Japanese
Japanese is often described as having pitch accent; this differs significantly between dialects. In standard (Tokyo-dialect) Japanese, this "accent" may be characterized as a downstep rather than as pitch accent. The pitch of a word rises until it reaches a downstep, then drops abruptly. In a two-syllable word, this results in a contrast between high–low and low–high; accentless words are also low–high, but the pitch of following enclitics differentiates them.
| Accent on first mora | Accent on second mora | Accentless | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 牡蠣を | oyster | 垣を | fence | 柿を | persimmon | |||
| high–low–low | low–high–low | low–mid–high | ||||||
Read more about this topic: Pitch Accent
Famous quotes containing the word japanese:
“The Japanese do not fear God. They only fear bombs.”
—Jerome Cady, U.S. screenwriter. Lewis Milestone. Yin Chu Ling, The Purple Heart (1944)
“The Japanese have perfected good manners and made them indistinguishable from rudeness.”
—Paul Theroux (b. 1941)
“In fact, the whole of Japan is a pure invention. There is no such country, there are no such people.... The Japanese people are ... simply a mode of style, an exquisite fancy of art.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)