えーっと & うーん etc

healer · 13 Jun 2019

I had learnt to double the sound of a syllable of words in hiragana one was supposed to use い with い or え and う for う and お while a dash for words written in katakana.

However I have come across words like the examples given above using a dash with words written in hiragana..

Is such practice only for words of onomatopoeia?

Lomaster · 14 Jun 2019

Some words of Chinese origin use a dash when written in kana like らーめん or まーじゃん so it is not only for onomatopoeia

Toritoribe · 14 Jun 2019

Also, the long vowel mark is used to add a nuance (funny, cute, pronounced by a foreigner, etc) to the words, so you can see expressions such like そのとーり(とおり/通り) or えーご(えいご/英語)はキライだ, especially in manga or light novels.

healer · 14 Jun 2019

Toritoribe said:
the long vowel mark is used to add a nuance (funny, cute, pronounced by a foreigner

I can appreciate that. Sometimes it appears in the English language too.
I understand that katakana is sometimes also used instead of hiragana or kanji for the same effect in manga.

I wonder whether the textbooks should set out the so-called convention of using the dash mark for katakana only. Perhaps they might have to say more.

healer · 14 Jun 2019

Lomaster said:
Some words of Chinese origin use a dash when written in kana like らーめん or まーじゃん

It sounds like there is no hard and fast rule as such to represent long sound. Kanji can also be willy-nilly represented by hiragana or katakana.

Toritoribe · 16 Jun 2019

healer said:
It sounds like there is no hard and fast rule as such to represent long sound.

The basics are simple. Just variations of them exist.
e.g.
あー aa
かあさん kaasan

いー ii
にいがた niigata

うー uu
くうかん kuukan

えー ei
ていき teiki

おー ou or oo
そうじ souji
おおきい ookii

You only need to pay attention to the long "o". おう and おお are not interchangeable. 王様 is おうさま, not おおさま. Similarly, 狼 is おおかみ, not おうかみ.
Here are related posts about the reason why these two ways of kana usage exist for the long "o".

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healer said:
Kanji can also be willy-nilly represented by hiragana or katakana.

The word exists first. The pronunciation is described by phonograms hiragana and katakana. Kanji is used to distinguish homonyms or to represent the meaning of the word.

healer · 17 Jun 2019

Thanks for the basics you set out and that was what I had learnt.
Thanks for the historical information for the long "o" too.
The variation I referred to was the long dash after hiragana.

えーっと & うーん etc

healer

Sempai

Lomaster

.

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

healer

Sempai

healer

Sempai

Toritoribe

松葉解禁

Need a word or phrase translated?

Need a word or phrase translated?

healer

Sempai

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