Standard Tokyo Japanese has a rich pitch-accent system where multiple pitch patterns are differentiated from each other in terms of the presence/absence of an abrupt pitch fall as well as its position. However, this is only one type of system among the variety of pitch-accent systems found in the language. This paper looks at these pitch-accent systems from typological viewpoints, through a comparison of the standard variety with some regional dialects that show radically different features.

Index Terms: pitch accent, Japanese dialects, distinctive feature, mora, question prosody