Long and Short Vowels in Japanese
What a difference an elongated vowel can make. Japanese is quite different from English, having had a totally unique developmental history -- it's supposedly related to Mongolian, Basque, Turkish and possibly Hungarian, don't ask me how -- and it sport linguistic concepts that are strange to English speakers at first. One is a strong differentiation between short vowels (like the o in ocha) and long vowels (the first syllable of tofu, the second syllable of Shirow's name). If you've ever wondered why someone whose last name is Sato writes it as Satoh or Satou, it's because he's trying to express the longer second syllable as accurately as he can, even though it might not make any different to how we pronounce his name in English. Sometimes these vowels can cause transliteration issues. For example, shoujo (with a long vowel) means "girl," while shojo (short vowel) means something else entirely (a girl who is still, ahem, pure). Which spelling is correct? It can be hard to say. Accuracy can only be taken so far -- otherwise we'd be wearing Doumo-kun T-shirts and listing Japan's capital as Toukyou.
Doumo attack...?!
posted by Peter in Japan at 8:45 PM
5 Comments:
I notice that when native speakers are talking a mile a minute (as usual) they often don't seem to elongate some of those vowels. They'll simply add a subtle stress to that vowel without slowing down to add another syllable to it. Like, merely accenting the first syllable in "Osaka" instead of actually saying "Ohhhsaka."
I'm not sure if that's even improper; perhaps it's just a peculiarity of spoken Japanese.
12:14 PM
I think they're always aware of them even though they're not perceived by os all the time. Oh-Saka would always sound different from O'saka (if there were such a thing). A lot of times I'll pull my famous "dajare" joke by flipping a long/short vowel, resulting in some joke that a Japanese presumably would not have thought of.
3:44 PM
Interestingly, IIRC it is said the among 'living' languages, the only that bears any resemblance to ancient Sumerian is Hungarian, although the other side of the argument claims those similarities are superficial at best.
7:20 PM
Yes, I've read that. Interesting that Japan is such a mysterious language, without any real evidence of where it came from (other than a link to Ryukyuan/Okinawa).
8:45 PM
My favorite is that onii means "big brother" and oni means "ogre". I wonder how many otouto's have teased their older siblings that way?
2:28 PM
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