Japanese Language Stack Exchange
Japanese Language Stack Exchange

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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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, not よお). I was under the impression that a dash…
AlbeyAmakiir
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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 cases I should use which. As you can see I've made…
RPAnimation
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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{せんせい} -> sensei 姉さん{ねえさん} -> neesan I used to…
Zhuoyun Wei
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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 it represents a "tremolo", but I'm not sure if…
user1478
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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 there?
Nick Erb
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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 ?
dotnetN00b
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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 get used to it. I find it very interesting how…
Pedro A
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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" (a), "い" (i) or "う" (u) depending on the vowel. In…
Andrew Grimm
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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　are different 通り　とおり 東リ　とうり
leeyuiwah
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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?
Ly Thang
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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 questions about this. Is there any nuanced…
BlueRaja - Danny Pflughoeft
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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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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 represented differently in hiragana and katakana? ,…
Andrew Grimm
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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'd expect to find a long vowel? I ask because I…
Axe
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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 opinion) There are examples where お is used after a…
Petruza
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