I know that Japanese has it, there’s a difference between 紙 and 神 for example:
Technically: Latin Alphabet languages have something alike but not known as “pitch accent” more akin to word stress (think, “Cent” vs “Scent” or “Whole” vs “Hole”) as in is there a difference in ‘volume’ (like the tone of your voice upon pronouncing either word). Is there an emphasis on how a word could be understood based on how it’s said (in EN, FR, DE)?
I mean, do you know examples of words in (European) languages or ENG where something equivalent of “pitch accent” applies? Can you also tell the difference between something like “sent” / “cent” and “scent” even though those types of words are not relevant to another simply by hearing someone pronouncing it and the tone of their voice?
It might just be my regional (Philadelphia) accent, or even just how I personally speak
But I do feel like there is a very subtle difference in how I pronounce scent, cent, and sent.
Like so subtle I absolutely wouldn’t notice it if I wasn’t specifically listening for it, and wasn’t even aware of it until just now because I never had a reason to even think about it.
In scent, I sort of stretch out the “s” a little longer, and the “e” feels a little more nasal
With “cent” the “c” becomes almost like a “ts” sound, and the “e” feels a little higher-pitched than in “sent” and I also kind of hit the “t” a little harder which kind of makes the word feel a little shorter and punchier.
Again, this is all “very” subtle, not something most people could probably pick up on at all in actual conversation, but sitting around talking to myself at midnight and really thinking about it I can pick up a little bit of a difference.
There is one something like this for me and that is the word Gnome. People say it as either Nome or GuhNome. But I was taught that GN makes a nasally ng with toungue going back closing Tue throat/roof of mouth like you would like the sound and the ending of ing words. Like ngnome. If I say Gnome or Nome my tongue and throat are doing different things. Gnometongues is at the back first, Nome tongue is against roof of mouth at the front teeth to start. To a listener it might not be that noticeable unless they spoke a language with those specific sounds.
Are you sure it’s not what other sounds are occurring around the words affecting the sound? How we pronounce t and s can vary quite a bit, even in the same word when it occurs differently, with different sounds right before it after or even different stress placed on the word based on the context.