Besides the above mentioned, many other differences exist; but one conversant with the Tōkyō dialect will have no difficulty in being understood in any part of the country, amongst the educated classes.
Accent.
The accent in Japanese words is made by a slight elevation of the tone upon the accented syllable; as a general rule, in words of two syllables it falls on the first; in words of three syllables on the penult; and in words of four syllables on the anti-penult. But the accent always falls upon the syllable that has a double or prolonged vowel sound; as, ikō, yosasō, ii-kakeru, ii-tsukeru, yūmeshi. In words of two and like syllables, the accent varies; thus ha'na, a flower, has the accent on the first syllable; and in hana', the nose, it falls upon the last. In hashi', a bridge, the accent is on the final syllable; and in ha'shi, chop-sticks, it falls upon the first. No effort has been made to mark these accents.
Punctuation.
Among the difficulties which a foreigner has to meet in reading Japanese books, not the least are the want of proper punctuation, the running of words into each other, and the absence of any marks to distinguish proper names. Punctuation marks are sometimes used; but, excepting the large circle ○ and the character —, to separate paragraphs, they only serve to perplex the learner. The marks commonly used are 、 and 。; these often separate a noun in the possessive case from the thing possessed, the object of a verb from the verb, an attributive adjective from the noun, and an adverb from the word it qualifies.
To aid the learner in this matter it should be kept in mind that, a sentence never ends in a verb ending with te, do, domo, ba; or in the root form of a verb, in the attributive adjective in ki, or in an adverbial ending; though these may often be equivalent to a comma or a semicolon in English.
The root form of the verb, and the adverbial adjective ending ku, always mark a continuation of the sentence.
A sentence ends with the adjective or final form of the verb, with the predicative adjective endings in shi, with the preterite verb endings in ta, nu, shi, ki, or with the words nari, bashi, ari, tari, keri.
Article.
There is no Article in the Japanese language.
Noun.
The Noun is not subject to any changes in its syllables to designate either case, gender, or number.
