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雨と飴? Sometimes I here people say Japanese has no inflection or stressed syllables, but when it comes to 雨 (rain: あめ。)and 飴 (candy : あめ。)I get really really confused. Could someone please clarify the whole inflection in Japanese debate? When do I use inflection on words and when do I pay attention to the stressed syllables??? ありがとうみんなさん。
May 27, 2015 6:10 PM
Answers · 13
5
Correction ありがとうみんなさん。→みなさん、よろしくおねがいします。 1. We say みんな and みなさん. But we don't say みんなさん. みんなis a changed form of みな<everybody>. It's not a formal word. みなさんis a changed form of みなさま<皆様> and retains the original form "みな". さん/さま(honorific) doesn't match a casual form みんな. 2. よろしくおねがいしますI hope you will take care of me.=Thanking you in advance. To sayありがとう is strange because you haven't known whether someone gives you a favor. It might be a correct expression in English. But in Japanese, we don't say "ありがとうThank you" before we know someone gives us a favor. Answer There are inflection and stress in Japanese too. But they are different to English. The unit of sound is not syllable. It's mora( 拍<はく>[haku]in Japanese). Mora is similar to beat or stroke. おばさん[obasaɴ]aunt / middle aged woman 3 syllables 4 moras おばあさん[oba:saɴ]grandmother / elderly woman 3 syllables 5 moras かた[kata]shoulder 2 syllables 2 moras かった[katta]won 2 syllables 3 moras かいた[kaita]wrote 2 syllables 3 moras English has a stress accent and Japanese has a pitch accent. We use pitch(height of sound) instead of stress. 雨<あめ> rain: あis high, め is low. It isミ(Me/E)ド(Doe/C) if I say with a musical scale. 飴<あめ> candy : あis low, め is high. It isド(Doe/C)レ(Ray/D) if I say with a musical scale. When we emphasize(put a prominence on) some part, we stress those place. それは わたしのです!(あなたのでは ありません)It's mine! (Not yours) ※わたしの(です)is pronounced stronger and higher than それは. A: だれが いきますか。Who will go? B: わたしが いきます。I'll go. わたしが いきます。※だれが/わたしがis pronounced stronger and higher than いきます(か). If you want further information, you can take my "Japanese Accent Rules" course. (^-^)
May 27, 2015
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