Question on Writing

Clocks

後輩

14 Nov 2006

2

0

• 15 Nov 2006

• #1

Hello everyone. I know this is probably pretty ignorant but when I am studying vocabulary I always see that they include a dash to show where a sound is lengthened.

My question is this: When I am actually writing in Japanese, should I include these dashes or leave them out? I get a feeling i should leave them out but I dont want to be making mistakes. Thanks for any help anyone could give.

 

JimmySeal

Tubthumper

5 Mar 2006

1,516

78

• 15 Nov 2006

• #2

re you talking about kana or romaji?

In katakana, a long vowel is almost always shown using a long horizontal line
ラーメン

In romaji, it would either be shown using a macron (horizontal line) over the vowel, or by repeating the vowel
rāmen
raamen

 

nice gaijin

Resident Realist

Moderator

Donor

Twenty-year veteran

8 Aug 2005

7,316

3,727

• 15 Nov 2006

• #3

The dash is very important; Japanese characters are morae, and they have a rhythmic significance when reading and speaking the language. the lengthened vowels (and likewise, lengthened consonants preceded by the small っ/ッ) take up the rhythmic count of two characters, as opposed to one.

neglecting these characters completely changes the word.

 

Mikawa Ossan

いかんわ！

Ten-year veteran Fifteen-year veteran Twenty-year veteran

17 Sep 2005

6,017

1,970

• 15 Nov 2006

• #4

Here's just one example of how leaving out the dash will completely change the meaning of the word:

ハト pigeon
ハート heart

 

Clocks

後輩

14 Nov 2006

2

0

• 15 Nov 2006

• Thread starter
• #5

Oh, thanks a lot you guys! Yeah that would make sense I dont know why I assumed otherwise.
Well at least I'll only have a handful of words to rememorize, as opposed to learning all of them that way .


Oh yeah and one more little thing im confused about: When reading vertically, there are some places with a " ' " hyphen in them. What do these represent?

 

Last edited: 15 Nov 2006

Niedy

猿が去る

11 Nov 2006

128

1

• 16 Nov 2006

• #6

Clocks said:

Oh yeah and one more little thing im confused about: When reading vertically, there are some places with a " ' " hyphen in them. What do these represent?

Click to expand...

Do you mean a vertical line? | <- like this? than it's the same as in ハート (lengthening a vowel), just that the line is drawn downwards when writing vertically...