# Japanese/Pitch accent

Japanese uses **pitch accent**, where every mora can either be
pronounced with a high or low pitch. Not all dictionaries will indicate
this, but pitch accent is certainly important, because it can make the
difference between different words.

For example, using **bold** for high pitches:

**い**ま (今) - \"now\"\
い**ま** (居間) - \"living room\"

Pitch is, however, to some extent a characteristic of regional accents,
so a Kanto speaker may be using the opposite pitches to a Kansai
speaker. Where pitch is taught, it will be standard Japanese
(essentially the Tokyo dialect). Pitchless Japanese is easily understood
by native speakers and incorrect pitch will at most sound somewhat odd.
Studying pitch, therefore, isn\'t essential to the learning Japanese and
is perhaps best picked up by conversing with native speakers.

Linguists, however, tend to classify Japanese as having a falling pitch
following what is considered the stressed vowel.

## Mora Counting

A common misconception is that moras in Japanese are the same as
syllables in English. Moras differ from syllables because of how they
are counted.

Consonant-Vowel Combinations written as Digraphs count as 1 mora. These
are cases where you have き、ぎ、し、じ、ち、に、ひ、び、ぴ、み、り
combined with や、ゆ、and よ to form Digraphs like きゃ, しゅ, ちょ,
etc.

So, the **ちゅ** in 中国\[**ちゅ**うごく\] accounts for **1 mora**. The
whole word is 4 moras.

A vowel combination counts as 2 moras. Combinations like おう、えい are
2 moras. This also includes a vowel being written or said twice, like
おお、いい, etc.

Ex. the **せい** in the word 人生\[じん**せい**\] or the おう in だろう
would count as **2 moras**.

The mora **ん** counts as **1 mora**

Ex. The **ん** in 先生\[せんせい\] is the 2nd mora in the word, and the
whole word has 4 moras.

The small tsu (**っ**) which doubles a consonant adds **1 mora**.

Ex. the word 学校(がっこう) has 4 moras.

There is a unique set of mora known as \"special mora\" (特殊拍) which
consist of small tsu \"っ\", the kana \"ん\" and long vowel symbol
\"ー\", the last high pitch can not occur on any of these \"special
mora\".

This is all important information to know when reading pitch accent, and
counting Japanese moras.

## Pitch classification

When dictionaries give pitch accent, they\'ll usually indicate it with a
number. The number tells you the mora where the **last high pitch** is.
To figure out the pitch pattern, put a low onto the first mora (unless
the last high pitch is on that mora), put high pitches onto all the mora
that follows, until you hit the last high pitch. After that, put low
pitches.

Even more helpful dictionaries will do all of this work for you, by
telling you exactly where all the pitches rise or fall.

So, to give some examples.

+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| `<span style="font-weight: normal">`{=html}low`</span>`{=html}       |
| **HIGH HIGH\...**                                                    |
|                                                                      |
| ```{=html}                                                           |
| <div style="float: left">                                            |
| ```                                                                  |
| \(0\)                                                                |
|                                                                      |
| ```{=html}                                                           |
| </div>                                                               |
| ```                                                                  |
+======================================================================+
| こ**ども**                                                           |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| わ**たし**                                                           |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| と**もだち**                                                         |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ざ**っし**                                                           |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| あ**かい**                                                           |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| が**っこう**                                                         |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| **HIGH** `<span style="font-weight: normal">`{=html}low              |
| low\...`</span>`{=html}                                              |
|                                                                      |
| ```{=html}                                                           |
| <div style="float: left">                                            |
| ```                                                                  |
| \(1\)                                                                |
|                                                                      |
| ```{=html}                                                           |
| </div>                                                               |
| ```                                                                  |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| **ちゅ**うごく                                                       |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| **じ**しょ                                                           |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| **な**に                                                             |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| **は**し                                                             |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| **パン**フレット                                                     |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| `<span style="font-weight: normal">`{=html}low`</span>`{=html}       |
| **HIGH** `<span style="font-weight: normal">`{=html}low              |
| low\...`</span>`{=html}                                              |
|                                                                      |
| ```{=html}                                                           |
| <div style="float: left">                                            |
| ```                                                                  |
| \(2\)                                                                |
|                                                                      |
| ```{=html}                                                           |
| </div>                                                               |
| ```                                                                  |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| こ**こ**ろ                                                           |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| じ**て**んしゃ                                                       |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| プ**レ**ゼント                                                       |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| `<span style="font-weight: normal">`{=html}low`</span>`{=html}       |
| **HIGH HIGH** `<span style="font-weight: normal">`{=html}low         |
| low\...`</span>`{=html}                                              |
|                                                                      |
| ```{=html}                                                           |
| <div style="float: left">                                            |
| ```                                                                  |
| \(3\)                                                                |
|                                                                      |
| ```{=html}                                                           |
| </div>                                                               |
| ```                                                                  |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| せ**んせ**い                                                         |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| お**おき**い                                                         |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| た**くさ**ん                                                         |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| `<span style="font-weight: normal">`{=html}low`</span>`{=html}       |
| **HIGH HIGH HIGH** `<span style="font-weight: normal">`{=html}low    |
| low\...`</span>`{=html}                                              |
|                                                                      |
| ```{=html}                                                           |
| <div style="float: left">                                            |
| ```                                                                  |
| \(4\)                                                                |
|                                                                      |
| ```{=html}                                                           |
| </div>                                                               |
| ```                                                                  |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| あ**たらし**い                                                       |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| う**つくし**い                                                       |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
| お**とうと**                                                         |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+
|                                                                      |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------+

Notice how と**もだち** (0) and お**とうと** (4) look as though they
have the same pitch pattern despite the different numbers. The
difference is based on the grammatical pattern like -は added afterward.
Therefore, the continuation of both pitch pattern becomes と**もだちは**
and お**とうと**は.

