Japanese pitch accent (高低アクセント, kōtei akusento?) is a feature of the Japanese language which distinguishes words in most Japanese dialects, though the nature and location of the accent for a given word may vary between dialects. For instance, in standard Tokyo Japanese the word for "now" is, with the accent on the first mora (or equivalently, with a downstep in pitch between the first and second morae), but in the Kansai dialect it is . A final or is often devoiced to or after a downstep and an unvoiced consonant.
Read more about Japanese Pitch Accent: Correct Pitch Accent, Examples of Words Which Differ Only in Pitch, Other Dialects, Correspondences Between Dialects
Famous quotes containing the words japanese, pitch and/or accent:
“No human being can tell what the Russians are going to do next, and I think the Japanese actions will depend much on what Russia decides to do both in Europe and the Far East—especially in Europe.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“Though I have locked my gate on them
I pity all the young,
I know what devil’s trade they learn
From those they live among,
Their drink, their pitch and toss by day,
Their robbery by night....”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)
“I lost my ridiculous accent without acquiring another”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)