From what I understand, the hiragana characters above should make the word jidoushiya, but for some reason it is actually jidōsha.
Why did the word change this way even though the characters are:
じ → ji, ど → do, う → u,し → shi and ゃ → ya?
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2It's a small ゃ, not a large や.– AngelosCommented Jul 11, 2017 at 22:50
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fyi, those are hiragana, not kanji.– AndyCommented Jul 12, 2017 at 0:11
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2 Answers
The small ゃ is different to the larger や. When using the smaller ゃ after a character in the i-line, it modifies the sound before it;
So, しや='shiya' but しゃ='sha' Similarly, りや='riya' but りゃ='rya'
As for the ō, this is a notation which refers to an extended sound. Following お with う extends the sound to be twice as long, and this can be written either as 'ou' or 'ō' depending on personal preference.
Edit: this shows all the ways you can modify characters in this way in hiragana:
You can also do similar things with katakana such as ティ='ti' because this isn't normally a sound you can make in Japanese. These can usually be guessed, though.
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this explains things for publications since the end of WW2, but prior to that (and occasionally after) you would see しや for しゃ etc along with some other historical spellings.– A.EllettCommented Jul 12, 2017 at 5:21
The combined form is said as 拗音 (yō-on), as contracted form which special mora (syllable) formed by palatalized sound. Unlike chō-on (長音 = long sound) which counts as 2 moras, even written with 2 letters (the second one is smaller form of ya, yu or yo) it considered as single mora.
自動車 (jidōsha) as example word consists of 4 moras, all of them are on-readings from their respective kanji:
- 自 (ジ/じ) => daku-on (濁音), 1 mora
- 動 (ドウ/どう) => daku-on + chō-on, 2 moras
- 車 (シャ/しゃ) => yō-on, 1 mora
NB: Katakana form "ティ" (ti) doesn't considered as yō-on even using similar construction, it is part of additional letters specially created to form English or foreign loanwords/gairaigo (外来語).
References:
