How To Stress Syllables in Japanese Pronunciation

How To Stress Syllables in Japanese Pronunciation For non-native Japanese speakers, learning the cadence of the spoken language can be very challenging.  Japanese has a pitch accent or musical accent, which can sound like a monotone to a new speakers ear. It is quite different from the stress accent found in English, other European languages and some Asian languages. This different accent system is also why Japanese speakers often struggle with putting the accent on the correct syllables when learning English.   A stress accent pronounces the syllable louder and holds it longer. English speakers speed up between accented syllables without really thinking about it, as a habit. But the pitch accent is based on the two relative pitch levels of high and low. Each syllable is pronounced with equal length, and each word has its own determined pitch and only one accent summit. Japanese sentences are constructed so that when spoken, the words sound almost like a melody, ​with rising and falling pitches. Unlike Englishs uneven, often halting rhythm, when spoken correctly Japanese sounds like a steadily flowing stream, particularly to the trained ear. The origin of the Japanese language has been a mystery to linguists for some time. Although it bears some similarities to Chinese, borrowing some Chinese characters in its written form, many linguists consider Japanese and so-called Japonic languages (most of which are considered dialects) to be a language isolate. Regional Japanese Dialects Japan has many regional dialects (hogen), and the  different dialects all have different accents. In Chinese, dialects (Mandarin, Cantonese, etc) vary so widely that speakers of different dialects are not able to understand each other.   But in Japanese, there are usually no  communication problems among people of different dialects since everybody understands standard Japanese (hyoujungo, a dialect spoken in Tokyo). In most cases, accentuation doesnt make a difference in the meaning of the words, and the Kyoto-Osaka dialects dont differ from Tokyo dialects in their vocabularies.   The one exception is the Ryukyuan versions of Japanese, spoken in Okinawa and the Amami Islands. While most Japanese speakers consider these to be dialects of the same language, these varieties may not be easily understood by those who speak Tokyo dialects. Even among the Ryukyuan dialects, there may be difficulty understanding each other. But the official stance of the Japanese government is that the Ryukyuan languages represent dialects of standard Japanese and are not separate languages.   Pronunciation of Japanese The pronunciation of Japanese is relatively easy compared with other aspects of the language. However, it requires an understanding of Japanese sounds, pitch accent, and intonation to sound like a native speaker. It also takes time and patience, and its easy to get frustrated. The best way to learn how to speak Japanese is to listen to the spoken language and try to imitate the way native speakers say and pronounce words.  A non-native speaker who focuses too much on the spelling or writing of Japanese without taking into account the pronunciation will have difficulty learning how to sound authentic.