# もとお



## brztm

Hello everyone,

Can somebody tell me what the pitch pattern of the name もとお (as in 木村 資生) is in Tokyo Japanese? On a similar note, does anyone know of any comprehensive academic treatise on the accentual patterns of Japanese personal names (or nouns in general)?


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## uchi.m

brztm said:


> Hello everyone,
> 
> Can somebody tell me what the pitch pattern of the name もとお (as in 木村 資生) is in Tokyo Japanese? On a similar note, does anyone know of any comprehensive academic treatise on the accentual patterns of Japanese personal names (or nouns in general)?



Motôo?


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## brztm

uchi.m said:


> Motôo?


Hi uchi.m,

Are you saying it's stressed on the second "o"?


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## uchi.m

brztm said:


> Hi uchi.m,
> 
> Are you saying it's stressed on the second "o"?


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## brztm

uchi.m said:


>


Thanks. So in other words it has the same accentual pattern as the word 地方 (and not, e.g., as in 火口 or 太郎)? Just to confirm we're talking about the same thing.


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## uchi.m

Let's wait for native speaker's opinions.


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## blackpuma

The long ō is normally not divided. 

For nouns, according to three native teachers of mine, there are no rules that you can use. Plus the pitch can change depending on context. ("You get used to it," I've been told.) 

If I'm not mistaken, when you say the whole name キムラモトオ, the accent pattern is /---\ (rising on キ, and falling a little on モ and more on トオ).  

Best to check with a native Japanese speaker, of course.


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## wathavy

I discussed with my wife and we concluded that there are two conclusions.



> 1. I would pronounce it Kimura Kisei than Kimura Motoo.
> 
> 2. And if Motoo is the proper way then there won't be any stress put on any of the sound. It will be pronounced flatly than other ways.



I wonder how other natives would say, though.


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## blackpuma

Thank you for the information. 

I assume this is the man: 木村資生


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## brztm

Thank you wathavy. Given that the name _is _Motoo, does the way the name is written make any difference whatsoever in pronunciation? Just glancing through English Wikipedia I found four different ways of writing the name Motoo - 資生, 幹郎, 元夫 and 幹雄. I'm assuming, since they're all in effect just different ways of representing the same one name in writing, they would be pronounced exactly the same?

blackpuma: Yes, Motoo Kimura is a prominent figure in population genetics.


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## blackpuma

brztm said:


> does the way the name is written make any difference whatsoever in pronunciation?



No. In Latin-based languages parents create different spellings for names to be creative, for example Jane and Jayne are pronounced the same. Japanese parents do the same.


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## almostfreebird

blackpuma said:


> In Latin-based languages parents create different spellings for names to be creative,



That reminded me of _Anne of Green Gables_.
Anne considers her name plain and unromantic, but likes the fact that her name is spelled with an "e",  she feels it makes her name far more distinguished than if it were "Ann".


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