Japanese/Pitch Accent/Pitch accent usage overview.md
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# Definitions
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+## Mora
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+## Phrase
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+A phrase is part of a sentence which has it's own pitch accent. Contrary to common belief, pitch accent doesn't apply to words but to entire phrases in a sentence. A phrase usually consist of a core meaning word (usu. noun/verb/adjective) and it's prefixes, suffixes, particles, and conjugation endings.
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+
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+Let's look at this sentence:
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+田中さんは日本人ですか
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+Being very generous you could split this sentence into these separate words:
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+田中　さん　は　日本　人　です　か
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+However, this sentence consists of only two phrases:
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+田中さんは　日本人ですか
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+Where:
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+- 田中さんは
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+ - 田中 - core meaning word (surname)
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+ - さん - honorific suffix
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+ - は - particle
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+- 日本人ですか
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+ - 日本 - core meaning word
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+ - 人 - suffix
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+ - です - copula
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+ - か - particle
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+
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## Stressed mora
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It's the last high mora before a downstep. Note that if there's no downstep (heiban), the final mora is **not** stressed. In this wiki, stressed moras are marked in red. Examples:
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- **~{せんせ\い}** (先生) - **せ** is the last high mora, so it's stressed