We’ve introduced some websites that are helpful for learning pronunciation in our Collection of Sites for Pronunciation (1) to (3).
This time, we will introduce three sites that are helpful with learning “accents” in pronunciation.
The low and high accents known as pitch accent is a characteristic of accents in Japanese. It’s different from the stress accent of English and other languages.
By learning about the characteristics of Japanese accents, you may be able to realize problems that you are having in speaking or listening.
日本語発音ラボ Japanese Pronunciation Laboratory （Introduction article）
This is a website for practicing Japanese pronunciation.
For learners who don’t know much about Japanese accents, after learning about them here, please use the following site as a reference.
You can learn about pitch accent from the 'Pitch Accent' and 'Compound Word Accent' tabs.
Let’s start by checking the 'Explanation' section under the 'Pitch Accent' tab.
It provides explanations about 'Standard Japanese accent' and 'Akusento-kaku (accent nucleus), akusento-gata (accent pattern).'
Next, let’s move on to 'Practice.' There are three listening practice sections.
Prepare a pen and paper to take notes of your answers.
日本語教育用アクセント辞典 - Japanese Accent Study Website
When you want to know about accents, this is a site you can use to search.
Only the top page is available in English.
When you want to search for the accent of a word, click “かな” from the right side of the screen.
This is a useful dictionary for people who want to know how to read the accent marks, advanced learners of Japanese and teachers of Japanese.
For people who want to learn more about the basics, the site introduced first is recommended.
Pitch Accent! If I understand it, maybe my Japanene pronunciation will get better!
Japanese Pitch Accent
You can study about Japanese accents with material created by a learner of Japanese themselves.
The writer explains the basic details, with some personal experiences mixed in, in English.
For learners who don’t know much about Japanese accents, after learning about them here, please use the following two sites as a reference.
Explanation
Practice
To practice on this site, first, please make an account on memrise.(Introduction article) (It’s free and requires an email address and a password.)
After logging in, click on “Courses”.
Then, select I speak “English”.
Select Japanese from the language category, and in the search box, search for “Japanese pitch accent” and it will come up right away.
This site was introduced on the eな Information Station.