Page 63 - Basic Japanese

What the accent mark represents in Standard Japanese is

THE LAST SYLLABLE BEFORE A FALL IN PITCH. In yukkuri
‘slowly,’ there is a fall of pitch right after the syllable ku. In

Tokyo speech EVERY SYLLABLE UP TO THE FALL OF PITCH IS
HIGH EXCEPT THE FIRST OF THE PHRASE. Of course, if the

first syllable is itself the last before the fall, it is high. The
relative pitches in yukkúri ‘slowly’ and Génki desu ‘I’m fine’

look as below, where L stands for a low pitch and H stands
for a high pitch:

[cue 01-27]

yukkúri Génki desu.

[yu-k-ku-ri] [ge-n-ki-de-s]
L H H L H L L L L

‘slowly’ ‘I’m fine.’

You will be able to hear this fall of pitch most clearly when it
occurs on the first of a vowel sequence—like the long

vowels ā, ē, ī, ō, ū, or the sequences ai, ei, oi, ui—or when it
occurs on a vowel followed by the syllabic nasal. This is

because we tend to hear each of these double-syllables as
just one syllable and we are used to hearing a fall of pitch

WITHIN a syllable in English: He saw Jóhn. Look at the bóy.
Sáy. Hí! Mé. Nó. Yóu. Listen to these examples: