Re: Tone/Pitch Accent Question

David Peterson wrote:
> Bearing that in mind, I've always assumed that pitch-accent languages
> work differently.  In pitch accent languages, you can have, maximally,
> 1-4 tone melodies (all high, all low, some high then all low, or some
> low then all high).  You can never go from L to H to L, or from H to L
> to H (this is what I've been told)
It's not correct.  In the pitch-accent languages I know of, the number
of tone melodies is the same as (or one more than) the number of
syllables.  In Standard Japanese, for example, one syllable (or none) is
marked with a pitch drop.  Every mora after that drop is low, and every
mora up to that point is high, with the first two morae being of
different pitch.  Thus, for example, take _hashi ga_ (ga = nominative).
There are three words _hashi_ distinguished by pitch-accent:

Hàshi ga (chopsticks) = HLL
Hashì ga (bridge)     = LHL
Hashi ga (tip, edge)  = LHH

Standard Japanese makes reference to both syllables and morae in this
phenomenon.  Pitch is assigned by mora, but the pitch-drop can only be
on the first mora of a two-mora syllable, thus, for example, _gengo_ has
only a two-way contrast between gengo (LHH) "original language" and
gengo (HLL) "language".  A word with LHL would be impossible, since that
would require the pitch-drop to be on the moraic _n_.

In some dialects of Japanese, you must also note whether a word is
"high" or "low" in addition to the position of the "accent".  For
example, in Oosaka-ben you have words like _miyako_ which is HHH (high,
unaccented) and words like _inochi_ (HLL) and _atama_ (HHL), both high
and accented (for high words, all morae after the accent are low, all
before are high), and also words like _tokaga_ (LHL), low, accented, and
words like _shinbun_ (LLLH), low unaccented (rule is high pitch for
stressed mora, or last mora if no stress, all other morae low).  And
some dialects have all low pitch except for teh accented syllable.
Never the less, in all dialects with phonemic pitch-accent, the number
of patterns is one more than the number of syllables (since unaccented
words exist)

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