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Japanese Phonetics Episode 78—Pitch accent in honorifics (part II) (Patreon)

Published:
2020-05-31 05:16:09
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

Bibliography
Japanese Phonetics Index Page 

Good evening Patrons! The seventy-eighth episode of Japanese Phonetics is now updated with high-quality native recordings! In this lesson we continue to explore pitch-accent in honorifics. Below is the stand-alone version of the word list from the end of the lesson.

Good to know Japanese honorific compounds

As always, if you have any questions or concerns with regards to this lesson, please don't hesitate to leave a comment below. Thank you very much for your continued support, and good luck with your Japanese studies!

Best from Beppu,

Dōgen

Files

Previews only

Japanese Phonetics #78 Pitch accent in honorifics part II

The seventy-eighth episode of Japanese Phonetics, my series dedicated to Japanese pitch-accent and pronunciation. In this lesson we continue to explore pitch-accent in honorifics. If you have any questions leave a comment below, and thank you all for your continued support! Bibliography: https://www.patreon.com/posts/17345632

Comments

Nathan Vegdahl

The お～なる and ご rules are both so simple and useful! Thanks for this lesson, as always!

Kelvin T Nguyen

What's your opinion on the NHK Accent dictionary in terms of how it represents the Japanese language? I've heard that the NHK dictionary's gravest sin is that it is so orthodox to the point where if a person were to speak according to NHK's dictionary in a setting outside of the newsroom, they wouldn't sound real.

Dogen
>>37926227

Hi Kelvin. I think that this is true to a certain extent, but I also believe that this would be if a Japanese person, who already has native understanding of Japanese pitch-accent, adhered to it 100%. As foreigners who don't have a solid understanding of Japanese pitch-accent I still think it's an extremely useful resource that can help foreigners learn many rules that will improve the naturalness of their Japanese. There may be instances in which a foreigner abides by a rule that some or even most Japanese speakers do not, but I certainly believe it's better to study pitch-accent using resources such as the NHK dictionary, rather than ignoring entirely. It's hard to draw the line where to stop, and pitch-accent studies certainly offer diminishing returns after some amount of time, but overall I still think it's a great resource. Hope this helps!

Pierre-Alexandre Pons

Hi Dogen ! Thank a lot for bringing awareness on this specific subject that is fundamental to Japanese melody! I was wondering how you would pronounce a sound like "to" Since the t is made by bringing the tongue on the upper front teeth and the o, for what i hear, rather made by curling it down to the middle of the lower part of the mouth (I don't know how it called, lets say the the opposite of the palate). Do you relate to this significant tongue movement to pronounce 'to' or 'do'? I had also a question about month and days. I felt like all month are atamadaka and all days have a down step on the 'yo' of yobi. Is that correct? Lately, is there any rule know how to pronounce, 'nen' 'getsu' and shuu' when in there durative form, with ka/kan (Ikkagetsu, ichinenkan, ishuukan...) Best

Dogen
>>38293016

Hi Pierre! Yes there is tongue movement in the と sound as it is a denti-alveolar stop followed by a mid back vowel. The T part does indeed use the front of the tongue, where the vowel お uses more of the body of the tongue, so it is true that the tip of the tongue will change position, but this is more of a result of the other parts of the tongue moving—everything is linked so the tip moves as a consequence of the body moving. This movement is extremely quick however—your speech organs are already preparing for the お sound when the T sound is being made (provided that you're committing to making the と sound), so I would encourage you to think of the T sound as how I explained it in the T lesson, and the O sound as I explained it in the vowels lesson, and simply try to say them 'together' as [to] rather that [t] + [o]. Does that make sense? With regards to your other points, I intend on covering these in the future as I need to do a bit more research on the various patterns, but days certainly do always have the downstep on the よ. Cheers!