French Ears

[Bob Sneidar]

So if you wanted to say that you made a bridge of chopsticks on the edge of the table you would say, "Hashi hashi hashi!"? 

Sorry I couldn't resist!

Bob


On Dec 14, 2011, at 5:41 PM, Tim Selander wrote:

> (I should probably let one of the native Japanese people on this list answer, but...)
> 
> I don't know French, and am not precisely sure what you mean by 'tonic accents' and am not a linguist, so don't know the proper term, but in Japanese each syllable of a word has exactly the same beat or rhythm, so it sounds rather staccato to an English speaker.
> 
> But the voice can rise in pitch, stay flat, or drop in pitch for each syllable. To foreign ears, it is a very, very slight change -- but of course a very obvious change to native speakers. And that slight change in pitch can completely change the meaning of a word. The language has a gazzillion (yes, I believe that is the proper technical term ;-) homonyms. Just one example:
> "Hashi" = chopsticks
> "Hashi" = bridge
> "Hashi" = the edge, like the edge of a table
> 
> and the slight up/down/flat pitch combinations of the two syllables determines which word, (chopsticks, bridge or edge), you are saying.
> 
> HTH
> 
> Tim Selander
> Tokyo, Japan