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redwall_hpyesterday at 6:31 PM1 replyview on HN

As an addendum: Japanese isn't as all-in on pitch having semantics as Chinese, but pitch is very important. Words have "pitch accent" rather than "stress" the way English has, and overall pitch is strongly politeness-coded.

Speaking higher is politer, and noticeably dropping your pitch is threatening. You probably would pitch-up when speaking to your boss, and people working in shops or restaurants nearly sing welcome/thank you for coming type things.


Replies

kanbankarenyesterday at 7:13 PM

How would you pitch-up?

Does the entire Japanese population learn these things while growing up?

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