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Why is saki in japanese written as さつき？ there's other times I've seen the tsu in words without being pronounced. Why is this?

Andrew Grimm
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Nicole
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1 Answers1

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You're probably be confusing つ and っ. In other words, it's not さつき you're seeing, but さっき.

The small っ is not, however, silent: it creates a slight pause between さ and き, meaning words like さっき and さき, or 活気 (かっき) and 下記　(かき) are not homophones.

alexhatesmil
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  • Additional reading for any interested: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E4%BF%83%E9%9F%B3 – ssb Jan 07 '14 at 01:07
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    @ssb That's a helpful link, but I don't think someone who's unfamiliar with small `っ` will be able to read it. –  Jan 07 '14 at 01:10
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    True, which is a dilemma I often face in these situations: post links/info that are only relevant to the asker's level, or post any miscellaneous info that might be helpful regardless? Nevertheless there is an English version for sokuon apparently! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokuon – ssb Jan 07 '14 at 01:13
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    "a slight pause", is this a common way to describe gemination? I'm not saying it's a bad way (although it's a bit imprecise), I just hadn't seen it before – dainichi Jan 07 '14 at 04:43
  • I don't know how it's commonly described, but I would say it's more like a "sticky" pause rather than just "a slight pause". さっき would be pronunced like "sakki", where you pause between the two "k"s, and not "sa-[pause]-ki" – syin Jan 07 '14 at 05:26
  • It's incredibly imprecise, but I couldn't think of a better way to describe it succinctly. For speakers of languages that don't feature it, I think gemination needs to be heard to be understood. Vowel length is easy to conceptualize; consonant length, not so much. @flowercrown I like your describing it as a sticky, pause, though. I think that's much better than what I said. – alexhatesmil Jan 07 '14 at 06:22
  • The small つ is similar to (if not the the same as)the "glottal stop" which is used to describe the pronunciation of words like bottle with the "t"s dropped, which exists in some British accents. – Tim Jan 07 '14 at 08:49
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    @Tim A stop is when you use some part of the body such as the lips to obstruct air, stopping sound entirely, as in /k/ or /t/, but not as in /s/ or /n/. For example, あか and あっか both have stops, but あさ and あっさ do not. Japanese geminates which *do* have stops do not have *glottal* stops, because the airflow is stopped somewhere else besides the glottis. –  Jan 07 '14 at 10:39
  • @snailplane What about the terminal small つ used in interjections and casual speech, such as in あれっ! or　寒っ! Is that not glottal? – alexhatesmil Jan 07 '14 at 23:28
  • It is, but it's not gemination :-) –  Jan 08 '14 at 03:29
  • True. Good point. – alexhatesmil Jan 08 '14 at 03:37