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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 opinion)

There are examples where お is used after a syllable ending in ~O, are these phonetically equivalent? とお(遠) and とう(塔)?

Edit: My question, specifically is why is う used to make syllables ending in O long, when a more intuitive and natural option would have been using お (And this premise is totally subjective and my opinion, if someone disagrees, please explain)

Petruza
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    Possible duplicate of [Long O — when is it OU and when OO?](http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/43552/long-o-when-is-it-ou-and-when-oo) – broccoli facemask Mar 04 '17 at 00:29
  • @brokenheadphones Clearly not a duplicate. – Petruza Mar 05 '17 at 00:46
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    So, are you specifically asking "why" in the sense of what historic outcome makes it? Because the most formal reason is today's [official orthography](http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/hakusho/nc/k19860701001/k19860701001.html) prescribes so. – broccoli facemask Mar 05 '17 at 02:43
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    @brokenheadphones : I added an edit: *My question, specifically is why is う used to make syllables ending in O long, when a more intuitive and natural option would have been using お (And this premise is totally subjective and my opinion, if someone disagrees, please explain)* – Petruza Mar 06 '17 at 16:08
  • @brokenheadphones Also, thanks for the link but I do not read Japanese yet. – Petruza Mar 06 '17 at 16:09

1 Answers1

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Historically えい and おう were pronounced differently from ええ and おお, the first two as diphthongs and the second as long vowels. Sound changes resulted in a merger, but despite spelling reforms, the spellings remained separate.

Angelos
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    Notably, in some cases, the spelling is still indicative of the pronunciation. Take めい, for instance: generally read as //meː// in 明快{めいかい} "clear, explicit", but still as diphthong //mei// in 姪{めい} "niece". – Eiríkr Útlendi Mar 03 '17 at 20:30
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    Note here that めい for 明 is _on'yomi_, whereas めい for 姪 is _kun'yomi_. It's also notable that all instances I'm aware of where we find ええ and おお are _kun'yomi_: ええと, お姉{ねえ}さん, 大{おお}きい, {とお}る, etc. – Eiríkr Útlendi Mar 03 '17 at 21:07
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    This reminded me of [Great Vowel Shift](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift) of English, which is similar but perhaps more drastic :) – naruto Mar 03 '17 at 22:18