• The Assman
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    5 months ago

    Complete guess, but probably because these are Chinese characters (kanji), which is more phonetic.

      • andres@lemm.ee
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        5 months ago

        Not tonal, but pitch accent difference. The first and last words (紙 and 髪) are indistinguishable by pronunciation, both are flat (pitch accent 平板 or ‘flat’). For the second word (神), the pitch accent descends for み (pitch accent 頭高 or ‘head high’).