Birmingham; and if the Asterix books are anything to go by, sophisticated Parisians snigger at the Languedoc, a thick southern accent taking a lot of its pronunciation cues from Spanish.
I'd just like to say I totally agree with the Kansai = New York accent content in the article. I also firmly DISAGREE with the Kansai = Texas/Southern accent claim and I wish translators would stop doing that comparison. Something like the Kyushu dialects would be closer to a Texas accent and there are any number of dialects that are considered rustic "hick" accents, but Kansai is not one of them.
Why is this Kansai Regional Accent and not Kansai Dialect? Kansai-ben is much more than just an accent, and is in fact probably as different from Standard Japanese as American English is from British English.
Per TRS
, this was merged with UsefulNotes.Japanese Dialects and disambiguated.
Patiently awaiting the release of Paper Luigi and the Marvelous Compass.