test 1
test 1
test 1
test 1
Speech test
Please read the following sentence.
Record it on your phone and send the audio file by email.
Speech test
Please read the following sentence.
Record it on your phone and send the audio file by email.
prominence
accent
accent
accent
日本語発音ラボ
Japanese Pronunciation Laboratory
Pitch accent
Standard Japanese accent
Japanese has pitch accent, also known as kōtei-akusento (高低アクセント, literally high-low accent). Every mora in a word/phrase is either high-pitched or low-pitched.
The meaning of a word changes depending on pitch patterns.
Akusento-kaku (accent nucleus), akusento-gata (accent pattern)
・Japanese accent, based on the presence or absence of an akusento-kaku (アクセント核, accent nuclus, a steep drop in pitch), is first divided into two types (式): the accented with the akusento-kaku and the unaccented without the akusento-kaku. Yes, 'unaccented' is one type. Next, the accented words are classified as each pattern (型) according to the location of the akusento-kaku.
・When the akusento-kaku is on the first mora, it is called ichi-gata (1型, first-mora accent), on the second mora called ni-gata (2型, second-mora accent), on the third mora called san-gata (3型, third-mora accent), etc. A word with no akusento-kaku, namely the unaccented, is called zero-gata (0型, no accent).
・A mora with the akusento-kaku is high-pitched, and the next mora is low-pitched.
・As a general rule, the pitch of the first and second moras are different. Therefore, the possible accent pattern of a 3-mora word, for example, is one of HLL (ichi-gata, first-mora accent), LHL (ni-gata, second-mora accent), LHH (san-gata, third-mora accent) and LHH (zero-gata, no accent). If other accent patterns (LLH, HHL, HHH, etc.) appear, native speakers feel those are dialects, not standard Japanese.
・When the akusento-kaku is on the last mora of a word (final mora accent, ni-gata of the 2-mora word, san-gata of the 3-mora word, yon-gata of the 4-mora word, etc.), you cannot tell the difference between final mora accent and no accent (zero-gata). By adding a particle such as が, we can tell the difference. The pitch of the particle of the final mora accent word is low, while that of no accent word remains high.
Note: The second part of the long vowel (ー), small っ and ん cannot carry an akusento-kaku as well as i (い) of ai (あい、かい、がい、さい、ざい、たい、だい、ない、はい、ぱい、ばい、まい、らい). When the akusento-kaku falls on these moras, the askusento-kaku is shifted to the preceding mora.
The following are examples of accent patterns.
Listen to the audio and check the location of the akusento-kaku.
Regarding Japanese standard accent, what is most important is the presence or absence of the akusento-kaku. Therefore, from now on, only the location of the akusento-kaku will be shown using an accent mark (┐). As mentioned above, the zero-gata has no akusento-kaku, so there will be no accent mark for a zero-gata word. However, since the pitch of the first and second moras are different, the accent pattern will be LHH in the case of a 3-mora word below.
Listen to the audio and imitate it. Please pay attention to the location of the accent mark.
