Pitch accent 高低アクセント
kōtei akusento · from English
What is Japanese pitch accent?
Pitch accent is a system where a word is marked by where the pitch drops or rises, rather than every syllable carrying its own tone.
Tokyo Japanese marks each word by whether and where pitch falls after a high mora, which can distinguish words that are otherwise identical. It differs from full tone systems like Mandarin because only one pitch movement per word matters. Some Korean dialects (Gyeongsang, Hamgyŏng) also keep pitch accent, while standard Seoul Korean has lost it.
Examples
箸 háshi (chopsticks, high-low) vs 橋 hashí (bridge, low-high); 雨 áme (rain) vs 飴 ame (sweet, candy)
Kungfucius says: Japanese pitch accent: the thing nobody told you about until a native speaker heard you say bridge when you meant chopsticks.