Editing Pitch-accent language (section)

{{short description|Language that uses pitch changes for accent}}
{{redirect|Pitch accent|pitch accent in music|Accent (music)|intonational pitch accent|Pitch accent (intonation)}}
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A '''pitch-accent language''' is a type of language that, when spoken, has certain [[syllable]]s in words or [[morpheme]]s that are prominent, as indicated by a distinct contrasting [[pitch (music)|pitch]] ([[tone (linguistics)|linguistic tone]]) rather than by volume or length, as in some other languages like [[English language|English]]. Pitch-accent languages also contrast with fully [[tonal languages]] like [[Vietnamese language|Vietnamese]], [[Thai language|Thai]] and [[Standard Chinese]], in which practically every syllable can have an independent tone. Some scholars have claimed that the term "pitch accent" is not coherently defined and that pitch-accent languages are just a sub-category of tonal languages in general.<ref>Larry Hyman, [http://linguistics.berkeley.edu/~hyman/papers/2006-hyman-word.pdf "Word-Prosodic Typology"], ''Phonology'' (2006), 23: 225-257 Cambridge University Press</ref>

Languages that have been described as pitch-accent languages include: most dialects of [[Serbo-Croatian]], [[Slovene language|Slovene]], [[Baltic languages]], [[Ancient Greek]], [[Vedic Sanskrit]], [[Tlingit language|Tlingit]], [[Turkish language|Turkish]], [[Japanese language|Japanese]], [[Limburgish]], [[Norwegian language|Norwegian]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]] of [[Sweden]], Western [[Basque language|Basque]],<ref name="Hualde86">Hualde, J.I. (1986), [http://www.ehu.eus/ojs/index.php/ASJU/article/viewFile/7813/7007 "Tone and Stress in Basque: A Preliminary Survey"] (PDF). ''Anuario del Seminario Julio de Urquijo'' XX-3, 1986, pp. 867-896.</ref> [[Yaqui language|Yaqui]],<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Demers |first1=Richard |last2=Escalante |first2=Fernando |last3=Jelinik |first3=Eloise|title=Prominence in Yaqui Words|journal=International Journal of American Linguistics|year=1999|volume=65|issue=1|pages=40–55 |jstor=1265972|doi=10.1086/466375|s2cid=144693748 }}</ref> certain dialects of [[Korean language|Korean]], [[Shanghainese]],<ref>Matthew Y. Chen, ''Tone Sandhi: Patterns across Chinese Dialects'', CUP, 2000, p. 223.</ref> and [[Livonian language|Livonian]].

Pitch-accent languages tend to fall into two categories: those with a single pitch-contour (for example, high, or high{{ndash}}low) on the accented syllable, such as Tokyo [[Japanese language|Japanese]], Western [[Basque language|Basque]], or [[Persian language|Persian]]; and those in which more than one pitch-contour can occur on the accented syllable, such as [[Punjabi language|Punjabi]], [[Swedish language|Swedish]], or [[Serbo-Croatian]]. In this latter kind, the accented syllable is also often stressed another way.

Some of the languages considered pitch-accent languages, in addition to accented words, also have accentless words (e.g., [[Japanese language|Japanese]] and Western [[Basque language|Basque]]); in others all major words are accented (e.g., [[Blackfoot language|Blackfoot]] and [[Barasana-Eduria language|Barasana]]).<ref name="Levi">{{Cite journal |last=Levi |first=Susannah V. |date=June 2005 |title=Acoustic correlates of lexical accent in Turkish |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-the-international-phonetic-association/article/abs/acoustic-correlates-of-lexical-accent-in-turkish/8D9860DB459EF275238D64B946009294 |journal=Journal of the International Phonetic Association |language=en |volume=35 |issue=1 |pages=73–97 |doi=10.1017/S0025100305001921 |doi-broken-date=1 April 2025 |s2cid=145460722 |issn=1475-3502|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The term "pitch accent" is also used to denote a different feature, namely the use of pitch when speaking to give selective [[prominence (phonetics)|prominence]] (accent) to a [[syllable]] or [[mora (linguistics)|mora]] within a [[phrase]].<ref>Gordon, Matthew (2014). [http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/gordon/Gordon_Stress&accent.pdf "Disentangling stress and pitch accent: A typology of prominence at different prosodic levels"]. In [[Harry van der Hulst]] (ed.), ''Word Stress: Theoretical and Typological Issues'', pp. 83-118. Oxford University Press.</ref>