Pitch Accent Patterns with Pluralized たち Nouns

Question

Curious if there are any general rules for the pitch accent for pluralized たち nouns.

For example:

Other words seem to fall on たち{HL}, rather than the noun itself.

I'm not certain if there's a clear pattern. But just in case, any general rules or tips on how pitch might work for たちed nouns?

How did you come up with the pitch accent for your examples? Also, what "other words" with たち do you have in mind? — Earthliŋ, Commented Apr 25, 2020 at 19:51
I used a combination of gavo.t.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ojad/phrasing/index and a pitch accent dictionary. As for other words where the pitch drops on た in たち, while I'm not recalling a specific example at the moment, I'm relatively confident I've heard this pattern before (could be wrong though). If one comes up, I'll post it here. — Ontic, Commented Apr 25, 2020 at 20:03
Native speakers, don't matter dialects, say た always is higher than ち or flat, only the exception ち is louder and higher at the end with question. — user34216, Commented Apr 25, 2020 at 22:25
@Chocolate - these pitch accent resources are somewhat imperfect. What would it be then? にんげんたち{LHHHHL} like Sadaharu Wakisaka suggested? — Ontic, Commented Apr 26, 2020 at 16:33

chocolate · Accepted Answer · 2020-04-27 02:12:09Z

8

The plural suffix ～～[達]{たち} is pronounced [たち]{LL}, as in:

[わたし]{LHH} → [わたしたち]{LHHLL}

[あなた]{LHL} → [あなたたち]{LHLLL}

[きみ]{LH} → [きみたち]{LHLL}

[こども]{LHH} → [こどもたち]{LHHLL}

[どうぶつ]{LHHH} → [どうぶつたち]{LHHHLL}

[ねこ]{HL} → [ねこたち]{HLLL}

[いぬ]{LH} → [いぬたち]{LHLL}

[せいと]{HLL} (生徒) → [せいとたち]{HLLLL}

[かんごし]{LHHL} (看護師) → [かんごしたち]{LHHLLL}

answered Apr 27, 2020 at 2:05

chocolate♦

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