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If a word's pitch accent contour ends in a high pitch, how do lexicographic resources usually indicate it if the word's part of speech doesn't allow for a contrast between word-final H(-H) (unaccented, 平板 heiban) and H(-L) (nucleus on last syllable, 尾高 odaka)?

For a hypothetical word [あかさ]{LHH}, which of the following two pitch accent contours would a dictionary, pitch accent manual, or learning resource normally indicate?

  • あかさ￣ (notation for あかさ without downstep)
  • あかさ＼ (notation for あかさꜜ)

Another way of putting this is: If there is no syntactic test available for a particular word (or word class, such as an entire part of speech) that could distinguish 平板 heiban and 尾高 odaka, what is the lexicographic convention for such cases?

  1. always 平板 heiban
  2. always 尾高 odaka
  3. publisher-dependent

The reason for asking is to ease the load on memorization: If one knows that a particular word class doesn't make a distinction, one needs to expend fewer mental resources on trying to memorize the distinction.

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  • 1
    Dictionaries would indicate the accent of that word is either 0 or 3. That's if I understood your question correctly.
    – aguijonazo
    Commented May 19 at 10:44
  • 1
    I was talking about the first sense, whose pitch is not affected by what follows, and my dictionary is スーパー大辞林.
    – aguijonazo
    Commented May 19 at 16:00
  • 2
    Can you give an example of an odaka word (not a hypothetical word, but a real word) for which the downstep never occurs? I'm not sure why something would be labeled odaka if there is never an occasion when the downstep would happen.
    – A.Ellett
    Commented May 20 at 12:31
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    Apologies for assuming you knew more than you did; the phrasing you've used so far made it sound like you were already at least somewhat familiar with terminology and conventions. To provide a quick summary: 平板【へいばん】 means roughly "flat", no downstep, and is annotated in many dictionaries with a zero [0]. If a word has a downstep, dictionaries indicate the number of the mora after which the downstep occurs: [1], [2]. etc. If the downstep happens at the end of the word (such that a following particle is pronounced at a notably lower voice pitch), that word is called 尾高【おだか】 or "tail high".
    – Eiríkr Útlendi
    Commented May 21 at 17:04
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    If the downstep occurs on the first mora of a word, that word is called 頭高【あたまだか】 or "head high". If the downstep occurs in the middle, that word is called 中高【なかだか】 or "middle high". Depending on usage, you may see the word 型【がた】 ("type, shape, kind") appended to the accent names. Most Chinese-derived on'yomi two-kanji terms are either heiban or atamadaka. Many verbs are nakadaka; I think most (all?) verbs ending in -eru and -aru have the downstep right after the "e" or "a". Oh, and pinging just in case: @LoverofStructure
    – Eiríkr Útlendi
    Commented May 21 at 17:16

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