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FAQ - Japanese Pitch Accent | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5163 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes  Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 1 of 26 04 April 2011 at 1:43am | IP Logged | |||||
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In this post, I hope to provide an overview of the Japanese pitch accent. It's a work in progress. Please PM
if you have suggestions on how the information can be better presented. Overview of Japanese Pitch Accent Standard Japanese exhibits pitch accent (1). In a pitch accent system, as opposed to stress systems like that of English, every mora (2) is pronounced in either a high (H) or low (L) pitch (3). When a mora is marked for pitch, it will be followed by a downfall from H to L. Not all words are marked for pitch (in fact, maybe up to 80% aren't), but all morae will be realized as H or L. There can only be one downfall per word. When a word is not marked for pitch -- ie. has no downfall --, it follows a basic LH pattern: the first mora is low and all subsequent morae are high until a downfall is met or the end of the phrase is reached (4). Ex.: niHONGO HA (LHHHH) When a word contains a downfall, the H mora will be followed by L morae. Ex.: JIsho ga (HLL) Nouns A noun's pitch is immuable. However, when two words form a compound, pitch often changes. Although where the pitch of the new compound will fall is unpredictable, it often falls on the first mora of the second word (5). Ex.: Umi + hiRAki = uMIBIraki but shiMA + kuni = shiMAguni The situation is different for adjectives and verbs, however, where the word's pitch can change depending on the morphemes appearing at the end of the word. Adjectives (To be completed) Verbs Unlike nouns, verbs' pitch is a lot more volatile. The proportion of verbs that carry pitch is also a lot higher. Where the pitch will fall will be determined by the verb suffix (such as -te, -tara, -nai, etc.), which usually carries 2 possible patterns: one for pitch verb, one for pitchless verbs. Let's take a few verbs as examples. pitchless -- suru, shiru (6) pitch verb -- shiRABEru, waKAru, taBEru (7) The -te suffix is a -3/0 suffix, meaning that on a pitch verb, the downfall will occur on the 3rd mora from the end, and that on a pitchless verb, there will be no downfall. As a result, we get: shiTE IRU, shiTTE IRU shiRAbete iru, waKAtte iru, TAbete iru Notes: (1) This is also true of most other Japanese dialects, though each typically differs in where the pitch occurs. (2) When explaining Japanese pitch, the notion of syllable is not accurate. Instead, we speak of "mora" (pl. morae). Essentially, the onset of double consonants (eg. -tte is Qte where Q is a mora as well) and ん are morae. Pitch will often ascend or descend before Q and N. (3) The notion of what is high or low is relative; one person's low may be higher than another person's high. Also, there tends to be a descending trend throughout the sentence, so that a high may eventually be lower than another high -- a mora's height is probably determined based on the few morae surrounding it. (4) The first two morae must have different pitch ([LH or [HL). This is not the case in other dialects. (5) I haven't been able to determine whether the fact that either or both of the words have pitch or not affects where the compound's pitch falls, but quick analysis seems to indicate that there is no consistency. (6) By default, shiru will be realised as shiRU, but for notation purposes, *shiRU would indicate a word with pitch on the last mora. (7) It's very common for 3-mora verbs to be LHL. Suggested links http://www.shiawase.co.uk/2009/05/13/pitch-accent-in-japanes e/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pitch_accent http://sp.cis.iwate-u.ac.jp/sp/lesson/j/doc/accent.html Edited by Arekkusu on 04 April 2011 at 4:24pm 9 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Lucky Charms Diglot Senior Member Japan lapacifica.net Joined 6731 days ago 752 posts - 1711 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: German, Spanish | Message 2 of 26 04 April 2011 at 5:46am | IP Logged | |||||
Thanks for this very useful and well-researched post!
To put it more simply, a mora = one kana (or something of equivalent length). For example, あ、か、しゃ、ー、ん、っ。 (Notice that しゃ is written with more than one kana, but this second one has no length and is just there as a modification of the first. That's why しゃ is one mora.) シャッター is 4 morae: sha-t-ta-a. Also, I didn't notice it mentioned explicity that once a pitch FALLS TO L, it can never go back up within the same word. Thus, you can have LHHH HLLL LHLL but never LHLH HLLH Edited by Lucky Charms on 04 April 2011 at 5:52am 7 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5163 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 3 of 26 04 April 2011 at 6:14am | IP Logged | |||||
Indeed, there can be but one downfall per word. Will fix. Thanks! It's a little trickier to explain what constitues one unit for this purpose. For instance, you sometimes get taBEru koto ha, or taBEru koTO ha. Some boundaries seem flexible. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4960 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 4 of 26 04 April 2011 at 1:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I have a book that explains the rules of pitch.
(it's in Polish), however I have not tried to learn it more seriously.... Maybe I should... 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Arekkusu Hexaglot Senior Member Canada bit.ly/qc_10_lec Joined 5163 days ago 3971 posts - 7747 votes Speaks: English, French*, GermanC1, Spanish, Japanese, Esperanto Studies: Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Estonian | Message 5 of 26 04 April 2011 at 4:04pm | IP Logged | |||||
If you have anything to contribute, I'm all ears! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| pfn123 Senior Member Australia Joined 4865 days ago 171 posts - 291 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 26 22 April 2011 at 12:15am | IP Logged | |||||
The textbooks by Jordan are very good for pitch. As well as the appendix, throughout both volumes of 'Beginning Japanese' and the romanised parts of 'Reading Japanese', all words are marked with pitch. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| clumsy Octoglot Senior Member Poland lang-8.com/6715Registered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4960 days ago 1116 posts - 1367 votes Speaks: Polish*, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Mandarin, Italian, Vietnamese Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swedish Studies: Danish, Dari, Kirundi | Message 8 of 26 22 April 2011 at 12:26am | IP Logged | |||||
Welll there are some rules written, but I would have to look at it more seriously. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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