Japanese/Pitch Accent/Pitch accent usage overview.md
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In order to facilitate and streamline the explanation of pitch accent behaviour in Japanese, the following terms are used
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## Heiban, atamadaka, nakadaka, and odaka
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+These are the 4 patterns each word or phrase can have. These are:
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+- Heiban (平板)
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+ - Literal translation: "flat plank".
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+ - The first mora is low, and the rest are high.
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+ - Example: ~{わたしたち}
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+- Atamadaka (頭高)
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+ - Literal translation: "head high".
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+ - The first mora is high, and the rest are low.
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+ - Example: ~{ま\いにち}
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+- Nakadaka (中高)
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+ - Literal translation: "middle high".
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+ - The first mora is low, then the pitch rises, similarly to heiban, but then it falls again.
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+ - Examples: ~{せんせ\い}、~{あな\た}
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+ - Note: The pitch can fall anywhere after it goes up. This means that just calling a pitch pattern "nakadaka" might still be ambiguous if a word is 4+ moras long.
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+- Odaka (尾高)
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+ - Literal translation: "tail high".
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+ - Very similar to heiban, but there's a downstep after the last mora.
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+ - Example: ~{はな\}
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+ - Note: when pronounced in isolation, sounds identical to heiban.
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## Mora
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A mora is the shortest unit of length in Japanese phonology. Every open syllable is a mora, long syllables are two moras[^moras], even if spelled with **ー**. **ん** and **っ** are also considered separate moras. As a rule of thumb, when written in kana, each character represents a separate mora (with an exception of small **ゃゅょ** and sometimes **ぁぃぅぇぉ**)