Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 2 views

    Ultimate Japanese Pronunciation Guide #10 Perfecting Pitch Accent in Japanese

    Uploaded by

    Jahin Mia

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Ultimate Japanese Pronunciation Guide #10 Perfecting Pitch Accent in Japanese

    Uploaded by

    Jahin Mia
    2 views3 pages

    Original Title

    5_6160946237525721678

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    2 views3 pages

    Ultimate Japanese Pronunciation Guide #10 Perfecting Pitch Accent in Japanese

    Uploaded by

    Jahin Mia

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    You are on page 1of 3

    LESSON NOTES

    Ultimate Japanese Pronunciation


    Guide #10
    Perfecting Pitch Accent in
    Japanese

    CONTENTS
    2 Grammar

    # 10
    COPYRIGHT © 2016 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
    GRAMMAR

    T he Focus of T his Le sson is Pit ch Acce nt

    In this lesson, you're going to learn the basics of pitch accent in Japanese.

    What is Pit ch Acce nt ?

    Let’s have a look at the following words:

    たまご “egg”

    さかな “fish”

    Each syllable is pronounced with either a high or low pitch.

    The pitch accent for each word is determined when said in isolation. So, if you pronounce
    it in a different pitch, such as たまご (high-low-low), it sounds strange.

    Why do we need pitch accent in Japanese? Well, Japanese has many words with the same
    sounds but different meanings.

    Let’s look at the word ame → 雨 vs 飴.

    あめ means "rain" if it goes from high to low (雨)

    あめ means "candy" if it goes from low to high (飴)

    Also, we have hashi → 橋 vs 箸

    はし means "chopsticks” if it goes from high to low (箸).

    はし means "bridge” if it goes from low to high (橋).

    To differentiate between these words with the same sounds, we need pitch accent. This
    is a key characteristic of Japanese.

    Rule s

    There are two rules you need to know.

    JAPANESEPOD101.COM ULTIMATE JAPANESE PRONUNCIATION GUIDE #10 - PERFECTING PITCH ACCENT IN JAPANESE 2
    1. Pitch does not change in the middle of a syllable. That is to say, each syllable is
    pronounced with an either definite high or low pitch and doesn't fluctuate mid-
    syllable.

    Example:
    てんき “weather” (high-low-low)
    て is high and both ん and き are low.

    2. The first two syllables never have the same pitch as each other. In all words, the
    first and second syllables should be "high-low" or "low-high".

    Examples:
    あか ”red” (high-low)
    いぬ “dog” (low-high)
    げんき “fine” (high-low-low)
    ひらがな “hiragana” (low-high-high-low)

    Pract ice

    We're going to give you examples of some words with their pitch accent pattern. Try
    saying these words. You'll also review the sounds you’ve learned so far.

    あさ "morning"

    とり ”bird”

    さくら "cherry blossom"

    おとうと “younger brother”


    (*Be careful with the long vowel おー)

    きょうだい “siblings”
    (*Long vowel おー again. You need to change the tone from high to low in the middle of
    the long vowel.)

    JAPANESEPOD101.COM ULTIMATE JAPANESE PRONUNCIATION GUIDE #10 - PERFECTING PITCH ACCENT IN JAPANESE 3

    You might also like