44 CHAPTER 1. THE SYNTAX
at which you should pronounce Japanese, which is simply not true. In-
stead, accent through pitch in Japanese is best described in terms of tone
difference:
- If a word has its accent on the first syllable, then the pitch of the word
starts at a high tone and then drops in pitch at the second syllable.
After this, the pitch may remain either constant, or (slowly) go down
as the rest of the word is pronounced. Due to this relatively large
difference between the first and second syllable, the first syllable is
considered accented by the Japanese ear. - If a word has its accent on a syllable other than the first or the last, the
pitch may remain constant or rise gradually until the syllable after the
one that is accented, where the pitch goes down suddenly to create
the pitch difference that is considered an accent in Japanese. - If a word has its accent on the last syllable, the pitch may remain
constant or rise gradually until the last syllable, which is pronounced
at a notably higher pitch, marking it as accented to the Japanese ear. - If a word has no accent, the pitch may remain constant or rise gradu-
ally. This covers the majority of Japanese words and while the pitch
may change, the lack of sudden discontinuous change makes this
sound unaccented to the Japanese ear.
The presence and order of pitch change can make the difference between
rain ( ) and candy ( ), both pronounced ”ame” but with their accents
on the first and second syllable respectively, or more drastically between
an umbrella ( ) and syphilis ( ), both pronounced ”kasa” but again with
their accents on the first and second syllable respectively.
For sentences, too, pitch plays an important role. A sentence ending
with a high and then a low syllable, compared to the same sentence ending
with the last two syllables in neutral pitch, will be experienced as a ques-
tion rather than as a statement, for instance. Anger, lecturing, boredom,
and a wide variety of emotions can be told from the pitch paĴern of a sen-
tence, not unlike in most Western languages. However, while in western
languages pitch only adds emotion, in Japanese, a misplaced pitch may
also change the words being used.