# Pitch accent of Kenichi **URL:** \ **Category:** Speaking\ **Created:** [April 9, 2020, 9:06pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/pitch-accent-of-kenichi/43043 "2020-04-09T21:06:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrotGiraffe](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/brotgiraffe/32/313736_2.png) [@BrotGiraffe](https://community.wanikani.com/u/BrotGiraffe)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2020, 9:06pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/pitch-accent-of-kenichi/43043/1 "2020-04-09T21:06:58Z")
Hello everyone! While progressing through wanikani I’ve noticed that in some cases the pitch accent of words differs between Kenichi and Kyoko (the male and female speakers). Interestingly enough, Kyoko’s pitch accent will most often of the time be the one most dictionaries show (so standard Tokyo dialect, I assume). Is there a reason for this? Is Kenichi speaking with some dialect, or are these just words that have multiple pronunciations? I don’t have many examples on hand, because I’ve never written these down, but there are quite a few per level. One example would be the vocabulary 科目. Dictionary apps show this is Heiban (low to high), but Kenichi seems to pronounce it Atamadaka (high to low). Anyway, just something I’ve been curious about, since I try to imitate the speakers while learning new words to immediately try to avoid bad habits. I’m still a beginner. ---
**Author:** ![sornvru](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/sornvru/32/187517_2.png) [@sornvru](https://community.wanikani.com/u/sornvru)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2020, 9:53pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/pitch-accent-of-kenichi/43043/2 "2020-04-09T21:53:12Z")
I’ve had the same question, honestly. But language isn’t a perfect science and not everyone is going to pronounce something exactly how it appears all the time. Sometimes there’s just a variation between speakers and getting used to that is an important part of learning any language. You may be interested in the pitch accent script to compare it to the audio. > [@\[Userscript\] WaniKani Pitch Info](https://community.wanikani.com/t/userscript-wanikani-pitch-info/18745): > > warning This is a third-party script/app and is not created by the WaniKani team. By using this, you understand that it can stop working at any time or be discontinued indefinitely. As a result of the [discussions in this thread](https://community.wanikani.com/t/Pitch-Accents-Where-did-these-come-from/18721/28), I made a userscript that displays the pitch type for a given vocabulary reading. The data has been automatically generated from results on [http://www.weblio.jp](http://www.weblio.jp) and will auto-lookup any new ones WaniKani may add in the future. Script: Requirements: A userscript ap… ---
**Author:** ![alo](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/alo/32/239506_2.png) [@alo](https://community.wanikani.com/u/alo)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2020, 9:55pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/pitch-accent-of-kenichi/43043/3 "2020-04-09T21:55:00Z")
Good question! I’d love to see a breakdown of that. The other thing I noticed is that he pronounces シ differently from Kyoko and I was wondering if that’s for the same reason he does the nasalized ガ or it’s a difference between how men and women pronounce it. ---
**Author:** ![sornvru](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/sornvru/32/187517_2.png) [@sornvru](https://community.wanikani.com/u/sornvru)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2020, 9:59pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/pitch-accent-of-kenichi/43043/4 "2020-04-09T21:59:56Z")
Forvo is a decent place to get more pronunciations if you’re ever unsure about Kyoko or Kenichi. > **[科目 pronunciation: How to pronounce 科目 in Japanese, Mandarin Chinese,...](https://forvo.com/word/%E7%A7%91%E7%9B%AE/#ja)** > > Pronunciation guide: Learn how to pronounce 科目 in Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Min Nan with native pronunciation. 科目 translation and audio pronunciation The two examples here match Kyoko’s pronunciation more than Kenichi’s. ---
**Author:** ![Sulax](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/sulax/32/190013_2.png) [@Sulax](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Sulax)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 12:29am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/pitch-accent-of-kenichi/43043/5 "2020-04-10T00:29:49Z")
Nice I didnt know such awesome scripts are existing thanks for sharing! ---
**Author:** ![Mericchan](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/mericchan/32/386953_2.png) [@Mericchan](https://community.wanikani.com/u/Mericchan)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2020, 4:57am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/pitch-accent-of-kenichi/43043/6 "2020-04-10T04:57:49Z")
Another one: 他所 Kyoko goes high to low, and Kenichi does the opposite. 🤷🏽‍♀️ ---
**Author:** ![JiltedValkyrie](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/jiltedvalkyrie/32/264648_2.png) [@JiltedValkyrie](https://community.wanikani.com/u/JiltedValkyrie)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 10:56pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/pitch-accent-of-kenichi/43043/7 "2020-04-21T22:56:55Z")
Men and women tend to have different accents in Japanese. ---
**Author:** ![tankwidow](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/tankwidow/32/302159_2.png) [@tankwidow](https://community.wanikani.com/u/tankwidow)\ **Post date:** [April 21, 2020, 11:02pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/pitch-accent-of-kenichi/43043/8 "2020-04-21T23:02:12Z")
I have heard that Japanese men sometimes speak with a “flat” tone, but I’m not sure if that is what you are hearing. ---
**Author:** ![BrotGiraffe](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/brotgiraffe/32/313736_2.png) [@BrotGiraffe](https://community.wanikani.com/u/BrotGiraffe)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 6:33am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/pitch-accent-of-kenichi/43043/9 "2020-04-22T06:33:16Z")
I have heard of this but I’ve never found any kind of actual resource on this and googling doesn’t show any useful results for me. Are there any obvious examples? Like common words that differ between males and females in pitch accent? ---
**Author:** ![JiltedValkyrie](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/jiltedvalkyrie/32/264648_2.png) [@JiltedValkyrie](https://community.wanikani.com/u/JiltedValkyrie)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2020, 7:01am UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/pitch-accent-of-kenichi/43043/10 "2020-04-22T07:01:37Z")
It’s more of a learned experience. I wouldn’t worry about it too much if you aren’t far along and not really speaking yet. If you want a great example of how males and females speak, check out Terrace House on Netflix. It’s three guys and three girls living with each other. The new season (Tokyo 2019-2020) is pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![hazimaaen](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/hazimaaen/32/322683_2.png) [@hazimaaen](https://community.wanikani.com/u/hazimaaen)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2020, 1:17pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/pitch-accent-of-kenichi/43043/11 "2020-07-18T13:17:43Z")
> [@BrotGiraffe](#): > > One example would be the vocabulary 科目 Wow cool! That vocab is the exact reason why I decided to search this topic up in the first place. I noticed it multiple times before, however I just took it as maybe a personal flair of his. However, since it repeated many times, I was thinking if others have noticed it too. I guess the only way to cope with this is to manually listen (and shadow) Kyoko-san’s recording when it comes to problematic words and memorise which ones are different. It usually works, however it does get a little confusing at times where I say the “correct” pitch accent (as according to the dictionary/[pitch accent script](https://community.wanikani.com/t/userscript-wanikani-pitch-info/18745)) and after keying in the answer, hearing a different pitch pattern play out. Hey, I’m not complaining though! Overall I think that it’s fine and not a tedious task considering the pitch accent script is there to guide me. 😬 ---
**Author:** ![nclbk](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/nclbk/32/320522_2.png) [@nclbk](https://community.wanikani.com/u/nclbk)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2020, 1:57pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/pitch-accent-of-kenichi/43043/12 "2020-07-18T13:57:36Z")
There’s one research paper, albeit an older one, I remember about this topic. In order to compare the voice pitch of female and male bilingual speakers of Japanese and American English who were students at the University of Hawaii, Ohara (1999) conducted an experiment in which the speakers were asked to leave two voice messages, one for a friend and one for a professor, recording each scenario in both English and Japanese. Ohara then measured the mean fundamental frequency for all speakers. Interestingly, all female subjects in the study exhibited “a higher mean fundamental frequency when speaking in Japanese than in English” (p. 109), but then also a higher frequency in the message to their professor than in the message to their friend. The male subjects’ frequency, on the other hand, did not differ significantly across languages nor did it differ by addressee. In short, the results of Ohara’s study confirm that a high pitch level is used by speakers to express “female” attributes in Japanese more strongly than in American English, which she linked to the pervasive social standard that it is desirable for Japanese women to sound “cute” or “gentle” and that this standard may also intersect with politeness, which appears to also be marked by pitch differences for female speakers but not for male speakers, given the consistent differences in frequency in the recorded messages to a friend versus a professor. Ohara, Y. (1999). Performing gender through voice pitch: A cross-cultural analysis of Japanese and American English. In U. Pasero & F. Baum (Eds.), _Wahrnehmung und Herstellung von Geschlecht_ (pp. 105-116). Wiesbaden: Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. [Performing gender through voice pitch: A cross-cultural analysis of Japanese and American English | SpringerLink](https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-322-89014-6_8) ---
**Author:** ![zyoeru](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/zyoeru/32/359072_2.png) [@zyoeru](https://community.wanikani.com/u/zyoeru)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2020, 5:25pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/pitch-accent-of-kenichi/43043/13 "2020-07-18T17:25:06Z")
シ is all down to how wide your mouth is. /g/ is called nasal weakening where in some speakers in some dialects the hard /g/ in words like golf and gateau will weaken to a nasal /ng/ sound like in hang. ---
**Author:** ![anon54313967](https://cdck-file-uploads-global.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/wanikanicommunity/original/3X/f/d/fd4c154120954695f788402f3bcf4e616499bc2d.png) [@anon54313967](https://community.wanikani.com/u/anon54313967)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2020, 5:59pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/pitch-accent-of-kenichi/43043/14 "2020-07-18T17:59:27Z")
> [@sornvru](#): > > But language isn’t a perfect science and not everyone is going to pronounce something exactly how it appears all the time. Sometimes there’s just a variation between speakers and getting used to that is an important part of learning any language. For anyone who’s watched Friends, I tend to think of this similar to the running joke they had where Chandler would stress words in a sentence when speaking the opposite of what most people would do. It’s obviously not 100% analogous, but not everyone is pining to be an NHK broadcaster and thus is unlikely to be speaking 100% perfect intonation. ---
**Author:** ![BrotGiraffe](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/brotgiraffe/32/313736_2.png) [@BrotGiraffe](https://community.wanikani.com/u/BrotGiraffe)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2020, 9:38pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/pitch-accent-of-kenichi/43043/15 "2020-07-18T21:38:28Z")
Very interesting. I’ve definitely observed the very same thing in some japanese teaching videos. If the teacher is a japanese woman and says something in keigo for example, the pitch of their voice will suddenly go up. As far as the pitch _accent_ of a word is concerned, there does not seem to be any differences between male and female speech though. ---
**Author:** ![nclbk](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/user_avatar/community.wanikani.com/nclbk/32/320522_2.png) [@nclbk](https://community.wanikani.com/u/nclbk)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2020, 11:10pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/pitch-accent-of-kenichi/43043/16 "2020-07-18T23:10:38Z")
> [@BrotGiraffe](#): > > As far as the pitch _accent_ of a word is concerned, there does not seem to be any differences between male and female speech though. Yeah, I haven’t been able to find anything on that in particular. I did find another study by Imai (2010) on vowel devoicing, where a gender difference appears to be emerging with female speakers devoicing vowels less frequently than male speakers, but that’s about all I could find. Imai, T. (2010). An Emerging Gender Difference in Japanese Vowel Devoicing. In D. R. Preston & N. Niedzielski (Eds.), _A Reader in Sociolinguistics_ (pp. 177-190). Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton. [Chapter 6. An Emerging Gender Difference in Japanese Vowel Devoicing](https://doi.org/10.1515/9781934078068.1.177) ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/wanikanicommunity/original/4X/6/2/a/62a8b0f4c59ff2c5b6651ffcf43531480b3e5297.png) [@system](https://community.wanikani.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2021, 11:11pm UTC](https://community.wanikani.com/t/pitch-accent-of-kenichi/43043/17 "2021-07-18T23:11:24Z")
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