The fourth multimedia slide of my free www.memrise.com course, "Introduction to Japanese Pitch Accent."

1. ~ Introduction to Japanese Pitch Accent ~
4) Pro Tip – PA 0 vs 2
4

2. ~ Introduction to Japanese Pitch Accent ~
4) Pro Tip – PA 0 vs 2
4WUTZ THE
DIFFERENCE?!

3. Pro Tip - PA 0 vs 2 - Outline
1. Review
2. Can You Hear It?
3. Let’s Compare PA 0 and 2
4. Practice

4. 1. Review
! How did you do distinguishing PA 0 and 1 in the previous exercise?
! Hopefully you can now hear the difference! If not,practice until you’re comfortable,as
you’ll want to have mastered the difference before tackling this next section.

5. 1. Review
! How did you do distinguishing PA 0 and 1 in the previous exercise?
! Hopefully you can now hear the difference! If not,practice until you’re comfortable,as
you’ll want to have mastered the difference before tackling this next section.
! Next up is hearing the difference between PA 0 and 2.
! This was one of the hardest parts of studying PA for me.
! I’ll tell you what I found in my hours of struggling and research,so that you can
(hopefully) grasp the difference quicker than I did,and go from:

6. 1. Review
! How did you do distinguishing PA 0 and 1 in the previous exercise?
! Hopefully you can now hear the difference! If not,practice until you’re comfortable,as
you’ll want to have mastered the difference before tackling this next section.
! Next up is hearing the difference between PA 0 and 2.
! This was one of the hardest parts of studying PA for me.
! I’ll tell you what I found in my hours of struggling and research,so that you can
(hopefully) grasp the difference quicker than I did,and go from:

7. 1. Review
! How did you do distinguishing PA 0 and 1 in the previous exercise?
! Hopefully you can now hear the difference! If not,practice until you’re comfortable,as
you’ll want to have mastered the difference before tackling this next section.
! Next up is hearing the difference between PA 0 and 2.
! This was one of the hardest parts of studying PA for me.
! I’ll tell you what I found in my hours of struggling and research,so that you can
(hopefully) grasp the difference quicker than I did,and go from:

8. 1. Review
! How did you do distinguishing PA 0 and 1 in the previous exercise?
! Hopefully you can now hear the difference! If not,practice until you’re comfortable,as
you’ll want to have mastered the difference before tackling this next section.
! Next up is hearing the difference between PA 0 and 2.
! This was one of the hardest parts of studying PA for me.
! I’ll tell you what I found in my hours of struggling and research,so that you can
(hopefully) grasp the difference quicker than I did,and go from:

9. 2. Can You Hear It?
! I initially found it very difficult to hear the difference between PA 0
and 2 words with the same number of syllables.

10. 2. Can You Hear It?
! I initially found it very difficult to hear the difference between PA 0
and 2 words with the same number of syllables.
! I figure this is either because I have terrible ears,or that I didn’t know what to listen
for.(For my ego’s sake,I choose to believe the latter lol.)
! The self-study books I found used the 2-letter (H L) system - which doesn't accurately
reflect the pitch that Japanese native speakers use.Real speech is made up of more
than just two pitches.

11. 2. Can You Hear It?
! I initially found it very difficult to hear the difference between PA 0
and 2 words with the same number of syllables.
! I figure this is either because I have terrible ears,or that I didn’t know what to listen
for.(For my ego’s sake,I choose to believe the latter lol.)
! The self-study books I found used the 2-letter (H L) system - which doesn't accurately
reflect the pitch that Japanese native speakers use.Real speech is made up of more
than just two pitches.
! Let’s explore the difference between 負かす(0) and 任す(2).
! Both words are まかす and mean “to beat s.o.” and “to entrust to s.o.” respectively.
! They are identical except for PA.

12. 3. Let’s Compare PA 0 and 2
! A
負かす（まかす） 任す（まかす）
PA Number
Accent Nucleus
Pitch Diagram
Pitch Contour
Pitch Explanation
Native Speaker
Impressions

13. 3. Let’s Compare PA 0 and 2
! A
負かす（まかす） 任す（まかす）
PA Number 0 2
Accent Nucleus
Pitch Diagram
Pitch Contour
Pitch Explanation
Native Speaker
Impressions

14. 3. Let’s Compare PA 0 and 2
! A
負かす（まかす） 任す（まかす）
PA Number 0 2
Accent Nucleus - か
Pitch Diagram
Pitch Contour
Pitch Explanation
Native Speaker
Impressions

15. 3. Let’s Compare PA 0 and 2
! A
負かす（まかす） 任す（まかす）
PA Number 0 2
Accent Nucleus - か
Pitch Diagram L h h L H L
Pitch Contour
Pitch Explanation
Native Speaker
Impressions

16. 3. Let’s Compare PA 0 and 2
! A
負かす（まかす） 任す（まかす）
PA Number 0 2
Accent Nucleus - か
Pitch Diagram L h h L H L
Pitch Contour
ま か す ま か す
Pitch Explanation
Native Speaker
Impressions

17. 3. Let’s Compare PA 0 and 2
! A
! )
負かす（まかす） 任す（まかす）
PA Number 0 2
Accent Nucleus - か
Pitch Diagram L h h L H L
Pitch Contour
ま か す ま か す
Pitch Explanation
A smooth hill.
The pitch starts low,rises slightly,and
gradually falls again towards the end.
A pointy mountain.
The peak occurs over the accent nucleus,
then the pitch drops steeply.
Native Speaker
Impressions

18. 3. Let’s Compare PA 0 and 2
! A
負かす（まかす） 任す（まかす）
PA Number 0 2
Accent Nucleus - か
Pitch Diagram L h h L H L
Pitch Contour
ま か す ま か す
Pitch Explanation
A smooth hill.
The pitch starts low,rises slightly,and
gradually falls again towards the end.
A pointy mountain.
The peak occurs over the accent nucleus,
then the pitch drops steeply.
Native Speaker
Impressions
PA 0 words are "flat."
Because there is no accent nucleus,the
pitch doesn't change much - there is no
abrupt drop in pitch.
PA 1+ words have a “big drop.”
The accent nucleus always has the highest pitch
in the word – it makes it even easier to hear the
very important drop in pitch right after.

19. 3. Let’s Compare PA 0 and 2
! A
! PA 1+ = shorthand for PA 1,2,3,4,5,etc.(i.e.Any word that has an accent nucleus)
負かす（まかす） 任す（まかす）
PA Number 0 2
Accent Nucleus - か
Pitch Diagram L h h L H L
Pitch Contour
ま か す ま か す
Pitch Explanation
A smooth hill.
The pitch starts low,rises slightly,and
gradually falls again towards the end.
A pointy mountain.
The peak occurs over the accent nucleus,
then the pitch drops steeply.
Native Speaker
Impressions
PA 0 words are "flat."
Because there is no accent nucleus,the
pitch doesn't change much - there is no
abrupt drop in pitch.
PA 1+ words have a “big drop.”
The accent nucleus always has the highest pitch
in the word – it makes it even easier to hear the
very important drop in pitch right after.

20. 4. Practice
! Now that you’ve read about the differences between PA 0 and 2, it’s
time to try and put that knowledge into practice!

21. 4. Practice
! Now that you’ve read about the differences between PA 0 and 2, it’s
time to try and put that knowledge into practice!
! The practice is the same as the previous section.
! First you must identify 0 vs 2 pairs,which makes the difference easier to hear.
! Then you will graduate to identifying words in isolation.This can be very tough!

22. 4. Practice
! Now that you’ve read about the differences between PA 0 and 2, it’s
time to try and put that knowledge into practice!
! The practice is the same as the previous section.
! First you must identify 0 vs 2 pairs,which makes the difference easier to hear.
! Then you will graduate to identifying words in isolation.This can be very tough!
! Don’t worry if you can’t yet master hearing the difference between
individual words of PA 0 and 2.
! This ability will build naturally over time.Don’t stress over it too much!

23. 4. Practice
! You are ready to move on to the next section when you can:
! Identify the 0 vs 2 pairs without any trouble.
! Identify the 0 vs 2 individual words with some confidence.

24. 4. Practice
We re totally gonna
rock this! ♡
! You are ready to move on to the next section when you can:
! Identify the 0 vs 2 pairs without any trouble.
! Identify the 0 vs 2 individual words with some confidence.