User talk:Chameleon

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Accents[edit]

These accents on Japanese words such as saké are not French accents of vowel quality, they are Japanese tone accents. The accents on sáke and saké are correct. —Stephen 14:59, 6 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see any mention of any such use of the acute accent at wikipedia:Japanese_pitch_accent or elsewhere. ''Chameleon'' 09:15, 7 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]
I don’t know where you should look to find it, it’s something that I’ve known for half a century. Japanese has a pitch accent somewhat similar to Chinese, but there are only two pitches. The written acute accent áéíóú marks the LAST SYLLABLE before a fall in pitch. The first syllable in a phrase begins low unless it is a high pitch as in sáke. When the first syllable is low (the most common case), the next syllable is raised, and all successive syllables are raised until you reach the syllable marked with áéíóú, immediately following which the pitch falls until the next pitch group.
Thus, sayōnára is pronounced: sayōnára.
Dṓ itashimashite is pronounced: o itashimashite.
Kono chihṓ ni arimasu is pronounced: kono chihóo ni arimasu.
Aói kimono o kite imasu is pronounced: aói kimono o kite imasu.
Wakarimasén deshita is pronounced: wakarimasén deshita.
Hána desu ka, haná desu ka? is pronounced: na desu ka, ha desu ka?
In this way, apparent homonyms such as sáke (salmon) and saké (rice wine) are differentiated, and hána (nose) and haná (flower) are differentiated in speech by their pitch. —Stephen 12:02, 7 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, I know about pitch. But I haven't seen anything (certainly not anywhere on Wikipedia) that says that the accent is marked with an acute. ''Chameleon'' 02:22, 8 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]
Aha! I have bought a new dictionary and it uses the acute accent to indicate the stressed syllable. ''Chameleon'' 03:13, 14 October 2006 (UTC)[reply]

It's been awhile since I studied Spanish (and my Spanish was never very good), but doesn't "d" become /d/ in American Spanish and /ð/ in Spanish Spanish? I had assumed that was the explanation for the dual pronunciation. -Atelaes λάλει ἐμοί 08:39, 23 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Totally incorrect. Furthermore, if a dialectal pronunciation with [d] existed, it would have to be marked separately. Would you slip [ˈnuːkjəlɚ] in next to [ˈnjuːkliə] ? ''Chameleon'' 04:03, 24 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]