促音化. Gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant. Gemination is distinct from stress and may appear independently of it. In Japanese this is marked by a small っ.
Questions tagged [gemination]
29 questions
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What does the little っ (tsu) signify when at the end of a word?
The small っ (tsu) is usually used before a consonant to indicate gemination, less technically known as doubled consonants, which is how they are transliterated in romaji.
I have seen it at the end of some of what I call "vocal noises" where I…
hippietrail
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How did "little tsu" become a lengthener?
How did it come about historically that っ preceding a sound would geminate it? Is it really a little つ or are they just near homomorphs?
WAF
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Why was つ originally used to mark consonant gemination? When was that?
I can't find the answer anywhere.
It seems that in manyougana consonant gemination was not marked in any way. And before the 1946 reform the normal size つ was used instead of the current smaller one. But what was the original reason to start using…
Eetu
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Are there many words that have the same pronunciation ambiguity as Nihon/Nippon?
Wikipedia says that 日本 can be pronounced either [にっぽん]{nippon} or [にほん]{nihon}.
Does this ambiguity in pronunciation happen with other words? If so, does it only happen with words that originated before handakuten (the circle symbol in ぱ ぴ ぷ ぺ ぽ)…
Andrew Grimm
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How do you geminate ら-line sounds?
This is my current understanding of gemination (促音, /Q/, small っ): in native Japanese words, only the following sounds can be geminated: /k/, /s/, /t/, /p/. Additionally, in loanwords we can geminate their voiced counterparts /g/, /z/, /d/, /b/.…
senshin
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Repeating the vowel sound of the mora that precedes gemination in songs
I noticed that in songs, the vowel sounds of the morae that come before geminations are sometimes repeated.
For example, the first lyric line of “マジカルちょーだいっ” is sung as しらんぷりをしたあって where the line is actually しらんぷりをしたって.
Another example: in the…
Lukman
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In compound words what is it called when two Ks assimilate into a っ?
Eg. 厄介、欲求、直径、即興、却下、借金、引っ越す、北海道、積極、薬局
Wouldn't っ normally require the first onyomi to have a tsu ending?
Why doesn't it happen in certain words like 加湿器?
vesikaivo
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っ(sokuon) usage
Can i use the っ to replace the ん in こんにちは, it would still be konnichiwa right? If i can't then please explain to me why.
Huân Bùi
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Bridging tsu ("つ") when joining two kanji
I am currently studying Japanese grammar through Japanistry's Grammar Guide (https://www.japanistry.com/the-number-system/)
I've come across a section when it says that a reading changes when two kanji join. For example, the Tsu (つ) character may be…
Steve Woods
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Why does gemination happen in many 真 compounds?
Inspired by https://japanese.stackexchange.com/a/38733/3295
Some examples from Wiktionary:
真っ暗 (makkura, "total darkness")
真っ向 (makkō, "directly opposite", "right in front")
真っ黒 (makkuro, "pitch black)
真っ最中 (massaichū, "infull swing, in the…
Igor Skochinsky
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What is the correct way to romanize ッジ?
According to Wikipedia, ッチ is rendered as tch, not cch (etchi not ecchi). Logically I would think that ッジ would then be dj but there's no example of it. What is the correct way? dj or jj? Is there any comprehensive guide to Hepburn romanization that…
Vun-Hugh Vaw
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gemination orthography
In this sentence
ミサイルは高【たか】さ100kmより低【ひく】い所【ところ】を東【ひがし】に750km飛【と】びました
The missile flew 750 kilometers east at a height lower than 100 kilometers.
appearing here
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/k10013261541000/k10013261541000.html
the recording…
Ned Reif
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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 length letter period. I think this is crucial to…
Hao
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Adverb followed by って
おいらなんて、怒られっぱなしの人生だもんねーー。アハハ。でもおもしろくって仕方ないもんねー。
For me, it's the life of being got angry at. Ha Ha. But, interesting(ly)...it can't be helped ??
I'm guessing this is おもしろく (interestingly) with either って=は or って=と.
I've never seen an adverb used as…
user3856370
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What does "fūtsu" mean?
This is from Yuki-onna:
Mosaku no kao ni iki wo fu-tsu to fukikaketa.
The "fuutsu/fu-tsu" is written in katakana and is most likely an onomatopoeic word, related to breathing. It's not essential to the translation, but it's really bugging me.
Sophie Proud
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