Pitch accent - Definition and Overview

For pitch accent in music, see: accent (music).

Pitch accent is a tonal system employed in many languages around the world. In a pitch-accented language, there is an accented syllable or mora, the position of which determines the tonal pattern of the whole word (the pitch of each syllable or mora, usually high vs. low) according to some rules.

Ancient Greek had a pitch accent, which later changed into a stress accent (where accented syllables are pronounced more forcefully, as in English, instead of having a higher pitch).

See also Japanese pitch accent.

Polysyllabic compounds in the Shanghai dialect of Wu Chinese, have characteristics of pitch accent as well. Like Japanese, the position of the accent for a given word in Shanghainese varies due to voicing.

See also

• Tonal language
• Timing
• Melodic accent