3 The Long Vowel Sound and geminate consonants in Japanese

The Long Vowel Sound

Whew! You're almost done. In this last portion, we will go over the long vowel sound which is simply extending the duration of a vowel sound. You can extend the vowel sound of a character by adding either 「あ」、「い」、or 「う」 depending on the vowel in accordance to the following c

Long vowels (長音 chouon) are vowel sounds that are held for a longer duration than regular vowels. They can be represented in various ways in Japanese writing systems, such as using the elongation mark (ー) in Hiragana and Katakana, or by repeating the vowel character in Romanization. For example, the word "obāsan" (おばあさん, grandmother) has a long vowel sound for the letter 'a'.

あ (a) - ああ (ā) い (i) - いい (ī) う (u) - うう (ū) え (e) - ええ (ē) お (o) - おお (ō)

These long vowels are held for a slightly longer duration compared to their short counterparts, and they can change the meaning of a word. For instance, "はし" (hashi) means "chopsticks," while "はしい" (hashii) means "bridge."

For example, if you wanted to create an extended vowel sound from 「か」, you would add 「あ」 to create 「かあ」. Other examples would include: 「き → きい」, 「く → くう」, 「け → けい」, 「こ → こう」, 「さ → さあ」 and so on. The reasoning for this is quite simple. Try saying 「か」 and 「あ」 separately. Then say them in succession as fast as you can. You'll notice that soon enough, it sounds like you're dragging out the / ka / for a longer duration than just saying / ka / by itself. When pronouncing long vowel sounds, try to remember that they are really two sounds merged together.

For example, if you wanted to create an extended vowel sound from 「か」, you would add 「あ」 to create 「かあ」. Other examples would include: 「き → きい」, 「く → くう」, 「け → けい」, 「こ → こう」, 「さ → さあ」 and so on. The reasoning for this is quite simple. Try saying 「か」 and 「あ」 separately. Then say them in succession as fast as you can. You'll notice that soon enough, it sounds like you're dragging out the / ka / for a longer duration than just saying / ka / by itself. When pronouncing long vowel sounds, try to remember that they are really two sounds merged together.

It's important to make sure you hold the vowel sound long enough because you can be saying things like "here" （ここ） instead of "high school" （こうこう） or "middle-aged lady" （おばさん） instead of "grandmother" （おばあさん） if you don't stretch it out correctly!

Geminate consonants (促音 sokuon), on the other hand, are consonant sounds that are held for a slightly longer duration than regular consonants. They are represented by a small "tsu" (っ) in Hiragana or a small "tu" (ッ) in Katakana, which indicates that the following consonant should be pronounced with a brief pause before it. For example, the word "Gakkou" (がっこう, school) has a geminate consonant for the letter 'k'.

Geminate consonants

Geminate consonants are instances where a consonant sound is pronounced more sharply or doubled in duration compared to its single counterpart. This is represented in writing by a small つ (tsu) before the consonant. For example:

か (ka) vs. かっ (kka) さ (sa) vs. さっ (ssa) た (ta) vs. たっ (tta) は (ha) vs. はっ (hha)

Geminate consonants often occur in Japanese words due to various grammatical reasons or inflections. They can affect the rhythm and emphasis of speech.

A small 「つ」 is inserted between two characters to carry the consonant sound of the second character to the end of the first. For example, if you inserted a small 「つ」 between 「び」 and 「く」 to make 「びっく」, the / k / consonant sound is carried back to the end of the first character to produce "bikku". Similarly, 「はっぱ」 becomes "happa", 「ろっく」 becomes "rokku" and so on and so forth.

The next section is about introducing hiragana.