Voice Pitch in Japanese

If you've learnt some other Asian languages such as Chinese or Thai, they have a very strict rule in voice pitch, and you'll get different word when you get a wrong pitch. 

Unlike those languages,  we barely have 2-3 accents that most foreigners don’t even recognise they are the accents (as they are too weak to be recognised!). 

However, if you aim to sound fluent like natives or have a smooth conversation with natives, it's great if you get a correct voice pitch so people will understand easily. 

——————

*** Accents are shown as the dot on vowels. These are used to visually show you how the voice should go. These indications are NOT related to any of the official exams at all. 

——————-

Accent 1: keep your voice still, relatively lower. { shown with no accents }

Accent 2: make your voice higher than the previous/ usual voice. { shown with an accent } 

Accent 3: make your voice higher than the previous higher voice, often seen on the combined words { shown with an accent in the same way as Accent 2 }

——————-
<<Examples>>


雨(à me): rain
飴(a mè): candy, lolly

今(ì ma): now, these days
居間(i mà): living room

この白は(konò shìro wa): This white is...
この城は(konò shirò wa) This castle is...
コノシロは(konòshìrò wà) The Konoshiro fish is...

... In this example, you can hear the much higher voice (Accent 3) on SHI in この白(konò shìro) after a higher voice on NO in この(konò).


——————
Hope these videos show you the differences of accents in Japanese. Happy learning!