In Japanese, long vowels, or "long sounds," chouon 長音, refer to vowels pronounced for twice as long than normal. See also: mora. The opposite are short vowels, or "short sounds," tan'on 短音.
For example, ko こ has a short vowel, while kou こう, koo こー, and koo こぉ have long vowels.
Orthography
The way long vowels are represented in Japanese is a bit complicated.
In katakana words, the ー prolonged sound mark, also called chouonpu 長音符, "long sound mark," is used.
- koohii
コーヒー
Coffee. - keeki
ケーキ
Cake.
Otherwise, a, i, u, e, あいうえ are used.
- okaasan
おかーさん
おかあさん
お母さん
Mother. - oniisan
おにーさん
おにいさん
お兄さん
Brother. - fuufu
ふーふ
ふうふ
夫婦
Husband and wife. - oneesan
おねーさん
おねえさん
お姉さん
Sister.
長音化
Some syllables in Japanese are spelled as diphthongs, composed of two different vowels, ~ei and ~ou, but are pronounced in practice as just one long sound, ~ee and ~oo. For example:
- sensei
せんせい
せんせー
先生
Teacher. - otousan
おとうさん
おとーさん
お父さん
Father.
Even though in the dictionary the words have ~ei and ~ou, in practice people generally don't pronounce the ~i and ~u separately, they just make the ~e and ~o sound longer than normal.
This process is called chouonka 長音化, literally "long sound-fication."
In such cases, deliberately spelling the word with a prolonged sound mark implies that the character speaks noticeably different from normal. In a very relaxed, or drunk way, or speaking like a little child, that kind of stuff.
短母音化
In some cases, a long vowel is pronounced instead as a short vowel. A phenomenon termed tanboinka 短母音化, "short vowel-fication." This means that a long syllable, which should take two mora to pronounce, takes instead only one mora to pronounce.
Since this change in pronunciation may be impossible to perceive in words spelled with kanji, when it happens the words may be unusually spelled with hiragana, or maybe even spelled with katakana, instead.
For example:
- hontou
ほんとう
ほんとー
本当
Really.- Four mora: ho-n-to-u.
- honto
ホント
(same meaning.)- Three mora: ho-n-to.
- gakkou
がっこう
がっこー
学校
School.- Four mora: ga-k-ko-u.
- gakko
ガッコ
(same meaning.)- Three mora: ga-k-ko.
One example of usage:
- gakko ikitakunai
ガッコ行きたくない
[I] don't want to go to school.
Mimetic Words
Some onomatopoeia and mimetic words feature the prolonged sound mark despite being spelled with hiragana. For example:
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