is japanese a tonal language?

Answer 1

I don't know what drugs Arily666 has been taking, but Japanese is NOT NOT NOT a tonal language.

LATER EDIT: Waffles is absolutely wrong. Japanese is NOT a tonal language. The definition of a tonal language is a language that distinguishes between words by changing the tonal contour of the same set of sounds. Japanese has pitch accent that is totally predictable based on the number of syllables in the word. There is not a single pair of words in Japanese that is distinguished simply by a different tonal contour. Japanese words are invariably stressed on the penultimate syllable (if they are three syllables or longer). JAPANESE IS NOT A TONAL LANGUAGE. PERIOD!

EVEN LATER EDIT: RyoTa is making a fundamental mistake about the nature of the pitch accent. Pitch accents are NOT tones. Pitch accents are like English stress. English stress is often also analyzed as pitch accent, and, indeed, there are many features of English pitch accent that are much like Japanese pitch accent. But NO ONE would EVER analyze English as a "tonal" language. This shows a fundamental failure to understand the nature of tone. The Wikipedia article that RyoTa refers to NEVER mentions "tone", but only pitch accent. Pitch accent is NOT tone, so Japanese, as the Wikipedia article very expertly points out, is a pitch accent language (as I said earlier), but is NOT a tonal language.

Answer 2

Nope. As I've noticed when learning Japanese myself, It isn't a tonal language.

You would notice it too if you were to learn Chinese tones. I find Japanese much easier to learn because of this.

All Japanese has are the regular English vowels 'a, i, u, e, o'

I never once had to use tone in Japanese.

There are also one other type of vowel, which is the general vowels with a line and it looks like this -->ā. See?

All it really does is extend the sound of it.

Eg.
ā = aa
ē = ei

See? Not a tonal language. Japanese never uses tones...

A tone is usually represented by the expression that is visible above a vowel.
As Japanese has only the plain vowels and the vowels with the dash above that represents a prolonged vowel, it doesn't use tone.

Definitely not a tonal language.

Answer 3

This Site Might Help You.

RE:
is japanese a tonal language?

Answer 4

In Japanese the number of syllable limits the pitch patterns to several but not to only one.
And there are groups of words in Japanese that is distinguished simply by a different tonal contour.
Look at "Examples of words which differ only in pitch" in:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pitch_accent
So Japanese meets the definition of a tonal language that Professor Taivo shows.
I think another page of Wikipedia, which Nat's Javier shows is wrong. Some dialects of Japanese are not tonal but most of them including standard Japanese are tonal.


Thank you Professor Taivo. Now I correctly remember the definition of tone and pitch accent. I have once read about that. You are right. Japanese is a pitch accent language and not a tonal language.

But your explanation also has minor mistakes. In standard Japanese the pitch pattern of each word is determined by 1)the number of syllables(technically, moras), 2)whether or not the word has the pitch accent nucleus and if it has, 3)the location of the accent nucleus. So your comment 'Japanese has pitch accent that is totally predictable based on the number of syllables in the word' is not correct in the strict sense of the word. And 'Japanese words are invariably stressed on the penultimate syllable (if they are three syllables or longer)' is also wrong because the accent nucleus can fall on any syllable (although the last syllable tends not to carry the accent nucleus in longer words).

I also make correction to my answer :
#there are groups of words in Japanese that is distinguished simply by a different PITCH PATTERN. (not tonal contour)
#Japanese DOESN'T MEET the definition of a tonal language that Professor Taivo shows.
#another page of Wikipedia, which Nat's Javier shows is CORRECT.
#Some dialects of Japanese DON'T HAVE PITCH ACCENT but most of them including standard Japanese HAVE.

By the way, western dialect of Japanese has two different kinds of tones in addition to pitch accent. They say that's why it's harder for people from other parts of the country to master the phonology of the dialect. The report I've read is about this topic.

Answer 5

According to this Wikipedia article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonal_language#Geography_of_tonality ), standard Japanese is not tonal.

Answer 6

Japanese IS a tonal language, but we Westerners tend to not notice it because it's not nearly as heavily implimented as in Chinese. This is especially obscured by the Westernization of Japanese popular music. But anybody who learns to properly speak Japanese by imitating native speakers (whether it be through conversation or repeating statements from a movie) tends to picks up on the spoken nuances without consciously realizing they're using tonal inflections.

Answer 7

yes