Questions tagged [long-vowels]
長音. Vowels held for twice as long as short vowels. Unlike in English, long vowels in Japanese are not diphthongs. Long vowels in hiragana are generally written an extra kana such as あいうえお; in katakana they are generally written with the long vowel marker ー.
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Are there words whose kana spelling contains the sequence ょお/ョオ within the same morpheme?
The Kunrei-shiki standard (ISO 3602:1989; Documentation — Romanization of Japanese (kana script)) lists both よお/ヨオ and よう/ヨウ for yô, but in its Table 3b (Kana trigraphs representing palatalized long-...
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What is the most appropriate way to indicate a long vowel in Katakana?
I know that often, when rendering a long vowel in Katakana, a hyphen is used.
For example, the Katakana rendering of the English word "coat" is often shown as コート .
I have seen both "ko-...
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Katakana Long Vowel Marking (Pokemon Related)
I've been looking at Pokemon names in Japanese and notice that there are some inconsistencies in writing long vowels in their names. For example, ミニリュウ (Dratini) vs ハクリュー (Dragonair). I'm curious as ...
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Understanding how macrons work in romaji
I understand how it works for Ohayō the o here is omitting the u from う, so without the macron it would be "ohayou". Even Tōkyō becomes Toukyou. But what about other vowels? such as ī ē ā ū ...
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Pronunciation of long o (e.g. in Street Fighter)—"oo" or "ou"?
I have very little knowledge regarding Japanese, but I'm curious about the pronunciation of the long o. In Street Fighter, according to my basic research, the "ō" in "hadōken" is ...
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How do I write the equivalent ofトー (tō) in hiragana?
I am trying to write a character's name, given to me in katakana, in hiragana. The character's name ends in "トー" (tō). I'm brand new to Japanese and learned that ー is the "chōonpu,"...
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Romaji for long vowel: 通り vs 東リ
I was told that in romaji the long vowel of o would be ō (see this tutorial)
However, I am confused by these two words. In Google Translate they both were romanized as Tōri (see here), but their 平仮名 ...
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pronunciation of ている
(The question was asked here but the answers didn't really address what I am about to ask.) One rule about long vowels is that the long vowel for え段 is written え段 + い. For instance けいじどうしゃ is ...
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What is the function of 一 in バスルーム and コンピュータ?
Is 一 in バスルーム and コンピュータ meant to indicate a drawn out vowel? Like ba-su-ruuu-mu and kon-pi-yuuu-ta? Or is it a counter somehow? And it's the line radical (http://www.kanjidamage.com/kanji/1-one-line-...
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Do native speakers learn consonant and vowel length easily, or is it difficult?
Just want to ask if this is normal or I am just fighting the wrong way.
かっこいい say this word has the final 2 い which shall take 2 length of the i sound.
I am struggling to keep trying to speak with 2 ...
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A grammar issue?
What is the meaning of the "long hyphen," --, a DASH really, for grammar, translation, and punctuation? For example :
シャワーヘッド (Shawaheddo)? Thank you
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Are there many occurrences of elongated syllables throughout the language?
I've been studying Japanese through Duolingo and I wouldn't say I've progressed very far. I've learned some of the basics of Hiragana and it's beginning to transition into Kanji. While learning ...
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Do native speakers pronounce long vowels えい or おう as one long vowel, or two different vowels?
In Japanese, long vowels ā, ī, ū are written as ああ (aa), いい (ii), うう (uu). However, ē and ō, in most cases, written as えい (ei) and おう (ou), but in other cases as ええ (ee) and おお (oo).
For example:
先生{...
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How is the long O sound pronounced when followed by を?
For example, 化粧 is read けしょう. When followed by を, how is it pronounced?
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Why does ボウル use a vowel kana rather than a long vowel mark?
It seems like both ボウル and ボール are valid Japanese words. The general impression I get is that using long vowel marks ("ー") are the norm for words written in katakana.
In Why are long vowels ...
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Long vowel AND extension?
In an artwork of a pokemon, Lunala in English, it is written ルナアーラ. Why, after the ナ, are there both an ア and a ー? It would just be pronounced as if any of those two were removed, so why are they both ...
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How to write long sound to emphasize words?
For example, I want to emphasize the word しらない by saying shiiiiiranai, しいいいらない seems a little bit weird to me. How do you write this in japanese character, can we also write this in the form of kanji?
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Why are う and い used to prolong ~O and ~E, instead of お and え?
When was this rule to prolong short vowels added to Japanese?
And is there any formally accepted reason for using う and い instead of お and え? (which would seem like a more natural option, in my ...
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Long O — when is it OU and when OO?
I am learning hiragana and I've encountered a minor problem. The thing is that my book did mention how to deal with a long "O": just by adding another "O" or "U". However it doesn't explain in which ...
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Pronouncing ない as ねい / ねえ (also ~oi to ~ei)
I noticed that in anime and other Japanese shows, people often pronounce 「ない」 as 「ねい」. For example, instead of saying 「使わない」, the person will say 「使わねい」, but the translation is the same.
I have many ...
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Why is "boyfriend" transliterated as 「ボーイフレンド 」 instead of 「ボイフレンド」?
Most of the time, I can guess correctly how to write an english Gairaigo word in katakana. When I am mistaken, I understand the correct writing and learn from it. Some feel a bit odd, but with time I ...
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Long vowel followed by っ
I've noticed that it seems rare to have a long vowel followed by a geminate consonant (っ + consonant). The only example I can think of is when attaching a suffix like 〜って to a word ending in a long ...
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Kanji with long あー sound
Although the long あー sound occurs in many words written in katakana, and in some onomatopoeia and interjections (ザーザー, まあ, etc.) it seems to be very rare in words written with kanji. The only example ...
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Can the last い in かわいい be dropped?
In the Genki I textbook, it says that the i and the u vowels are sometimes dropped when placed between voiceless consonants or at the end of an utterance preceded by voiceless consonants.
The example ...
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Correct romanization for ベオウルフ (Beowulf) and the use of ō
I want to know the correct romanization for ベオウルフ.
For me, it's Beōrufu, because the pronunciation of Be-o-wulf has a long vowel (oo/ou/ow/oh). However, some people discord for being a foreign name.
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Why are long vowels represented differently in hiragana and katakana?
Wikiversity says the following about long vowels in Japanese:
A long vowel takes two morae. In rōmaji it's written with a macron: ā,
ī, ū, ē and ō.
In hiragana, it's written with an extra "あ"...
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Should 「ソウル」 be pronounced as "so u ru" or "so: ru"?
According to the ipadic attached to Mecab, it's "so u ru".
According to the bccwj dict attached to Julius, it's "so: ru".
Which one is correct? Or are they both OK?
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ー vs small kana vs long kana for writing long vowels
I had thought that for writing long vowels in Japanese, that small kana was mostly used with hiragana and ー was mostly used with katakana.
I was actually thinking of asking whether there were ...
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What is the difference between the wave dash 〜 and long vowel marker ー when marking long vowels?
I know that the wave dash 〜 can be used in place of the long vowel marker ー sometimes, but I'm not exactly sure what the differences are.
Is there any difference in pronunciation? I read once that ...
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What is the correct romanization of イー?
According to the rules of Hepburn (http://www.halcat.com/roomazi/doc/hep3.html), しいたけ is correctly romanized as shiitake. What is the correct romanization of イー as in シート? Should it be shiito or shīto ...
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Does the ー represent a double vowel or a long vowel sound?
For words like パーティー (party), I know ー is doubling the ア and イ. But for a word like センセイ (and let's assume for the sake of argument that it is regularly spelled in katakana), would it be センセイ or センセー ?...
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things that look like long vowels but aren't
Are there words written with "ei" or "ou" that are pronounced with both vowels instead of as a long vowel? I think this is true in cases like 拾う and している, but are there cases of it happening where you'...
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What does the use of a dash (instead of a character) to extend a sound mean?
I came across the sentence 混乱する気持ちもよーくわかる in my manga. I have translated it, but the use of the dash (which was vertical in the actual vertical text) stumped me for a bit (I thought it was よう at first,...
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