尾お高だか型がた

お

だ

か

が

た

Meanings

noun

odaka pattern; tail-high accent pattern

linguistics

In Japanese pitch accent, a pattern where the pitch is low on the first mora, high on all following mora including the last, and then drops on the following particle. Common in words like 男 (おとこ) and 花 (はな).

「男おとこ」は尾お高だか型がたのアクセントで、「おとこが」のように助じょ詞しが付つくと下さがる。
The word 男 has an odaka accent pattern, so when a particle is attached, as in おとこが, the pitch drops.
尾お高だか型がたの単たん語ごは、単たん独どくでは平へい板ばん型がたと区く別べつがつきにくい。
Words with the odaka pattern are hard to distinguish from the heiban pattern when said alone.

Kanji

尾tail, end, counter for fish
高tall, high, expensive
型mould, type, model

Related words

平へい板ばん型がた
Heiban (flat) pattern: low first mora, then high through the last mora and the following particle. Unlike odaka, the particle stays high.
頭あたま高だか型がた
Atamadaka (head-high) pattern: high first mora, then low for the rest of the word and the particle. The drop occurs after the first mora, not after the last.
中なか高だか型がた
Nakadaka (middle-high) pattern: low first mora, high for some middle mora, then low again before the particle. The drop occurs inside the word, not after the last mora.

Built from

尾お+高たか+型かた

Etymology

Compound of 尾 (o, 'tail') + 高 (daka, 'high') + 型 (kata, 'pattern'). The term describes the pitch drop occurring after the 'tail' (last mora) of the word.