I know that Japanese has it, there’s a difference between 紙 and 神 for example:

Technically: Latin Alphabet languages have something alike but not known as “pitch accent” more akin to word stress (think, “Cent” vs “Scent” or “Whole” vs “Hole”) as in is there a difference in ‘volume’ (like the tone of your voice upon pronouncing either word). Is there an emphasis on how a word could be understood based on how it’s said (in EN, FR, DE)?

I mean, do you know examples of words in (European) languages or ENG where something equivalent of “pitch accent” applies? Can you also tell the difference between something like “sent” / “cent” and “scent” even though those types of words are not relevant to another simply by hearing someone pronouncing it and the tone of their voice?

  • Uruanna
    4·
    18 days ago

    I’ve only ever heard Japanese, Chinese, etc. described as tonal languages, not pitch accents.

    Japanese is not a tonal language, it does use pitch accents.

    • Kimika
      2·
      18 days ago

      I looked it up after my original post and as I understand it, pitch accent is a sub type of tonal in which there are only two tones. That description is probably an oversimplification, but that seems to capture what it is.

      • isyasad
        2·
        18 days ago

        It’s a little bit different in that pitch accent is different pitch across syllables/mora in a word while tone is changing pitch/stress in each individual syllable. But you are right that they are fundamentally very similar.