Re: yet another new lang sketch (sorry) [ + pitch-stress, + Welsh]

FFlores wrote:
> BTW, for anyone who knows, what's the difference between a pitch
> accent system and a tone system? Predictiveness?
Pitch accent uses pitch in an analogous way to stress.  For instance,
Japanese has a single high pitch on a word, covering at least one mora.
The rules are:

1.  The first two morae cannot be the same pitch (that is, if the first
    is high, the second is low and vice versa)
2.  There is only one high pitch per word
3.  The pitch falls after the "accent".  For instance, the word _hachi_
has three pitch-contours:

(with the particle _wa_), caps represent high pitch

HAchi wa = chopsticks
haCHI wa = bridge
haCHI WA = tip, edge

These could be written as ha`chi, hachi`, and hachi (no grave indicating
the pitch continues after the word)

Watakassi' does something similar, the pitch rises on the stress, and
the first two syllables may not be the same pitch.  However, if the
stress is on the second or beyond, the pitch remains, e.g.:

pla'ssita (because)
PLAssita
vinati'l (if)
vinaTIL
swila'si (adult)
swiLASI
watya'iya (belief)
waTYAIYA

lla'sta (bird)
LLASta
lafla'stai (birds)
lafLASTAI

So, by changing the gender prefix from l- to laf- (the plural form), the
final syllable becomes high-pitch, because the stress is now on the
second, rather than the first, vowel.

In contrast, tonal languages have a tone on EACH AND EVERY syllable,
which must be marked for each syllable.

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