Japanese Long Vowels and Pauses
Watch for Breaks within Words and Time Taken on Vowel Sounds
Oct 1, 2008
One easy part of learning Japanese hiragana and katakana is that most words are pronounced exactly like they are spelled. Though it may be difficult for a non-native speaker to distinguish, time spent pronouncing vowels can mark the difference between two similar-sounding words.
The use of a pause in a Japanese word can also make the meaning different from a similar-sounding word. Though not obvious to most native speakers of English, Japanese pauses can be understood in the context of English uses of pauses in words.
Long Vowels in Hiragana
Starting with a double-vowel example, the word ii (meaning "good") is different than the hiragana character i in that ii is both spelled and pronounced twice as long as the plain hiragana character i. The difference between the word saisho, meaning first, and saishou, meaning smallest, is that the "o" sound on the end of "smallest" is pronounced twice as long as the "o" sound on the end of "first."
There are several ways of expressing the length of a vowel in romaji. The word for "smallest" can be written in romaji as saisho (with a long vowel line over the o) or saishou, for example. Sometimes the long vowels are not transliterated at all. The author prefers adding an extra letter because it better represents the hiragana spelling of Japanese words.
Though saishou is pronounced with a long hiragana o (and not pronounced as hiragana o plus hiragana u), the correct hiragana spelling utilizes a hiragana u at the end. Using a hiragana u for a long o is very common rule when spelling in Japanese, though 2 hiragana o's do occur, such as in ooki, meaning "big."
Long Vowels in Katakana
One main difference between the use of hiragana and katakana is that long vowels are expressed in katakana with a single straight line (chouon) that is written left-to-right when katakana are written left-to-right. The chouon is written top-to-bottom when katakana are being written top-to-bottom.
The chouon is not usually translated directly into romaji. Rather, katakana rules for long vowels in romaji are usually the same as rules for long vowels in hiragana. The Japanese word for table can be written TEEBURU (or teeburu) with 2 e's to represent the long vowel.
Pauses (Small tsu)
Like a long vowel, a short pause in a Japanese word may be what distinguishes that word from a similar-sounding word. The difference between kitte meaning "stamp" and kite meaning a command to "come" is a short pause between ki and te in the pronunciation of "stamp." A double consonant is used to express the short pause when the word is written in romaji. Examples of pauses found in English words are also good illustrations of why the double consonant is used in romaji.
The English word "batter" is pronounced not as "bat+ter" with both t's explicitly pronounced. Instead, it is pronounced with a short pause between the "ba" and "ter" syllables. The pause can also be found in the words butter and runner. The katakana word for "batter (in baseball)" may be expressed in romaji as BATTAA (or battaa). The double consonant in romaji functions exactly like the double consonant in English to indicate a verbal pause.
In pure Japanese, the pause is always written as a small tsu, (either hiragana or katakana depending on the word). Though there are many different ways to express long vowels in romaji, almost everyone agrees to express a small tsu in romaji as a double consonant.
For a non-native speaker learning Japanese, it may be difficult to perceive pauses and long vowels in Japanese words unless they are explicitly pointed out at first. Anticipating these unique linguistic characteristics will not only improve Japanese listening and reading skills, but speaking and writing skills as well.
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