Newsgroups: sci.lang,sci.lang.japan
Path: cantaloupe.srv.cs.cmu.edu!bb3.andrew.cmu.edu!newsfeed.pitt.edu!gatech!news.mathworks.com!news.kei.com!nntp.coast.net!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.hawaii.edu!erickson
From: erickson@Hawaii.Edu (Blaine Erickson)
Subject: Re: "pitch accent" vs. "tone"
X-Nntp-Posting-Host: uhunix5.its.hawaii.edu
Message-ID: <Dn96Dw.6Ls@news.hawaii.edu>
Sender: news@news.hawaii.edu
Organization: University of Hawaii
References: <4fqhja$kqi@news.mpd.tandem.com> <jcoyne.824485134@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu>
Date: Fri, 23 Feb 1996 23:53:56 GMT
Lines: 50
Xref: glinda.oz.cs.cmu.edu sci.lang:50651 sci.lang.japan:32547

jcoyne@blue.weeg.uiowa.edu (Jason Coyne) wrote:

>In Japanese, pitch can change the meaning of a sentance, but
>rarely the meaning of a word.
[snip]
>wheras pitch in Japanese only changes the context (question or
>statement)

This is not correct.  For most dialects of Japanese, including the
standard dialect, pitch can change the meaning of a word.  A good
example (for standard/Tokyo Japanese) is the three words "hashi."  In
these examples, "L" means a low-pitched syllable, and "H" a
high-pitched one.

hashi ga aru  "there is an edge"
   H   H
L

hashi o wataru  "cross a bridge"
   H
L     L

hashi de taberu "eat with chopsticks"
H
   L   L

The first word, "edge," has no accent; the second word, "bridge," has
accent on the last syllable; and the last word, "chopsticks," has
accent on the first syllable.  This set of words illustrates how pitch
works for Tokyo-type accent systems:  nouns of N syllables may be
found (maximally) with N+1 accents (and yes, I mean "syllables," not
"moras").  Here we have two syllables, and three words distinguished
by different accent patterns.  (Notice that the only way to
distinguish final accent from no accent is to add a particle.)  Pitch
accent is not always maximally utilized (e.g., I know of only two
words "kaki," and of the four words "kami," only two of the possible
three accent patterns are found).  (BTW, I'm doing this away from my
references, so my apologies for possible omissions.)

>Tonal languages can have a pitch change change a whole word.

The same is true of pitch accent languages, and of stress accent
languages, although I'd say "tone" for tone language and "stress" for
stress languages.  Just because we (i.e., English-speakers) might hear
something as stress, it doesn't mean that that's what was intended (or
perceived) by someone speaking a pitch or tone language.

Blaine Erickson
erickson@hawaii.edu

