Korean Phonology - Pitch Accent

Pitch Accent

Standard Seoul Korean uses pitch for only intonational purposes. However, several dialects outside Seoul retain the Middle Korean pitch accent system. In the dialect of Northern Gyeongsang, in southeastern South Korea, any syllable may have pitch accent in the form of a high tone, as may the two initial syllables. For example, in trisyllabic words, there are four possible tone patterns:

• 메누리 ('daughter-in-law')
• 어무이 ('mother')
• 원어민 ('native speaker')
• 오래비 ('elder brother')

For standard Korean, Kim and Duanmu have proposed an analysis of "tensed" vs. "laxed" consonants which associates word-initial laxed consonants with a low-to-high pitch contour, as opposed to a default high pitch after tensed or aspirated consonants.