Pitch-Accent Rules

Question 1

First and second mora pitch-change

Answer 1

No standalone word in Japanese will start with two consequtive low or high mora

Question 2

Once the pitch-accent in a word or word+particle goes …

Answer 2

down it will never go back up

Question 3

頭高

Answer 3

high-low

Question 4

平板

Answer 4

low-high

Question 5

中高

Answer 5

low-high-low

Question 6

尾高

Answer 6

low-high-particle low

Question 7

1 mora words can only be…

Answer 7

平板 or 頭高
About 70% of 1 mora nouns fall into the 頭高 category. Primarily chinese origin words and words expressing ideas or concepts
The remaining 30% are primarily, but not entirely everyday nouns and objects and fall into the 平板 category

Question 8

2 mora nouns can only be…

Answer 8

頭高, 平板 or 尾高

• 2 mora object pronouns and location adverbs are 平板
• 2 mora question words are 頭高

Question 9

3 mora nouns can be…

Answer 9

all four patterns, but 中高 and 尾高 each make up less than 10% of all 3 mora nouns.
The remaining 80% are either 頭高 or 平板, if unsure, fall back on 平板

Question 10

Most 4 mora nouns and 4mora, 2 kanji nouns are…

Answer 10

平板

easier to learn the exceptions

Question 11

Many 5 mora nouns, and most relatively long compounds are…

Answer 11

中高, with the downstep coming in the later parts of the word
Pattern 1: If the later part of the compound is constant then the downstep falls on the second mora of the last word. (Last element is 平板 or 尾高)
Pattern 2: The downstep falls on the same place as it normally would in the last word. (Last element is 頭高 or 中高)

Question 12

だ attaches…

Answer 12

low to the downstep group and high to 平板

Treat it as a particle in phonetics

Question 13

です, でしょう, だろう, みたい and らしい (“I heard” meaning)

Answer 13

all attaches low and stays low on the downstep group and attach high on 平板 and drops off on the first or second mora

Question 14

らしい (“seems like” meaning)

Answer 14

all nouns that attaches to らしい (“Seems like” meaning), they become 平板 with the らし attaching high and the い low