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> Spoken Japanese isn't any more ambiguous than English (for a human, or a speech-to-text AI) because Japanese people pause between spoken words just like anyo
by kobeya 9y ago
> Spoken Japanese isn't any more ambiguous than English (for a human, or a speech-to-text AI) because Japanese people pause between spoken words just like anyone else.
Also intonation, which is not captured by the written system at all. Japanese isn't strongly tonal in the way Chinese is, but it has a regional prosody, like Swedish, which helps in disambiguating meaning.
- evincarofautumn 9y agoIt’s usually analysed as having both normal prosody and a pitch accent (similar to a stress accent) that varies somewhat by region. I’ve read that broadcasters are expected to use a standard (Tokyo?) pitch accent when speaking.
- alphonsegaston 9y agoThat is correct. The Tokyo dialect is considered "neutral" in the same way a Midwestern accent is for American broadcasters.