Japanese/Pitch Accent/Pitch accent usage overview.md
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# Definitions
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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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## 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. A rule of thumb is, when written in kana, each character represents a separate mora (with an exception of small **ゃゅょ** and **ぁぃぅぇぉ** used for non-standard sounds)
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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. A rule of thumb is, 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**)
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| Word | Reading | Moras | Mora count | Explanation |
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| ---- | ------- | ----- | ---------- | ----------- |
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-| 先生 | せんせい | せ・ん・せ・い | 4 | **ん** and **い** are its own moras |
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-| です | です | で・す | 2 | |
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-| 優しい | やさしい | や・さ・し・い | 4 | |
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-| 合唱 | がっしょう | が・っ・しょ・う | 4 | |
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-| パーティー | パーティー | パ・ー・ティ・ー | 4 | |
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-| さぁ | さあ | さ・あ | 2 | |
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+| 先生 | せんせい | せ・ん・せ・い | 4 | **ん** is always a separate mora |
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+| です | です | で・す | 2 | **す** is its own mora even if pronounced with voiceless **u** |
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+| 優しい | やさしい | や・さ・し・い | 4 | **い** is its own mora even though it makes **し** long |
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+| 合唱 | がっしょう | が・っ・しょ・う | 4 | **っ** is always a separate mora; **しょ** is one mora because **ょ** only changes the vowel from **i** to **o** |
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+| パーティー | パーティー | パ・ー・ティ・ー | 4 | **ー** is always a separate mora (long vowels are two moras long); **ティ** is one mora because **ィ** only changes the vowel from **e** to **i** |
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+| さぁ | さあ | さ・あ | 2 | Even though **ぁ** is a small kana character, it represents an elongation of a sound, therefore is considered a separate mora |
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[^moras]: A plural of "mora" can be both "moras" and "morae" ([source](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/mora)). I will be using the fist version as it's more in line with the English plural rules
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