Quote:
Originally Posted by hitokiri679
The first couple of things I thought of when I read your post were these:
1) The extra "tsu" you read wasn't really a "tsu" at all, but a "small tsu" (compare つ and っ). This represents a "doubled consonant" in Japanese
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Technically, it's not a doubled consonant. It's closer to a glottal stop (really, it's only not a glottal stop when followed by さ-column sounds, and the occasional wird ベッド or whatever). It just so happens that [i]in English[i] doubled voiceless consonants (p, t, k, ch,) are preceded by a glottal stop. In Japanese,
is 100% correct orthography even though there's not a consonant at all in it! It means あ followed by a glottal stop. In essence, your voice/breath
stops at the っ.
I know I've seen Japanese natives here wondering aloud "why do you think it means 'double the consonant'?" Just getting technical, though. For beginners who are native English speakers, it's a good-enough explanation (for now). It will confuse people once they're intermediates and encounter stuff like what I wrote above.