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Yeah I heard it originated in Korea, as a way of signifying a light hearted teasing / sarcasm (e.g. "see you at the finish line~")

by pyrocat 12y ago

minikomi 12y ago
In Japan a ー is used to extend a sound. Characters like ne or yo are used to casually finish sentences and it gives them a hightened sense of friendliness to extend them with 〜 instead of ー. It also can be used to make effeminate or suggestive sounds like あーん would be ahhn like sticking out your tongue to check your throat but あ〜ん is ahnn but in a seductive/sexy way
- arm 12y ago
  Please correct me if I’m wrong (still learning Japanese), but isn’t「ー」only used to extend sounds written in katakana? In the case of the「あーん」that you wrote, I would think that it would be written as「ああん」instead since that’s the way sounds are extended in hiragana. I agree with your usage of「あ〜ん」though.
  - Zarel 12y ago
    To be precise, 「ー」 is mostly only used to extend vowels when it wouldn't change what Japanese/Chinese word it's referring to. For instance, 「お」 can mean "honorable", but 「おう」 means "king" and 「おお」 means "large". If you wanted to convey that you're saying "honorable" but dragging it out, you'd write it like 「おー」 such as in 「おーにいーさん」 ("Brooooother"), so it wouldn't be confused with 「おう」 or 「おお」 even though it'd be pronounced the same way. You could think of it this way: if you wanted to convey that you were saying the word "god" but stretching it out, the Japanese solution would be to write it as "go–d" (since "good" would have it be confused with a different word). (This isn't the only way to convey that a long vowel in hiragana isn't semantic, though. It's also common to write the vowel in small font, such as 「あぁぁ」 or 「ねぇ」) You can also write things that are usually written in katakana in hiragana instead. This makes it look softer, and is similar to the idea of writing English without capitalizing words (such as at the beginning of sentences). In these cases, you'd still use ー as if you were using katakana, such as in the song title 「とらぶるめーかー」 ("Troublemaker", the opening theme song from the anime Himegoto).
  - minikomi 12y ago
    It depends - was it a foreigner who was having their throat checked? Although, yes, formally the ー mostly appears in katakana and after a vowel, there's a lot of informal ways to use it. eg. んー？ - the sound of someone thinking or っー an extended pause (perhaps in surprise - something happened mid sentence to cut someone off suddenly and make their jaw drop). eg. just coincidentally, my friend posted this on instagram as I was typing this response. http://instagram.com/p/t-BznNC0Nw/ http://instagram.com/p/t-BznNC0Nw/ んーしみじみ n-- shimijimi. mmmm, deep thoughts...

Yeah I heard it originated in Korea, as a way of signifying a light hearted teasing / sarcasm (e.g. "see you at the finish line~")

by pyrocat 12y ago

Yeah I heard it originated in Korea, as a way of signifying a light hearted teasing / sarcasm (e.g. "see you at the finish line~")

minikomi 12y ago

In Japan a ー is used to extend a sound. Characters like ne or yo are used to casually finish sentences and it gives them a hightened sense of friendliness to extend them with 〜 instead of ー. It also can be used to make effeminate or suggestive sounds like あーん would be ahhn like sticking out your tongue to check your throat but あ〜ん is ahnn but in a seductive/sexy way

arm 12y ago
Please correct me if I’m wrong (still learning Japanese), but isn’t「ー」only used to extend sounds written in katakana? In the case of the「あーん」that you wrote, I would think that it would be written as「ああん」instead since that’s the way sounds are extended in hiragana. I agree with your usage of「あ〜ん」though.
- Zarel 12y ago
  To be precise, 「ー」 is mostly only used to extend vowels when it wouldn't change what Japanese/Chinese word it's referring to. For instance, 「お」 can mean "honorable", but 「おう」 means "king" and 「おお」 means "large". If you wanted to convey that you're saying "honorable" but dragging it out, you'd write it like 「おー」 such as in 「おーにいーさん」 ("Brooooother"), so it wouldn't be confused with 「おう」 or 「おお」 even though it'd be pronounced the same way. You could think of it this way: if you wanted to convey that you were saying the word "god" but stretching it out, the Japanese solution would be to write it as "go–d" (since "good" would have it be confused with a different word). (This isn't the only way to convey that a long vowel in hiragana isn't semantic, though. It's also common to write the vowel in small font, such as 「あぁぁ」 or 「ねぇ」) You can also write things that are usually written in katakana in hiragana instead. This makes it look softer, and is similar to the idea of writing English without capitalizing words (such as at the beginning of sentences). In these cases, you'd still use ー as if you were using katakana, such as in the song title 「とらぶるめーかー」 ("Troublemaker", the opening theme song from the anime Himegoto).
- minikomi 12y ago
  It depends - was it a foreigner who was having their throat checked? Although, yes, formally the ー mostly appears in katakana and after a vowel, there's a lot of informal ways to use it. eg. んー？ - the sound of someone thinking or っー an extended pause (perhaps in surprise - something happened mid sentence to cut someone off suddenly and make their jaw drop). eg. just coincidentally, my friend posted this on instagram as I was typing this response. http://instagram.com/p/t-BznNC0Nw/ http://instagram.com/p/t-BznNC0Nw/ んーしみじみ n-- shimijimi. mmmm, deep thoughts...