Kansai Dialect - Pitch Accent

Pitch Accent

The pitch accent in Kansai dialect is very different from the standard Tokyo accent, so non-Kansai Japanese can recognize Kansai people easily from that alone. The Kansai accent is called the Kyoto-Osaka type accent (京阪式アクセント, Keihan-shiki akusento) and is spoken in most of Kansai, Shikoku and parts of western Chūbu region. The Tokyo accent distinguishes words only by downstep, but the Kansai accent distinguishes words also by high/low-initial accents, so Kansai-ben has more pitch patterns than standard Japanese. In the Tokyo accent, the first and second morae are usually different, but in the Kansai accent, they are often the same.

Below is a list of simplified Kansai accent patterns. H represents a high pitch and L represents a low pitch.

1. High-initial accent (高起式, kōki-shiki?)
   • The first mora is high pitch and the others are low: H-L, H-L-L, H-L-L-L, etc.
   • The high pitch continues for the set mora and the rest are low: H-H-L, H-H-L-L, H-H-H-L, etc.
   • All moras are high pitch: H-H, H-H-H, H-H-H-H, etc.
2. Low-initial accent (低起式, teiki-shiki?)
   • The high pitch appears on the middle mora and the rest are low again: L-H-L, L-H-L-L, L-L-H-L, etc.
   • The low pitch continues until just before the last: L-L-H, L-L-L-H, L-L-L-L-H, etc.
     • If particles attach to the end of the word, all moras are low: L-L-L(-H), L-L-L-L(-H), L-L-L-L-L(-H)
   • With two-mora words, there are two special accent patterns. Both of these tend to be realized in recent years as L-H, L-H(-L).
     • The second mora rises and falls quickly. If particles attach to the end of the word, the fall is sometimes not realized: L-HL, L-HL(-L) or L-H(-L)
     • The second mora does not fall. If particles attach to the end of the word, both moras are low: L-H, L-L(-H)

The Kansai accent includes some local variations. The traditional pre-modern Kansai accent is kept in Shikoku and parts of Wakayama such as Tanabe city. Even between Kyoto and Osaka, only 30 min by train, a few words' pitch accents change. For example, Tōkyō ikimashita ( went to Tokyo) is pronounced H-H-H-H H-H-H-L-L in Osaka, L-L-L-L H-H-L-L-L in Kyoto.