Japanese/Pitch Accent/Pitch accent usage overview.md
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@@ -7,23 +7,23 @@ In order to facilitate and streamline the explanation of pitch accent behaviour
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## Pitch patterns
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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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- - Shape: The first mora is low, and the rest are high.
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+ - Literal translation: "flat plank"
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+ - Shape: The first mora is low, and the rest are high
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- Example: ~{わたしたち} (私たち)
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- **Atamadaka** (頭高)
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- - Literal translation: "head high".
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- - Shape: The first mora is high, and the rest are low.
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+ - Literal translation: "head high"
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+ - Shape: The first mora is high, and the rest are low
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- Example: ~{ま\いにち} (毎日)
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- **Nakadaka** (中高)
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- - Literal translation: "middle high".
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- - Shape: The first mora is low, then the pitch rises, similarly to heiban, but then it falls again.
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+ - Literal translation: "middle high"
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+ - Shape: 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} (先生)、~{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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+ - 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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- - Shape: Very similar to heiban, but there's a downstep after the last mora.
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+ - Literal translation: "tail high"
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+ - Shape: Very similar to heiban, but there's a downstep after the last mora
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- Example: ~{はな\} (花)
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- - Note: when pronounced in isolation, sounds identical to heiban.
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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**)