Japanese Word Accent

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Let's try to dictate a Kanji. The answer is a Japanese page.
- Here is a pair of wooden chopsticks.
- Here is a wooden bridge.
- Here is the edge of a wood.

Japanese Accent

Japanese accent is pitch type
( High or Low in fundamental frequncy).
English accent is stress type
( Strong or Weak in speech power).

When a word has N morae in common Japanese, no. of accent types is N+1.
For example in 2 morae, 3 types are HL(L), LH(L) and LH(H), we call as type 1, type 2 and type 0, respectively. In the case, LL and HH are not exist.

Mora(s) N	Kihuku(Falling)				Heiban(Flat)	No. of Types N+1
Mora(s) N	Type1	Type2	Type3	Type4	Type0	No. of Types N+1
1	H(L)	-	-	-	L(H)	2
2	HL(L)	LH(L)	-	-	LH(H)	3
3	HLL(L)	LHL(L)	LHH(L)	-	LHH(H)	4
4	HLLL(L)	LHLL(L)	LHHL(L)	LHHH(L)	LHHH(H)	5

A mora in () is one Joshi, for a example, "ga" in Japanese.

Dialect Map for Japanese Accent
Tokyo, Kansai and Ikkei dialect

Examples

asa
- HL(L), asa1
  morning, [asa]
- LH(L), asa2
  hemp, [asa]
ame
- HL(L), ame1
  rain, [ame]
- LH(H), ame0
  candy, [ame]
hasi(ga)

HL(L), hasi1
chopsticks, [hasi]

Locus of Fundamental Frequencies

LH(L), hasi2
bridge, [hasi]

LH(H), hasi0
edge, [hasi]

Please access a page of results with a public speech analysis system: PASTE.

Please refer a next paper.
Y. Kumagai, K. Yoshida and J. Miwa:
On a Decision Method of Accent Type for Japanese Learning, IEICE Report of speech commitee, SP98-139, pp.1-8 (Feb. 1999).(in Japanese)

List of Japanese word accent
Dictation quiz for word accent
Dictation quizzes for Japanese Speech

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