In the beginning, mora seemed very technical and complex so I didn't worry about it too heavily. Now that I've studied for at least 2 years with many kanji, grammar, and vocabulary under my belt, I started mora lessons. I am fascinated with mora now. I own it all to wanting to know more about this fascinating language. いざ、モラ、かかってこい！
Thanks for the video. Tbh, I haven't learnt Japanese but things make it more clear. Now, I can distinguish between moras and syllables as well as mora-timed and syllable-time languages.
Thank you for this video ~ I think you deserve wayyy more subscribers. Will you cover intonation or how to better an accent to sound near native or am i aiming too far?
Thank you so much for your kind words! Yes, intonation is on my to-do list. I've been trying to find out the best way to teach this topic, so I'll make a video as soon as my ideas become clear and solid!
Very clear and instructive content, as always ! :) When I heard you say and intonate both 叔父 (→⤴) and 王子 (→⤵) it also reminded me the importance of intonation, element that I unfortunately overlooked in my early days of study as a japanese learner , and nowadays strongly regret as it's pretty tough correcting those bad habits.. In case it's not already on your list, I would absolutely love to see your take on that topic ..! :)
Thank you very much! It's been so long since this video but I'm working on the next episode (on intonation) so it should be out within a month or so 😅 (I am very slow at making videos)
That's because you take much time in preparing your material to show it in the perfect way. Your videos deserve that time . However , if I were you , I would balance my time with my effort . I could have done something in a perfect way , but it would take much time so I still do it but in just a good way . To do something good is better than doing nothing .
It is a very good explanation, but it has one flaw: the description of "syllables" matches syllables in English, but not syllables in many other languages. In English and other "stress-timed" languages, syllables can have different durations. In the more common "syllable-timed" languages (e.g. Spanish), syllables all have the same duration. In English, vowel duration and consonant duration do not affect meaning ("are not phonemic"), but in some languages they are.
I have a feeling that closed syllables will not necessarily be bimoraic or longer, but those that are monomoraic, necessarily have either a coda without release or a sonorant coda. This, I am aware, does not relate to Japanese, as its nasal sonorant is always its own mora, but in a ficlang I'm creating (and will no doubt fit into my mythos of Kilik'izh) or in relation to it), has bimoraic words like "nab-ra" which literally means "person", and the Japanese would no doubt have difficulty speaking this ficlang.
excellent video! thank you! One thing though on the challenge you forgot to include the "Ni" on the answer slide for number 8. but other than that this was super helpful thanks again!
@@KomeisChannel I do apologize for asking this here but I'm wondering if you know of any tricks regarding Japanese adjectives, see the reason I found this video was because i was researching Japanese Adjectives using the moraic system. Do you Happen to know if な adjectives end with final mora of い? I'm sorry for the strange question I'm just curious and thank you in advance for your time!
Hi, sorry for the late reply! (For some unknown reason, TH-cam put your comment in the 'spam' box 🤔) And I appreciate your asking questions here! So, な adjectives have a different conjugation pattern from い adjectives, so な adjectives normally end in い. For example, 静か (しずか) is a な adjective and its plain form in 静かだ. It conjugates as follows: 静かだろ, 静かだっ/静かで/静かに, 静かだ, 静かな, 静かなら. However, some な adjectives may seem as if they were い adjectives e.g. きれい. Even though きれい ends in い, its plain form is actually きれいだ, so it's not an い adjective. I hope I answered your question 🤔. If this is not what you asked about, please let me know 😅
I don’t really know Japanese (nor do I have plans to study it) so please, please take this with a grain of salt, but my guess is yes since I’ve read that o is one mora while ō is two, though I forget if that example directly constitutes a diphthong. Literally I haven’t even watched the video yet, I mostly just wanted to join in on the convo and see if we can get a confirmation lol
Maybe I shouldn’t disagree, “[t]he syllable nucleus represents one mora in the case of a short vowel, and two morae in the case of a long vowel or diphthong” is what the Wikipedia article titled “Mora (linguistics)” says
While learning Japanese I naturally learned moras without knowing their name, but now that I know they have a name I can ask what’s always bugged me about haikus. In English were taught it’s 5-7-5 in syllables. Is it 5-7-5 syllables in Japanese, or is it 5-7-5 moras?
In Japanese, a haiku has 5-7-5 moras, not syllables. When I hear so-called 'haikus' made by English speakers, my mind doesn't register them as haiku at all because they don't have their signature moraic pattern (they just sound like poorly-worded short poems).
Bro l have some questions about phonemes and graphemes in japanese As we know each japanese kana character represents a syllable, so do we call them as phonemes or graphemes, because we cannot break a Japanese kana into phonemes because each kana represents a syllable I'm confused
Hi, a good question! All the kana characters are graphemes, but only some of them represent phonemes on their own (i.e. あ, い, う, え, お, and ん). For example, the hiragana is a grapheme (= a graphical representation) of the combination of two phonemes (units of sounds), /k/ + /a/. The hiragana is a grapheme that represents the phoneme /a/. I hope that makes sense! 👍
I think 44 would be for the English language only And because most of the languages like Japanese The "r" sounds like "L" So there might be symbols for these also And yes I'm talking about IPA Actually im learning Japanese so I think studying some linguistics might help I have more questions in my mind though😅 Do you think studying linguistics is important or am I just wasting my time?
I'm still on the introduction,@@KomeisChannel. But I won't be for long. And while the book does have a few errors, it still beats online translators by a longshot.
Thanks for the explanation. There is one thing, how you may dramatically improve your videos and it will cost you nothing: stop playing the background music. When I want to hear the differences in words and really understand the way of pronunciation, the background music is a terrible obstacle.
Great video. 🙏 Thanks. Moras can easily be understood if you consider to write Japanese in Sanskrit. Kindly make a special video with Japanese and Sanskrit script. Thanks 🙏. Please note that Sanskrit too use Mora like system of DEPENDENT VOWELS as well as INDEPENDENT VOWELS. Sadly basic ENGLISH donot use DEPENDENT VOWELS so not suitable for learning Japanese counterpart AKSHARS ( not syllables that use only INDEPENDENT VOWELS as in ENGLISH, ancient Greek). Sanskrit do have SHORT & LONG VOWELS ( both DEPENDENT vowels- long as well as short---- like-, ़,ः, ॅ, ॉ, ॆ, ॊ, ॏ, ऺ, ॄ, ॢ, ॣ as well as INDEPENDENT VOWELS-- long as well as short---- like--- अ,आ,इ,ई, उ, ऊं, ए, ऐ, ओ, औ , अं, अ़, अः,ऋ,ऴृ, ॡ).
![Pitch accent in Japanese [Phonology #3]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/5oU5NUGAdSw/mqdefault.jpg)
![Pitch accent in Japanese [Phonology #3]](/img/tr.png)
In the beginning, mora seemed very technical and complex so I didn't worry about it too heavily. Now that I've studied for at least 2 years with many kanji, grammar, and vocabulary under my belt, I started mora lessons. I am fascinated with mora now. I own it all to wanting to know more about this fascinating language. いざ、モラ、かかってこい！
I am glad to hear you're now ready to take on the topic of mora! がんばって！
Thanks for the video. Tbh, I haven't learnt Japanese but things make it more clear. Now, I can distinguish between moras and syllables as well as mora-timed and syllable-time languages.
Cool! I'm glad to hear the video made sense to non-learners too ☺️
♪♫♪♫ kattanone katanone ♪♫ kattanone katanone ♪♫♪♫ XD
Thank you for this video ~ I think you deserve wayyy more subscribers. Will you cover intonation or how to better an accent to sound near native or am i aiming too far?
Thank you so much for your kind words! Yes, intonation is on my to-do list. I've been trying to find out the best way to teach this topic, so I'll make a video as soon as my ideas become clear and solid!
instablaster.
Very clear and instructive content, as always ! :) When I heard you say and intonate both 叔父 (→⤴) and 王子 (→⤵) it also reminded me the importance of intonation, element that I unfortunately overlooked in my early days of study as a japanese learner , and nowadays strongly regret as it's pretty tough correcting those bad habits.. In case it's not already on your list, I would absolutely love to see your take on that topic ..! :)
Thank you so much! Yes, I need to make videos about intonation soon!
You make it so clear and so easy . Thanks
Thank you very much! It's been so long since this video but I'm working on the next episode (on intonation) so it should be out within a month or so 😅 (I am very slow at making videos)
That's because you take much time in preparing your material to show it in the perfect way. Your videos deserve that time . However , if I were you , I would balance my time with my effort . I could have done something in a perfect way , but it would take much time so I still do it but in just a good way . To do something good is better than doing nothing .
Thank you for your kind words 🙏
Thank you so much for the explanations!
Thank you for watching!
It is a very good explanation, but it has one flaw: the description of "syllables" matches syllables in English, but not syllables in many other languages. In English and other "stress-timed" languages, syllables can have different durations. In the more common "syllable-timed" languages (e.g. Spanish), syllables all have the same duration. In English, vowel duration and consonant duration do not affect meaning ("are not phonemic"), but in some languages they are.
Thank you for your comment!
Nice! Thanx!
I have a feeling that closed syllables will not necessarily be bimoraic or longer, but those that are monomoraic, necessarily have either a coda without release or a sonorant coda.
This, I am aware, does not relate to Japanese, as its nasal sonorant is always its own mora, but in a ficlang I'm creating (and will no doubt fit into my mythos of Kilik'izh) or in relation to it), has bimoraic words like "nab-ra" which literally means "person", and the Japanese would no doubt have difficulty speaking this ficlang.
That would be a good hypothesis to test cross-linguistically 🤓
Your 'nab-ra' would be trimoraic for Japanese speakers 😅
@@KomeisChannel I know; they'd say "ナブラ", wouldn't they!
Very good! Thank you! I just recommend you change the font of the letters because the ones you're using make the fast reading a bit encumbered.
Thanks for the feedback!
excellent video! thank you! One thing though on the challenge you forgot to include the "Ni" on the answer slide for number 8. but other than that this was super helpful thanks again!
Thank you! and thank you for letting me know about the error!
@@KomeisChannel you're very welcome! Keep up the great work
@@KomeisChannel I do apologize for asking this here but I'm wondering if you know of any tricks regarding Japanese adjectives, see the reason I found this video was because i was researching Japanese Adjectives using the moraic system. Do you Happen to know if な adjectives end with final mora of い?
I'm sorry for the strange question I'm just curious and thank you in advance for your time!
Hi, sorry for the late reply! (For some unknown reason, TH-cam put your comment in the 'spam' box 🤔)
And I appreciate your asking questions here!
So, な adjectives have a different conjugation pattern from い adjectives, so な adjectives normally end in い. For example, 静か (しずか) is a な adjective and its plain form in 静かだ. It conjugates as follows: 静かだろ, 静かだっ/静かで/静かに, 静かだ, 静かな, 静かなら. However, some な adjectives may seem as if they were い adjectives e.g. きれい. Even though きれい ends in い, its plain form is actually きれいだ, so it's not an い adjective.
I hope I answered your question 🤔. If this is not what you asked about, please let me know 😅
Bro if I were to segment katakana digraphs like フィ
Does it count one mora
フィ would be one mora, like きょ, etc. However, some people, especially older people, may pronounce it as フイ, with two moras.
So, do semi diphthong sounds count as a single mora?
like for example: きょうし will be きょう - し= 3 moras?
I don’t really know Japanese (nor do I have plans to study it) so please, please take this with a grain of salt, but my guess is yes since I’ve read that o is one mora while ō is two, though I forget if that example directly constitutes a diphthong. Literally I haven’t even watched the video yet, I mostly just wanted to join in on the convo and see if we can get a confirmation lol
Just watched the video and I might disagree with that guess now, I’ll need to google this for certain
Maybe I shouldn’t disagree, “[t]he syllable nucleus represents one mora in the case of a short vowel, and two morae in the case of a long vowel or diphthong” is what the Wikipedia article titled “Mora (linguistics)” says
Hi sorry for the late reply! きょうし would be /kyo/-/o/-/shi/ (3 moras)
@@KomeisChannel I’m not upset, that was pretty quick in my opinion :)) that’s really good to know, thank you so much
While learning Japanese I naturally learned moras without knowing their name, but now that I know they have a name I can ask what’s always bugged me about haikus. In English were taught it’s 5-7-5 in syllables. Is it 5-7-5 syllables in Japanese, or is it 5-7-5 moras?
In Japanese, a haiku has 5-7-5 moras, not syllables. When I hear so-called 'haikus' made by English speakers, my mind doesn't register them as haiku at all because they don't have their signature moraic pattern (they just sound like poorly-worded short poems).
@@KomeisChannel that makes me a little curious, what might a proper haiku look like in English? Maybe I should just google that though
oh wait I should probably check to see your part 2 for this before I ask here lol
Bro l have some questions about phonemes and graphemes in japanese
As we know each japanese kana character represents a syllable, so do we call them as phonemes or graphemes, because we cannot break a Japanese kana into phonemes because each kana represents a syllable
I'm confused
Hi, a good question!
All the kana characters are graphemes, but only some of them represent phonemes on their own (i.e. あ, い, う, え, お, and ん). For example, the hiragana is a grapheme (= a graphical representation) of the combination of two phonemes (units of sounds), /k/ + /a/. The hiragana is a grapheme that represents the phoneme /a/.
I hope that makes sense! 👍
Thanks👍
And I have a question about phonetic symbols
There are 44 of them but when I searched I found to be 107 symbols
Can you tell me
Hi, are you talking about the IPA symbols? The current version of the IPA has 107 symbols (excluding the diacritics). Where did you get the number 44?
I think 44 would be for the English language only
And because most of the languages like Japanese
The "r" sounds like "L"
So there might be symbols for these also
And yes I'm talking about IPA
Actually im learning Japanese so I think studying some linguistics might help
I have more questions in my mind though😅
Do you think studying linguistics is important or am I just wasting my time?
I'm studying Japanese with Yale University's "Japanese: The Spoken Language."
Thank you for sharing that information! Have you found it useful so far?
I'm still on the introduction,@@KomeisChannel. But I won't be for long. And while the book does have a few errors, it still beats online translators by a longshot.
Thanks for the explanation. There is one thing, how you may dramatically improve your videos and it will cost you nothing: stop playing the background music. When I want to hear the differences in words and really understand the way of pronunciation, the background music is a terrible obstacle.
Hi thanks for your feedback!
I think the last one 'konnatokoroniattake' is missing ni from the answer sheet !so is it 12 moras perhaps?
Yes, you are right! 😅
Great video. 🙏 Thanks. Moras can easily be understood if you consider to write Japanese in Sanskrit. Kindly make a special video with Japanese and Sanskrit script. Thanks 🙏. Please note that Sanskrit too use Mora like system of DEPENDENT VOWELS as well as INDEPENDENT VOWELS. Sadly basic ENGLISH donot use DEPENDENT VOWELS so not suitable for learning Japanese counterpart AKSHARS ( not syllables that use only INDEPENDENT VOWELS as in ENGLISH, ancient Greek).
Sanskrit do have SHORT & LONG VOWELS ( both DEPENDENT vowels- long as well as short---- like-, ़,ः, ॅ, ॉ, ॆ, ॊ, ॏ, ऺ, ॄ, ॢ, ॣ as well as INDEPENDENT VOWELS-- long as well as short---- like--- अ,आ,इ,ई, उ, ऊं, ए, ऐ, ओ, औ , अं, अ़, अः,ऋ,ऴृ, ॡ).