Are バレー (volleyball) and　バレエ (ballet) pronounced differently?


I recently learned that バレー is the short form of バレーボール and the word for
ballet, on the other hand is typically spelled バレエ. I'm wondering whether this
difference in spelling reflects a phonetic contrast.

At least according to Wikipedia, the pronunciation of
[バレー](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%83%90%E3%83%AC%E3%83%BC) and
[バレエ](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E3%83%90%E3%83%AC%E3%82%A8#Japanese) is
the same, but when I asked a native speaker she told that she thinks that the
pronunciation does differ, although she admitted that both words "kinda" sound
the same.




(Disclaimer: The following is my personal understanding; I could not find
authoritative reference about this, and I don't own an accent dictionary.)

  * バレー (volleyball): almost always バレー【HLL】 (unless it's in a compound word such as バレーボール【LHHHLL】)
  * バレエ (ballet): either as バレエ【LHH】 or バレエ【HLL】.

For ballet, I feel バレエ【LHH】 sounds somewhat more "modern" or "jargon-like",
while バレエ【HLL】 may be the "orthodox" pronunciation. (The same goes for
ドラマ【LHH】 vs ドラマ【HLL】, クラブ【LHH】 vs クラブ【HLL】, etc)

This means when you hear バレエ【LHH】をやっています, you can usually assume it means
ballet, while when you hear バレー【HLL】をやっています, you have to guess or ask. And I
have definitely heard native speakers ask どっちのバレー? ("Which バレー do you mean?")
several times.

By the way, from what I understand, バレエ is conventionally spelled as such so
that it can be visually distinguished from バレー(ボール). Ballet is sometimes
spelled also as バレー, and I think it's not wrong.

