- vs. ~ as vowel extension

[quamp]

I had always believed that using ~ as a vowel extension was merely a stylistic choice, as opposed to using -. However, one source told me that there was some kind of politeness difference and wouldn't elaborate. Is this correct? I see a wavy line used a lot in both polite and informal speech.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[JimmySeal]

What??? How do you pronounce ~?

 

[leonmarino]

Um.. How to explain.. I don't think it has anything to do with being polite, but to my knowledge it is used in two ways:

1. To write words with changing pitches
2. To write onomatopoeias, in a gentle way

1 is pretty obvious I think, like for example the Chinese way of pronouncing the a word with a high-low-high pitch (like "hao" in "ni-hao") may be written with a "～" when written in Japanese hiragana. I couldn't think of any "real" Japanese example though. It is often used in manga when someone's singing, that's for sure.

With regard to 2, let's take a hug as an example, of which the sound can be written is expressed as "むぎゅ". It can be lengthened with a "ー", then it becomes "むぎゅー", which is kind of hard, rough hug. You know, when you missed someone for ages. On the other hand, with a "～", it becomes "むぎゅ～", which sounds more friendly, gentle and soft.

Same with "しーん", the "sound of silence". "しーん"is a really cold silence, but "し～ん" is a silence with some kind of ambiguity.. I know, it sounds vague but I don't know how to express it differently..

And about pronunciation.. It is pretty much the same, it's just that the words with "ー" are harder than "～".

 

[nice gaijin]

～ is a bit more playful/casual in the sense that Leon described, but that's probably because it's pronounced just a little differently (a slightly wavering tone as opposed to a flat one). I suppose that makes it a bit more gentle, but that doesn't mean it should be preferred over ー, unless if you're on pretty friendly terms with the other person...

 

[nhk9]

I am surprised that there's a discussion about ~ vs -! It goes to show that we are all indeed Japanophiles

 

[quamp]

ありがとございます.

I had been a little confused about his explanation.