Hearing Long Vowels and Small っ in Japanese: おばさん or おばあさん?
Hiroki Obara · DeveloperStudyX Japanese Letters TableHow-To
Japan’s elementary school curriculum guide for Japanese, the 小学校学習指導要領解説 国語編 (2017), says children learn to write long vowels (長音), contracted sounds (拗音), the small っ (促音) and ん (撥音) in first and second grade. It describes a long vowel as a “stretched sound”, as in おかあさん, and the small っ as a “stopped sound”, as in らっぱ. It also says these should be taught together with pronunciation.
For learners of Japanese, these two are among the hardest things to hear. おばさん (aunt) and おばあさん (grandmother) differ only in length. So do きて (come) and きって (stamp). This post explains how to hear them, which pairs to practise with, and how to connect listening to writing.
Counting beats
Japanese measures length in beats, called 拍 (haku) or mora. Each kana is one beat, and so is a long vowel and a small っ.
- おばさん: お・ば・さ・ん, 4 beats
- おばあさん: お・ば・あ・さ・ん, 5 beats
- きて: き・て, 2 beats
- きって: き・っ・て, 3 beats
The small っ is the strangest part. It makes no sound, yet it takes up one beat of time. You hold your mouth ready for the next consonant, pause for one beat, then release it. In きって, your tongue is already in place for the t, and you wait.
A long vowel works the other way. The voice does not stop. You simply hold the vowel for one more beat. In おばあさん, the あ after ば continues the same sound.
In many languages, making a vowel longer or adding a short pause does not change the meaning of a word. If that is true of your first language, おばさん and おばあさん may sound the same to you at first. That is not a problem with your ear. You just have not yet learned to listen for length.
Pairs to practise with
These are common pairs where length changes the meaning:
| Short | Long or with っ |
|---|---|
| おばさん (aunt) | おばあさん (grandmother) |
| おじさん (uncle) | おじいさん (grandfather) |
| ゆき (snow) | ゆうき (courage) |
| ここ (here) | こうこう (high school) |
| ビル (building) | ビール (beer) |
| きて (come) | きって (stamp) |
| さか (slope) | さっか (author) |
| おと (sound) | おっと (husband) |
Ask a friend or a teacher to say one word from a pair without telling you which, and guess. Or record yourself saying both and listen back. If you cannot hear the difference in your own recording, the listener will not hear it either.
Clap the beats
The method I recommend is clapping once per beat. Clap five times for おばあさん and three times for きって. For っ, clap without making a sound. For a long vowel, keep your voice going until the next clap.
It may feel childish, but it works for adults too. Once your hands know that きって is three beats, your ear starts listening for the third one.
From listening to writing
When you can hear the difference, connect it to spelling. Count the beats of a word with your hands, prepare that many boxes, then write one kana in each box. This makes it harder to leave out a long vowel or a っ.
The spelling rules are set out in 現代仮名遣い (Modern Kana Usage), a 1986 Cabinet notice. In hiragana, a long vowel is written by adding a vowel kana:
- a-row: add あ, as in おかあさん
- i-row: add い, as in おにいさん
- u-row: add う, as in くうき (air)
- e-row: add え, as in おねえさん
- o-row: add う, as in おとうさん
There are two kinds of exceptions you cannot hear. Some o-row words add お instead, such as おおきい (big), こおり (ice) and とおい (far). And some words are written with い after an e-row kana even when pronounced as a long e, such as せんせい (teacher) and とけい (clock). These have to be learned word by word.
In katakana, a long vowel is written with the bar ー, as in ビール. The small っ is written ッ in katakana. In romaji, long vowels are written in more than one way, which I covered in Hepburn vs Kunrei Romaji.
Using StudyX Japanese Letters Table
StudyX Japanese Letters Table is a kana chart app where every cell plays its sound. In the listening game, a word plays one kana at a time, and you tap the kana in the order you heard them. Because the word comes one kana at a time, it is good practice in counting how many sounds a word has. If you make a mistake, you start again from the first kana.
The listening game does not include words with a small っ or the bar ー, because they cannot be answered from the chart. In my developer interview, I said that parents and others can make up for what is missing by talking with the child, and that “apps and people should complement each other: people do what apps can’t, and apps do what people can’t.” For long vowels and っ, I would practise with another person, clapping as you go.
It runs in landscape on both iPhone and iPad. It is a one-time purchase with no ads and no in-app purchases. The on-screen labels are in Japanese. The contracted sounds such as きゃ are covered in Dakuon, Handakuon and Yōon, and how the chart is laid out in Gyō and Dan.
