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 "standard language" needed to
be established. The Japanese spoken in Tokyo is now known as "standard Japanese," or
hyōjun-go (標準語) in Japanese. The examples of pitch accent provided below are based on
"standard Japanese."
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 "sounds" 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:
Romaji
Kanji
Pronunciation
Meaning
赤
[ a ↓ ka ]
"red"
AKA
垢
[ a ↑ ka ]
"filth"
Characteristics of Japanese Pitch Accent
■ There are only two levels of pitch - high and low.
■ 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.
■ 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:
Romaji
Kanji
Pronunciation
Meaning
雨
[ a ↓ me ]
"rain"
AME
飴
[ a ↑ me ]
"candy"
In this example, the pitch changes from the first syllable to the second. These two syllables
cannot be the same pitch.
■ 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 [ mi↑tsu↓bishi ] cannot be [ mi↑tsu↓bi↑shi ],
[ mi↓tsu↑bi↓shi ], or [ mi↓tsubi↑shi ].
■ The pitch of a word can change depending on what comes after it.
For Example: [ ka↓nada ]
[ ka ↑ nadajin ]
(Canada)
(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:
Romaji
Kanji
Pronunciation
Meaning
箸
[ ha ↓ shi ]
"chopsticks"
HASHI
橋
[ ha ↑ shi ]
"bridge"
Reason #2: To be able to tell where a word starts
For Example: The word niwatori (にわとり) could mean "chicken" or "two birds."
[ ni↑ watori ] ＝ "chicken"
[ ni↓ wa ] ＝ "two" (counter for birds) [ to↑ ri ] ＝ "bird"
If it is pronounced as [ ni↓ wa to↑ 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 [ ni↑ 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.