I am starting to train pitch accent. And I’m pretty confident that https://www.wanikani.com/vocabulary/茶屋 is spoken with an atamadaka (頭高) accent pattern. But my dictionaries tell me that’s a mistake and it should be heiban (平板).
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Listening on Forvo, 3 of out 4 are 平板 while one is 頭高.
On Youglish, I think it’s 平板, excluding place names.
Anyway, I don’t know if it is easy to mishear for something else, considering variants.
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Hey Astaroph! I think you’re right. I am going to pass this off to the content team because both voices are clearly speaking the word with the 頭高 pitch accent and it should be 平板, at least according to the Apple Dictionary.
Thanks for posting this!
-Nick at WK
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Hi there,
This is interesting. You’re right on Forvo, 3 of out 4 are 平板 while one is 頭高. However, on Youglish, I’d say that it’s actually 頭高 for the standalone uses like this and this. (If you have specific videos you want me to check, send me the links. Many videos were actually not parsed properly.)
茶屋 is actually an old-fashioned word that refers to a traditional Japanese teahouse, which historically served as a place for rest and refreshment for travelers, offering tea and sometimes other light fare. It’s possible that the accent has been getting modernized and shifting to 頭高 by younger generations. I’d personally say 頭高 as well.
I’ll discuss if we should switch the audio to 平板 with other colleagues. Thank you for bringing it up!
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Thanks Mami for providing your insight on this! 
I’m looking forward to knowing the decision too ha!
-Nick at WK
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