Quote:
Originally Posted by StonerPenguin
By the way, masaegu. A while ago I read in a beginner's Japanese book something I hadn't read before, and if it's true I will be somewhat confused. (Sorry for straying off topic, but since I mentioned Chinese pronunciation and stress...) The book says;
Then the book goes on to list various Japanese homophones. Is that true? Could you tell the difference between 箸 and 橋 if you just heard はし by the pitch? I mean, I can't hear the difference between 'stake' and 'steak' or 'see' and 'sea' but it's the context that let's me know the meaning. I just assumed it was the same way for Japanese. If it's true I'm gonna feel freakin' retarded for getting to a semi-intermediate stage without knowing about this!
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You will be feeling freakin' retarted if you don't check your own pitch accents on many pairs of words
NOW before you go onto studying at higher levels.
That the Japanese pronounciation is easy because it only has five vowels is only a myth. No one who would tell you that would be a fluent speaker because s/he is ignoring the pitch accents completely.
In English, "steak" and "stake" are pronounced the same regardless of the context, but not 箸 and 橋 or 型 and 肩 or 勝った and 買った, etc. in Japanese. To illustrate the point, I am using musical notes below.
箸 （はし） = mi do = chopsticks
橋 （はし） = do mi = a bridge
型 （かた） = do mi = a form, shape
肩 （かた） = mi do = a shoulder
勝った （かった） = mi do = won
買った （かった） = do mi = bought
If you need further assistance, please ask in the Japanese Help section.