Teach Yourself Japanese
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Subject: Re: long vowels
From: TAKASUGI Shinji (ts
sf.airnet.ne.jp)
Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2003 05:57:01 GMT
References: 1
Japanese is metronomic, and a long vowel is twice as long as a short vowel.
Think about the following sentence:
紅白歌合戦を 見ましたか。
Kôhaku-Utagassen o mimashita ka?
(Have you seen the "Red and White Singing Competition"?)
This sentence has 16 morae (metronomic units) and is pronounced in less than 2 seconds. Suppose one mora is pronounced in 1/8 second.
| Syllable | Pitch | # Mora | Time (sec.)
|
|---|
| Kô | HL | 2 | 1/4
|
| ha | L | 1 | 1/8
|
| ku | L | 1 | 1/8
|
| u | L | 1 | 1/8
|
| ta | H | 1 | 1/8
|
| gas | HL | 2 | 1/4
|
| sen | LL | 2 | 1/4
|
| o | L | 1 | 1/8
|
| mi | L | 1 | 1/8
|
| ma | H | 1 | 1/8
|
| shi | L | 1 | 1/8
|
| ta | L | 1 | 1/8
|
| ka | H | 1 | 1/8
|
| Total | 16 | 2
|
|---|
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