Japanese Pronunciation Series #6 - Japanese Pitch Accent
Japanese Pronunciation Series #6 - Japanese Pitch Accent
What is Pitch Accent?
Pitch accent refers to a characteristic of language where every syllable can be pronounced with a high or low pitch. Pitch accent is considered different from the concepts of stress and tone that appear in English and Chinese, respectively.
English: Stress Chinese: Tones Japanese: Pitch
Pitch in the Japanese Language
Pitch accent varies widely from region to region in Japan. As Japan started to have contact with other countries in the Meiji period, they decided that a âstandard languageâ needed to be established. The Japanese spoken in Tokyo is now known as âstandard Japanese,â or hyĆjun-go (æšæșèȘ) in Japanese. The examples of pitch accent provided below are based on âstandard Japanese.â
About Pitch Accent
Some assert that English has over 30,000 syllabic sounds. In contrast, Japanese has only 111 (112, according to some linguists). In other words, there are very few âsoundsâ in Japanese, and as a result, there are many homophones (i.e., words that are spelled the same but have different meanings). These homophones can be confusing. In written language, it is easy to tell the difference between homophones if kanji characters are used. In speech, we use pitch accent in order to differentiate between homophones to avoid misunderstandings.
Example:
Characteristics of Japanese Pitch Accent
â There are only two levels of pitch - high and low.
â Pitch does not change in the middle of a syllable. In Chinese, there are tones that go from low to high or high to low in the middle of a syllable. This does not occur in Japanese.
â First and second syllables cannot be the same pitch. If the first syllable is high, then the second one must be low. If the first syllable is low, then the second one must be high.
Example:
In this example, the pitch changes from the first syllable to the second. These two syllables cannot be the same pitch.
â We cannot use high pitch more than once in the same word. In other words, once the pitch falls, it cannot go back up again.
For Example: The pronunciation [ miâtsuâbishi ]ăcannot beă[ miâtsuâbiâshi ], [ miâtsuâbiâshi ], or [ miâtsubiâshi ].
â The pitch of a word can change depending on what comes after it.
For Example: [ kaânada ]Â Â Â Â [ ka â nadajin ] Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â (Canada)Â Â Â Â Â Â (Canadian person)
Why we should learn about Pitch Accent
So why is it important to learn about pitch accent in Japanese? Here are a couple of important reasons.
Reason #1: To be able to tell the difference between homophones
For Example:
Reason #2: To be able to tell where a word starts
For Example: The word niwatori (ă«ăăšă) could mean âchickenâ or âtwo birds.â
[ niâ watori ] ïŒ âchickenâ [ niâ wa ] ïŒ âtwoâ (counter for birds) [ toâ ri ] ïŒ âbirdâ
If it is pronounced as [ niâ wa toâ ri] the listener knows that this is two words, since once the pitch falls it never goes up in the same word.
On the other hand, the pronunciation [ niâ watori ] indicates that it is one word. If tori were a separate word, the pitch of to and ri would be different because first and second syllables cannot be the same pitch.
