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by redwall_hp 15 days ago
As an addendum: Japanese isn't as all-in on pitch having semantics as Chinese, but pitch is very important. Words have "pitch accent" rather than "stress" the way English has, and overall pitch is strongly politeness-coded.

Speaking higher is politer, and noticeably dropping your pitch is threatening. You probably would pitch-up when speaking to your boss, and people working in shops or restaurants nearly sing welcome/thank you for coming type things.

1 comments

How would you pitch-up?

Does the entire Japanese population learn these things while growing up?

I think it's called learning to speak.
Don't be smartass. My question was how to change pitch? Most people can't change their pitch unless they have been trained. I can't speak with the pitch of child or woman. Neither are most people.
It's all relative. Nobody expects a grown man post-voice change to speak with the pitch of a child.