Christopher Creutzig wrote:
> Lawson English wrote:
> 
>>> Think of the ぜ as adding emphasis. 踏み込むぜ! アクセル!
>>
>> Thanks to both of you. The word order normally would be
>> アクセル に 踏み込むぜ! wouldn't it? Just doesn't sound forceful that
>> way and wouldn't scan in the song, I guess...
> 
>  I don't see how that would make sense, no. Depending on context, 「踏 
> み込むぜ! アクセル!」 could be “We are trespassing! Break!” or something 
> like that, I believe. (I'd love to be corrected if this is wrong. I am 
> rather confident, though, that 踏み込む cannot be used as “step onto 
> [the brakes].”)

I think that 「アクセル」 is accelerator. Maybe: "Step on it! 
Accelerate!" would be closer. The fan-sub translation is "Step on the gas."


> 
>> Listen to the words of the introductory song. 「を」 is clearly
>> pronounced wo in several places instead of o. I think it's a singing
> 
>  Interesting. I also think I've just heard ひき pronounced “miki”. My 
> guess is that even the pronunciation is something I won't try to learn 
> from manga.
> 
>  A propos pronunciation: I know Japanese words have certain patterns of 
> “melody” or stressed syllables, and if I'm informed correctly, those do 
> sometimes make a difference in meaning. (I used to believe that there 
> was such a difference between two words 「へや」, but since I can't find 
> the second one in any dictionary, my memoryseems to have fooled me.) Yet 
> I can't find any pronunciation indication in any dictionary I've seen – 
> why?
> 
> 
> Regards,
>     Christopher

The only dictionaries I have are English learner dictionaries. I've seen 
reference to dictionaries that DO show pitch accent, but I've never seen 
one either. Part of the problem might be that different regions put the 
accent on different places and the fact that when you add a particle to 
the end of a word or phrase, the spoken accent can change though 
dictionary accent doesn't.

The dictionary authors might think that English speakers probably 
wouldn't "get" the issue anyway, so they don't bother putting in the 
accent. I think that they're right, to be honest. My Japanese 
linguistics book goes into some detail about the issue and I had to 
reread the section several times, and I'm still not sure I get the whole 
thing, even for the Tokyo accent, which is the only one they discuss in 
any detail.