Practice the pitch accent
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| This is 今 いま, and this is 居間 いま. |
| This is 雨 あめ, and this is 飴 あめ. |
| In this lesson, we will focus on perfecting our pitch accent in Japanese. |
| I'm Risa, and this is Japanese Pronunciation Through Minimal Pairs. |
| In Japanese, the pitch accent of words plays a vital role in distinguishing between words that may sound identical. There are three main pitch accent patterns: High to Low, Low to High, and No Pitch Accent. |
| High to Low means the pitch accent is on the first mora. The pitch starts high and then drops. |
| Low to High means the pitch accent is on the second mora. The pitch starts low and then rises. |
| No Pitch Accent means it's neutral. The pitch remains relatively flat with no significant rise or fall. |
| This sounds too abstract, I know. Let's have a look at the following words: |
| はし (hashi) |
| (1) |
| いま (ima) |
| (1) |
| あめ (ame) |
| (1) |
| さけ (sake) |
| (1) |
| かみ (kami) |
| In each of these words, the pitch starts high and then falls. They belong to the first category, high to low. |
| はし (hashi) "bridge" |
| (1) |
| いま (ima) "living room" |
| (1) |
| あめ (ame) "candy" |
| (1) |
| さけ (sake) "alcohol" |
| (1) |
| かみ (kami) "paper" |
| These words have a rising pitch pattern. The pitch starts low on the first mora and then rises on the second mora. |
| こおり (koori) "ice" |
| (1) |
| さかな (sakana) "fish" |
| These words have no pitch accent, meaning the pitch remains relatively flat throughout the word, with no significant rise or fall. |
| So, what's the difference between the second and third categories? |
| Let's use たから and さかな as examples. |
| たから belongs to the second category, low to high. |
| さかな belongs to the third category, no pitch accent. |
| They sound the same right? |
| Let's add the topic particle は wa |
| たからは |
| さかなは |
| Now you can hear the difference. |
| In たからは, there is a drop in pitch from the third mora to the fourth, but in さかなは, the pitch remains consistent without a drop. |
| From the examples above, you probably have noticed that Japanese has many words with the same sounds but different meanings because of different pitch accents. |
| Let's compare the minimal pairs. |
| 箸(hashi)/橋(hashi) |
| (1) |
| 箸(hashi)/橋(hashi) |
| (1) |
| The pitch of 箸 is High to low, the meaning is "chopsticks." |
| The pitch of 橋 is Low to high, the meaning is "bridge." |
| 今(ima)/居間(ima) |
| (1) |
| 今(ima)/居間(ima) |
| (1) |
| The pitch of 今 is High to low, the meaning is "now." |
| The pitch of 居間 is Low to high, the meaning is "living room." |
| Let's try one more. |
| (3 sec pause) |
| 雨(ame)/飴(ame) |
| (1) |
| 雨(ame)/飴(ame) |
| (1) |
| The pitch of 雨 is High to low, the meaning is "rain." |
| The pitch of 飴 is Low to high, the meaning is "candy." |
| Now listen to the following sentences, focusing on different minimal pairs. |
| (1 sec pause) |
| 鮭を食べながら、酒を飲みます。 |
| (Sake o tabenagara, sake o nomimasu.) |
| "I eat salmon while drinking alcohol." |
| 鮭 (sake) "salmon" |
| 酒 (sake) "alcohol" |
| Let's try another sentence. |
| (1 sec pause) |
| 神について書いた紙があります。 |
| (Kami ni tsuite kaita kami ga arimasu.) |
| "There is a paper written about a god." |
| 神 (kami) "god" |
| 紙 (kami) "paper" |
| By the way, if you watched til the end |
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