So if you wanted to say that you made a bridge of chopsticks on the edge of the table you would say, "Hashi hashi hashi!"?
Sorry I couldn't resist! Bob On Dec 14, 2011, at 5:41 PM, Tim Selander wrote: > (I should probably let one of the native Japanese people on this list answer, > but...) > > I don't know French, and am not precisely sure what you mean by 'tonic > accents' and am not a linguist, so don't know the proper term, but in > Japanese each syllable of a word has exactly the same beat or rhythm, so it > sounds rather staccato to an English speaker. > > But the voice can rise in pitch, stay flat, or drop in pitch for each > syllable. To foreign ears, it is a very, very slight change -- but of course > a very obvious change to native speakers. And that slight change in pitch can > completely change the meaning of a word. The language has a gazzillion (yes, > I believe that is the proper technical term ;-) homonyms. Just one example: > "Hashi" = chopsticks > "Hashi" = bridge > "Hashi" = the edge, like the edge of a table > > and the slight up/down/flat pitch combinations of the two syllables > determines which word, (chopsticks, bridge or edge), you are saying. > > HTH > > Tim Selander > Tokyo, Japan _______________________________________________ use-livecode mailing list use-livecode@lists.runrev.com Please visit this url to subscribe, unsubscribe and manage your subscription preferences: http://lists.runrev.com/mailman/listinfo/use-livecode
