What is Pitch Accent in Japanese and is it Important?

Basically, every word in Japanese is said with a certain intonation. For example, in 機能 (きのう), the first syllable is loud and then the pitch drops off. Whereas in 昨日 (きのう), it starts low pitch, goes high on the second syllable and then drops back down. There are basically 4 such patterns in pitch. I’d explain the types myself but these two videos below do a much better job. Many examples use homophones to show how the difference in pitch has practical implications. The 2 videos together are about 30 minutes long. <a href="https://tejashdatta.medium.com/what-is-pitch-accent-in-japanese-and-is-it-important-ce1e60c65db3">Read More</a>