Vocals

DrLunatiKk · 4 Sep 2015

Does japanese people like bind words together? Like if it's a consonant at the end of one word and then the next word starts with a vocal. Like "wa anata" within "watashi wa, anata o aishite imasu" (i know there's a comma in between that basicly answers the question but it was the only example that i could think of).

nekojita · 4 Sep 2015

Are you talking about pronunciation? There are some shortened forms (te-form verb + oku, for example, the "te oku" part can become "toku").

DrLunatiKk · 4 Sep 2015

nekojita said:
Are you talking about pronunciation? There are some shortened forms (te-form verb + oku, for example, the "te oku" part can become "toku").

Yeah it's about the pronounciation. I mean if it's like wa anata, does it become like wanata in pronunciation?

Majestic · 4 Sep 2015

No - although it may sound that way if you are new to studying Japanese. There are some contractions (as Nekojita-san says), but in general each syllable is independent, and doesn't combine with the following word.

nekojita · 4 Sep 2015

Certain sounds do tend to get melded particularly in causal speech (mostly in the r/n's, it seems to me? may be just cognitive bias. Also with te forms), it's just that "wa + a" is not one of those combos.

なければ → なきゃ
ては → ちゃ
おれのうち → おれんち (rough meaning "my place")
わからない → わかんない

Majestic · 4 Sep 2015

Yes - but I think those are either contractions （なければ → なきゃ or なけりゃ） or slang or colloquialism (わからない → わかんない or わかんねぇ～).

I get the feeling from the example mentioned, that the OP is imagining something other than the above. Maybe he/she is hearing a number of things not found in the textbook, and is looking for a universal, easy-to-understand rule.

Hopefully the good Dr. LunatiKk will come back and shed a bit more light!

Vocals

DrLunatiKk

Registered

nekojita

先輩

DrLunatiKk

Registered

Majestic

先輩

nekojita

先輩

Majestic

先輩