先生, 先制

[Maxi Muneyoshi]

「先生、先制」の発音についての質問です。
I have heard these two words and I think in the second the pitch falls in ”せい”　while in the first it falls in ”せん”.

そうなんですか？

宜しくお願いします。

 

[Tonky]

The standard accent used for standard Japanese.

先生：せ「んせ」い
http://accent.u-biq.org/se.html
You can see the accent of 先生 in the above link.
The pitch rises from the second mora(ん) and falls after the third(せ). The particle after this word would stay low.

As for 先制, it is flat, meaning it does not have the "falling point", we usually call it "平板/Heiban".
先制：せ「んせい　
The pitch rises from the second mora(ん) and keep it high. The particle after this word would stay high.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_pitch_accent#Binary_pitch
Please refer to the above #3, heiban or accentless.

You can hear their difference in the below link.
http://translate.google.co.jp/#ja/en/先制 先生
(For some reason I had to list 先制 first to hear both of them correctly. If you list 先生 first and put 先制 afterwards, Ms Google pronounces it very weirdly.)

 

[Maxi Muneyoshi]

Thank you very much for your answer. As usual, very helpful and thorough.

Greetings,

Maxi M.