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Japanese pitch accent

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Japanese pitch accent (高低アクセント, kōtei akusento) is a feature of the Japanese language
that distinguishes words by accenting particular morae in most Japanese dialects. The nature
and location of the accent for a given word may vary between dialects. For instance, the word for
"river" is [ka.waꜜ] in the Tokyo dialect, with the accent on the second mora, but in the Kansai
dialect it is [kaꜜ.wa]. A final [i] or [ɯ] is often devoiced to [i̥ ] or [ɯ̥] after a downstep and an
unvoiced consonant.

Contents

Standard Japanese

Normative pitch accent, essentially the pitch accent

of the Tokyo Yamanote dialect, is considered
essential in jobs such as broadcasting. The current
standards for pitch accent are presented in special
accent dictionaries for native speakers such as the
Shin Meikai Nihongo Akusento Jiten (新明解日本語ア
クセント辞典) and the NHK Nihongo Hatsuon
Akusento Jiten (NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典).
Newsreaders and other speech professionals are
required to follow these standards.
Japanese pitch-accent types
Keihan type (downstep plus tone)
Foreign learners of Japanese are often not taught to
Tokyo type (variable downstep)
pronounce the pitch accent, though it is included in N-kei (1-3 pattern) type (fixed downstep)
some noted texts, such as Japanese: The Spoken No accent
Language. Incorrect pitch accent is a strong intermediate (Tokyo–Keihan)
intermediate (Tokyo–none)
characteristic of a "foreign accent" in Japanese.

Scalar pitch

In standard Japanese, pitch accent has the following effect on words spoken in isolation:

1. If the accent is on the first mora, then the pitch starts high, drops suddenly on the second
mora, then levels out. The pitch may fall across both morae, or mostly on one or the other
(depending on the sequence of sounds)—that is, the first mora may end with a high falling
pitch, or the second may begin with a (low) falling pitch, but the first mora will be considered
accented regardless. The Japanese describe this as 頭高 atamadaka (literally, "head-high").

2. If the accent is on a mora other than the first or the last, then the pitch has an initial rise from
a low starting point, reaches a near-maximum at the accented mora, then drops suddenly on
any following morae. This accent is referred to as 中高 nakadaka ("middle-high").

3. If the word has an accent on the last mora, the pitch rises from a low start up to a high pitch
on the last mora. Words with this accent are indistinguishable from accentless words unless
followed by a particle such as が ga or に ni, on which the pitch drops. In Japanese this
accent is called 尾高 odaka ("tail-high").

4. If the word does not have an accent, the pitch rises from a low starting point on the first
mora or two, and then levels out in the middle of the speaker's range, without ever reaching
the high tone of an accented mora. In Japanese this accent is named "flat" (平板 heiban).

Note that accent rules apply to phonological words, which include any following particles. So the
sequence "hashi" spoken in isolation can be accented in two ways, either háshi (accent on the
first syllable, meaning 'chopsticks') or hashí (flat or accent on the second syllable, meaning
either 'edge' or 'bridge'), while "hashi" plus the subject-marker "ga" can be accented on the first
syllable or the second, or be flat/accentless: háshiga 'chopsticks', hashíga 'bridge', or hashiga
'edge'.

In poetry, a word such as 面白い omoshirói, which has the accent on the fourth mora ro, is
pronounced in five beats (morae). When initial in the phrase (and therefore starting out with a low
pitch), the pitch typically rises on the o, levels out at mid range on the moshi, peaks on the ro, and
then drops suddenly on the i, producing a falling tone on the roi.

In all cases but final accent, there is a general declination (gradual decline) of pitch across the
phrase. This, and the initial rise, are part of the prosody of the phrase, not lexical accent, and are
larger in scope than the phonological word. That is, within the overall pitch-contour of the phrase
there may be more than one phonological word, and thus potentially more than one accent.

Accent nuclei, defective morae and compound-induced accent shifts

An "accent nucleus"[1] (アクセント核 akusento kaku) or "accent locus" is another name for an
accented mora, a mora that carries a high tone and is followed by a mora with a low tone. In other
words, the precipitous drop in pitch occurs right at the boundary between the accent nucleus and
the mora immediately after it. Unaccented words (of the heiban type) do not have an accent
nucleus.

Unlike regular morae or ⾃⽴拍 (jiritsu haku "autonomous beats"), defective morae[1] or 特殊拍
(tokushu haku "special beats") cannot generally be accent nuclei. They historically arose through
various processes that limited their occurrences and prominence in terms of accent-carrying
capability. There are four types of them:

The 撥⾳ (hatsuon "moraic nasal", /N/, written in kana as ん or ン): derived from Middle Chinese
coda consonants (/n/ and /m/) (eg: /kaN/; /wemu/ > /eN/), but also arose naturally through onbin
(eg: /yomite/ > /yoNde/)

The 促⾳ (sokuon "moraic obstruent", /Q/, written in kana as っ or ッ): mainly arose through
onbin (eg: /katite/ > /kaQte/) or through consonant assimilation (eg: /setpuku/ > /seQpuku/)

The lengthening half of a long vowel (/R/, written in kana as あ/ア, い/イ, う/ウ, え/エ, お/オ or
ー): arose through consonant losses (eg: /kakasaN/ > /kaːsaN/), vowel shifts or vowel
assimilation during Late Middle Japanese (eg: /eu/ > /joR/; /joũ/ > /joR/)

The morphologically bound /i/ (/I/, written in kana as い/イ): derived from a Middle Chinese
offglide (eg: /taI/; /tuI/) or arose through onbin (eg: /kakisiro/ > /kaIsiro/)

While the accent patterns of single words are often unpredictable, those of compounds are often
rule-based. Take the suffix 市 (-shi), for example. When compounding with a place name to form
a city name, the accent nucleus of the resulting compound is usually immediately before 市 itself:

千葉 (Chiba): HꜜL > 千葉市 (Chiba-shi "Chiba City"): L-HꜜL /tibaꜜsi/

But if the mora before 市 is defective, the accent must shift one mora backward:

⽩⼭ (Hakusan): HꜜL-L-L > ⽩⼭市 (Hakusan-shi "Hakusan City"): L-H-HꜜL-L /hakusaꜜNsi/

⻄条 (Saijō): HꜜL-L-L > ⻄条市 (Saijō-shi "Saijō City"): L-H-HꜜL-L /saIzjoꜜRsi/

仙台 (Sendai): HꜜL-L-L > 仙台市 (Sendai-shi "Sendai City"): L-H-HꜜL-L /seNdaꜜIsi/

A defective mora can be an accent nucleus only if the mora following it is also defective:[2]

ロンドンっ⼦ (Rondon-kko "Londoner"): L-H-H-HꜜL-L /roNdoNꜜQko/

東京っ⼦ (Tōkyō-kko "Tokyoite"): L-H-H-HꜜL-L /toRkjoRꜜQko/

現代っ⼦ (gendai-kko "modern person"): L-H-H-HꜜL-L /ɡeNdaIꜜQko/

Compoundified compound nouns vs noncompoundified compound nouns

In general, Japanese utterances can be syntactically split into discrete phrases. For example, the
utterance ⺟が料理をして⽗が⽫を洗います (Haha-ga ryōri-o shite chichi-ga sara-o arai-masu
"My mother cooks and my father washes the dishes") can be subdivided into the following
phrases:

⺟が (haha-ga)

料理を (ryōri-o)

して (shite)

⽗が (chichi-ga)

⽫を (sara-o)

洗います (arai-masu)

The general structure of these phrases is that a syntactically free morpheme is followed by one or
more syntactically bound morphemes. Free morphemes are nouns, adjectives and verbs, while
bound morphemes are particles and auxiliaries. In the above utterance, the free morphemes are
⺟, 料理, して, ⽗, ⽫, and 洗い while the bound ones are が, を and ます. The accent pattern of the
entire utterance could be something like this:

ha-ha-ga ryo-o-ri-o shi-te chi-chi-ga sa-ra-o a-ra-i-ma-su

HꜜL-L HꜜL-L-L L-H HꜜL-L L-H-H L-H-H-HꜜL

Ideally, each phrase can carry at most one accent nucleus (in the above example, ha-ha-ga, ryo-
o-ri-o, chi-chi-ga and a-ra-i-ma-su), and such accent nucleus is based solely on the lexical
accent nucleus of the free morpheme of that phrase (bound morphemes do not have lexical
accent patterns, and whatever accent patterns they do have is dependent on those of the free
morphemes they follow). However, the situation becomes complicated when it comes to
compound nouns.

When multiple independent nouns are placed successively, they syntactically form a compound
noun. For example:

第 (dai) + ⼀次 (ichiji) + 世界 (sekai) + ⼤戦 (taisen) > 第⼀次世界⼤戦 (Dai-ichiji-Sekai-Taisen

"World War I")

At the phrasal level, compound nouns are well contained within a phrase, no matter how long they
are. Thus, the utterance ヨーロッパは第⼀次世界⼤戦では主戦場となった (Yōroppa-wa Dai-ichiji-
Sekai-Taisen-de-wa shusenjō-to natta "Europe was the main theater of war in World War I") is
subdivided into phrases as follows:

ヨーロッパは (Yōroppa-wa)

第⼀次世界⼤戦では (Dai-ichiji-Sekai-Taisen-de-wa)

主戦場と (shusenjō-to)

なった (natta)

As Dai-ichiji-Sekai-Taisen-de-wa is an entire a phrase in itself, it should ideally carry at most one

accent nucleus, the lexical accent nucleus of the free compound noun Dai-ichiji-Sekai-Taisen. In
actuality, Dai-ichiji-Sekai-Taisen, as a compound noun, is capable of carrying more than one
accent nucleus. While still being a syntactic compound, its components might not be solidly
"fused" together and still retain their own lexical accent nuclei. Whether Dai-ichiji-Sekai-Taisen
should have one nucleus of its own, or several nuclei of its constituents, is a matter of whether it
is a "compoundified compound noun" (複合語化複合名詞 fukugōgoka fukugō meishi) or
"noncompoundified compound noun" (⾮複合語化複合名詞 hifukugōgoka fukugō meishi).[3] The
"compoundification" status of a compound noun is lexical, meaning that whether such compound
noun is long or short, or simple or complex, is not relevant to whether it is "compoundified" or
not. A yojijukugo such as 世代交代 (sedai-kōtai "change of generation") may be treated as
"compoundified," with a single accent nucleus:[4]

世代交代

se-da-i-ko-o-ta-i

L-H-H-HꜜL-L-L

Meanwhile, a different four-kanji compound noun, 新旧交代 (shinkyū-kōtai "transition between

the old and the new"),[4] is treated as "noncompoundified", and retains the lexical accent nuclei
of its constituents (in this case 新旧 and 交代):

新旧 + 交代

shi-n-kyu-u + ko-o-ta-i

HꜜL-L-L + H-H-H-H

Some compound nouns, such as 核廃棄物 (kaku-haikibutsu "nuclear waste"), can be, on a
preferential basis, either "compoundified" or "noncompoundified":

核廃棄物 核 + 廃棄物

ka-ku-ha-i-ki-bu-tsu ka-ku + ha-i-ki-bu-tsu

L-H-H-H-HꜜL-L HꜜL + L-H-HꜜL-L

For "noncompoundified" compound nouns, which constituents should be allowed for may also
vary. For example, the above 第⼀次世界⼤戦:

第⼀次 + 世界⼤戦 第 + ⼀次 + 世界⼤戦

da-i-i-chi-ji + se-ka-i-ta-i-se-n da-i + i-chi-ji + se-ka-i-ta-i-se-n

HꜜL-L-L-L + L-H-H-HꜜL-L-L HꜜL + L-HꜜL + L-H-H-HꜜL-L-L

Binary pitch

The foregoing describes the actual pitch. In most guides, however, accent is presented with a
two-pitch-level model. In this representation, each mora is either high (H) or low (L) in pitch, with
the shift from high to low of an accented mora transcribed HꜜL.

1. If the accent is on the first mora, then the first syllable is high-pitched and the others are
low: HꜜL, HꜜL-L, HꜜL-L-L, HꜜL-L-L-L, etc.

2. If the accent is on a mora other than the first, then the first mora is low, the following morae
up to and including the accented one are high, and the rest are low: L-Hꜜ, L-HꜜL, L-H-HꜜL, L-
H-H-HꜜL, etc.

3. If the word is heiban (accentless), the first mora is low and the others are high: L-H, L-H-H,
L-H-H-H, L-H-H-H-H, etc. This high pitch spreads to unaccented grammatical particles that
attach to the end of the word, whereas these would have a low pitch when attached to an
accented word (including one accented on the final mora).

Phonetically, although only the terms "high" and "low" are used, the "high" of an unaccented
mora is not as high as an accented mora. Different analyses may treat final-accented (odaka)
words and unaccented (heiban) words as identical and only distinguishable by a following
particle, or phonetically contrastive and potentially phonemic based on how high a "high" tone
actually is (see the Tertiary pitch subsection below). And the phonetic tones are never truly
stable, but degrade toward the end of an utterance. This is especially noticeable in longer words,
where the so-called "high" pitch tapers off toward the end. This tapering is especially exemplified
by what is variously known as downstep or downdrift, where the "high" pitch of words becomes
successively lower after each accented mora:[5][6]

Phrase Phonemic accent pattern

海で泳ぎ (umi-de oyogi "swimming in the sea") HꜜL-L L-HꜜL

被ってみたら (kabutte mitara "try putting on the head") L-HꜜL-L HꜜL-L

In slow and deliberate enunciation (for example, with a pause between elements), the "high" tone
of the second element in these phrases could still be sufficiently "high," but in natural, often
pauseless, speech, it could become as low as the "low" tone of the first element, since there is an
accented mora in that first element.

Tertiary pitch

Earlier phonologists made use of a three-tone system, with an additional "mid" tone (M).[6] For
example, 端 (hashi "edge", heiban/unaccented) is considered to have a L-M pattern, while 橋
(hashi "bridge", odaka/final-accented) is to have a L-H pattern. This contrast is supported by
phonetic analyses, which show that the contrast in frequency between the "low" and "high"
tones in, for example, 花 (hana "flower", odaka/final-accented), is much starker than the contrast
between the "low" and "mid" tones in ⿐ (hana "nose", heiban/unaccented).[1] Moreover, the
"high" tone in final-accented words is phonetically higher than the "mid" tone in unaccented
words. With respect to potential minimal pairs such as "edge" hashi vs "bridge" hashi and "nose"
hana vs "flower" hana, the "mid" tone, in theory, should be considered phonemic, but it is now
largely merged with the "high" tone[6] as phonologists claim there are no perceptible differences
in pitch pattern between a final-accented word (odaka) without a following particle and an
unaccented word (heiban):

Word Old analysis[7] New analysis[6]

端 (hashi "edge") L-M L-H

橋 (hashi "bridge") L-Hꜜ

The "mid" tone also corresponds to what is now considered the "low" tone in initial-accented
(atamadaka) and medial-accented (nakadaka) words:

Word Old analysis[7] New analysis[6]

⽕鉢 (hibachi) HꜜM-M HꜜL-L

お⽟ (otama "ball") L-HꜜM L-HꜜL

Initial lowering

The tone of the first mora in non-initial-accented (non-atamadaka) words is often underspecified.
Early versions of the NHK⽇本語発⾳アクセント新辞典 (NHK Nihongo Hatsuon Accent Jiten "NHK
Pronouncing Accent Dictionary") always leave it unmarked. This is owing to how what is known as
"initial lowering"[1][8] is not universally applied in natural speech, thus making the tone of the first
mora indefinite and dependent on the nature of the second mora:[1]

(1) If the second mora is a hatsuon or the lengthening half of a long vowel, the tone of the first
mora is "high", and there is no initial lowering

(2) If the second mora is a sokuon, the tone of the first mora is "low", and there is initial
lowering, but the tone of the second mora is also "low"

(3) If the second mora is any other type of mora, the tone of the first mora is "low", and there is
initial lowering

In the (1) circumstances where initial lowering does not naturally happen in connected speech, it
can still be artificially induced with the slow, deliberate enunciation of whatever word is of
concern.[8]

The following are illustrative examples of the indefinite pitch of the first mora. For monomoraic
non-initial-accented words, the second mora is whatever particle that follows it.

Kana Phonemic Type of the Initial-

Word (1) (2) (3)
spelling transcription second mora accented

漫画 (manga) まんが /maNɡa/ hatsuon H-H-H

H-H-H-
交番 (kōban) こうばん /koRban/
lengthening half H

フォークリフト フォーク of a long vowel H-H-H-

/ɸoRkuriɸuto/
(fōkurifuto "forklift") リフト HꜜL-L

L-L-
切腹 (seppuku) せっぷく /seQpuku/ sokuon
H-H

morphologically L-H-
愛⼈ (aijin "lover") あいじん /aIzin/
bound /i/ H-H

アメリカ (Amerika L-H-

アメリカ /amerika/
"America") H-H

⻩は (ki-wa "yellow") きは /kiwa/ free mora L-H HꜜL

気が (ke-ga "sign;
けが /kega/ L-H HꜜL
indication")

Downstep

Many linguists[who?] analyse Japanese pitch accent somewhat differently. In their view, a word
either has a downstep or does not. If it does, the pitch drops between the accented mora and the
subsequent one; if it does not have a downstep, the pitch remains more or less constant
throughout the length of the word: That is, the pitch is "flat" as Japanese speakers describe it.
The initial rise in the pitch of the word, and the gradual rise and fall of pitch across a word, arise
not from lexical accent, but rather from prosody, which is added to the word by its context: If the
first word in a phrase does not have an accent on the first mora, then it starts with a low pitch,
which then rises to high over subsequent morae. This phrasal prosody is applied to individual
words only when they are spoken in isolation. Within a phrase, each downstep triggers another
drop in pitch, and this accounts for a gradual drop in pitch throughout the phrase. This drop is
called terracing. The next phrase thus starts off near the low end of the speaker's pitch range and
needs to reset to high before the next downstep can occur.

Examples of words that differ only in pitch

In standard Japanese, about 47% of words are unaccented and around 26% are accented on the
ante-penultimate mora. However, this distribution is highly variable between word categories. For
example, 70% of native nouns are unaccented, while only 50% of kango and only 7% of
loanwords are unaccented. In general, most 1–2 mora words are accented on the first mora, 3–4
mora words are unaccented, and words of greater length are almost always accented on one of
the last five morae.[1]

The following chart gives some examples of minimal pairs of Japanese words whose only
differentiating feature is pitch accent. Phonemic pitch accent is indicated with the phonetic
symbol for downstep, [ꜜ].

Normative Japanese pitch

accents
1:44

Recording of a native speaker

demonstrating the differences in
words caused by normative (i.e.,
Tokyo dialect) pitch accents in
Japanese.

Problems playing this file? See media help.

Accent on second
Romanization Accent on first mora Accentless
mora

/haꜜsi/ /hasiꜜ/ /hasi/

hashi はし [háɕì] chopsticks [hàɕí] 橋 bridge [hàɕí] 端 edge
háshì hàshí hàshí

/haꜜsini/ /hasiꜜni/ /hasini/

hashi-ni はし at the 橋 at the 端
[háɕìɲì] [hàɕíɲì] [hàɕīɲī] at the edge
に に chopsticks に bridge に
háshì-nì hàshí-nì hàshi-ni

/iꜜma/ /imaꜜ/ 居 living

ima いま 今 now
[ímà] ímà [ìmá] ìmá 間 room

/kaꜜki/ 牡 /kakiꜜ/ /kaki/

kaki かき oyster 垣 fence 柿 persimmon
[kákì] kákì 蠣 [kàkí] kàkí [kàkí] kàkí

/kaꜜkini/ 牡 /kakiꜜni/ /kakini/

at the 垣 at the 柿 at the
kaki-ni かきに [kákìɲì] 蠣 [kàkíɲì] [kàkīɲī]
oyster に fence に persimmon
kákì-nì に kàkí-nì kàki-ni

/saꜜke/ /sake/
alcohol,
sake さけ [sákè] 鮭 salmon [sàké] 酒
sake
sákè sàké

/niꜜhoɴ/ /nihoꜜɴ/
二 two sticks 日
nihon にほん [ɲíhòɴ̀] [ɲìhóɴ̀] Japan
本 of 本
níhòn nìhón

In isolation, the words hashi はし /hasiꜜ/ hàshí "bridge" and hashi /hasi/ hàshí "edge" are
pronounced identically, starting low and rising to a high pitch. However, the difference becomes
clear in context. With the simple addition of the particle ni "at", for example, /hasiꜜni/ hàshí-nì "at
the bridge" acquires a marked drop in pitch, while /hasini/ hàshi-ni "at the edge" does not.
However, because the downstep occurs after the first mora of the accented syllable, a word with
a final long accented syllable would contrast all three patterns even in isolation: an accentless
word nihon, for example, would be pronounced [ɲìhōɴ̄], differently from either of the words
above. In 2014, a study recording the electrical activity of the brain showed that native Japanese
speakers mainly use context, rather than pitch accent information, to contrast between words
that differ only in pitch.[9]

This property of the Japanese language allows for a certain type of pun, called dajare (駄洒落, だじ
ゃれ), combining two words with the same or very similar sounds but different pitch accents and
thus meanings. For example, kaeru-ga kaeru /kaeruɡa kaꜜeru/ (蛙が帰る, lit. the frog will go
home). These are considered quite corny, and are associated with oyaji gags (親父ギャグ, oyaji
gyagu, dad joke).

Since any syllable, or none, may be accented, Tokyo-type dialects have N+1 possibilities, where N
is the number of syllables (not morae) in a word, though this pattern only holds for a relatively
small N.

The accent system of Tokyo dialect

accented syllable one-syllable word two-syllable word three-syllable word

0
/ki/ (気, mind) /kaze/ (風, wind) /tomeru/ (止める, to stop)
(no accent)

1 /kiꜜ/ (木, tree) /haꜜru/ (春, spring) /iꜜnoti/ (命, life)

2 — /kawaꜜ/ (川, river) /tamaꜜɡo/ (卵, egg)

3 — /kotobaꜜ/ (言葉, word)

Other dialects

Correspondences between dialects

References

Bibliography

External links

Last edited 11 days ago by Nardog

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