Japanese pitch accent and stress

The idea

In Tokyo Japanese, lexical accent is described by where pitch falls. With が, 箸が is H・L・L, 橋が is L・H・L, and 飴が is L・H・H: H and L mean high and low morae. English stress may involve greater loudness, length and vowel changes as well as pitch; Japanese pitch accent is not simply a loud beat.

Examples

• 箸はしでご飯はんを食たべます。I eat rice with chopsticks.
• 橋はしを歩あるいて渡わたります。I walk across the bridge.
• 雨あめが降ふっています。It is raining.
• 飴あめを一ひとつください。One piece of candy, please.
• 橋はしが見みえます。I can see a bridge.
• 箸はしがここにあります。There are chopsticks here.

Watch out

Do not force a strong stress onto the high mora or assume every word falls. Patterns vary by region and speaker, and sentence intonation can change the surface contour.

Try it yourself

1. 「箸はしが」の高たかい拍はくはどれですか。（は／し）

   Show answer or example answer

   は

   は: 箸が is H・L・L, so the first mora is high.

2. 「橋はしが」は「し」の後あとに下さがりますか。（はい／いいえ）

   Show answer or example answer

   はい

   はい: 橋が is L・H・L; pitch falls after し onto が.

3. 「飴あめが」は「め」の後あとに下さがりますか。（はい／いいえ）

   Show answer or example answer

   いいえ

   いいえ: 飴が is L・H・H; pitch remains high on が.

Use it today

Read the examples aloud, then cover the table and trace the pitch through が. Compare the pairs without making the high mora louder.