The dialects of Kyushu are generally grouped together under the umbrella term Kyushu-ben, but form three somewhat distinctive branches called Hichiku, Hōnichi and Satsugū. These may also be referred to as the Eastern, Western and Southern Kyushu dialects, owing to their geographical distribution. The Kyushu dialects are commonly perceived as being virile due to stereotypes such as that of "the sons of Kyushu" (九州男児, Kyūshū danji), which characterizes Kyushu men as being strong, rough and heavy drinkers.
The Kyushu dialects have sometimes been classified as a subbranch of Western Japanese, as they share a number of features in common with other Western dialects. Comparatively, however, Kyushu dialects tend to retain features now strongly in regression in Western Japanese, such as the palatalized variation of /e/ leading to such pronunciations as [mit͡ɕe] for mite "look" and [ɕenɕei] for sensei, or the reduction of /re/ to /i/ leading to oi for ore "I" and soi for sore "that". They also retain some verbal contructions. For example, most dialects still make use of the verb ending -yuru rather than -eru, giving miyuru for mieru "to be seen". This also correlates with a difference in the passive and potential verb endings, which are -(ra)ruru (or -(ra)ruu in some areas) instead of -(ra)reru.
Contrastively, the Kyushu dialects also feature a number of local innovations. For example, Western and Southern dialects, as well as some Eastern dialects, favour the adjective ending -ka instead of -i, as in yoka "good" rather than ii (< yoi). The latter also strongly favour the use of the particle -to for nominalization instead of -no. And most Kyushu dialects generally make use of both ga and no as possessive particles, with the former expressing a higher degree of familiarity to the speaker, and the latter of politeness. Some vocabulary differences are also noticeable, such as the use of the verbs kibaru or gamadasu "to do one's best" instead of ganbaru, the word nagashi for "rainy season" instead of tsuyu or baiu, or variations of the adjective komaka (e.g. komanka, komai, komee, etc.) for "small" instead of chiisai.