Quote:
Originally Posted by chryuop
But Nagoyankeeさん, there is one thing I am wondering. I see my little daughter, who is learning from me my native language, that many times she can't hear some accents or letters in the words I say...above all if I am talking to my father and that way the talking speed picks up.
In everyday Japanese, basically when you speak to a friend of yours, how true is a long sound and how much is understood by the context?
I am not that good at English so can't speak about it, but in my language I know that some words when speaking freely and smoothly at a good pace some words might sound different to a non native (I know coz I was told before by my wife).
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Interesting question.
I would have to say that nearly 100% of the tme, we don't rely on the context but on the clearly pronounced "regular" and "elongated" syllables to understand each other. Too many groups of words would sound similar if we didn't make that distinction. Vowel sounds count much more in Japanese than in English. As a speaker of a Romance language, I trust that you will be able to appreciate this fact much more than English-speakers.
The only times that I have to depend on the context is when I talk to non-Japanese in Japanese.