Abstract
“Mattari, ” a dialectic term for describing food properties, was clarified by a questionnaire and interviews in the area around Kyoto. The questionnaire had three questions, the first being when and how the term had come to be known. The answers revealed that young people learned it through mass media as a vogue-word, and that middle-aged and elderly people learned it from their parents and/or grandparents. Second, the intensity of “mattari” for 52 kinds of food was asked, before the data were analyzed by quantification method III. Their item category values show that the scaling of “mattari” when used by young group was sharply formed, while the scaling of “mattari” when used by middle-aged and elderly group was more vague. Third, the respondents were asked whether 53 kinds of terms for describing food properties were close to “mattari” or not. “Mild” and “spreading slowly in the mouth” were close to “mattari” in all the 3 groups questioned : the young, middle-aged and elderly. The term was also close to “sticky” and “rich” for the young, and “delicious” for the elderly. Interviews with 10 persons who had worked in traditional food shops and restaurants in Kyoto for several generations verified the results of the questionnaire.
