How to say the vertical vowel extension line in Japanese?

Question

I'm learning katakana these days and my book introduces the horizontal line which is use to lengthen a vowel sound as in internet inta-netto

My book says this line is called yoko bou which I can find in the dictionary.

Then my book mentions that when writing in vertical script it is called tabe bou. I cannot find this in the dictionary. I speak Chinese so I already know about 横 horizontal and 纵 vertical. 纵 turns out to be tate in my dictionary.

So is tabe a typo/mistake or are tate and tabe both variants ? Or maybe tate changes to tabe when followed by bou ?

Answer 1

Bou is just the reading for 棒【ぼう】 "bar; pole". There are a few other names for this mark, as detailed in the JA Wikipedia article at 長音符, and also some in the EN Wikipedia article at Chōonpu:

• 長音符【ちょうおんぷ】 -- "long sound mark"
• 長音符号【ちょうおんふごう】 -- "long sound symbol"
• 長音記号【ちょうおんきごう】 -- "long sound notation"
• 音引き【おんびき】 -- "sound puller / lengthener"
• 棒引き【ぼうびき】 -- "bar puller / lengthener"
• 伸ばし【のばし】棒【ぼう】 -- "lengthener / stretcher bar"

As you noted, there are also:

• 横【よこ】棒【ぼう】 -- "horizontal bar / pole"
• 縦【たて】棒【ぼう】 -- "vertical bar / pole"