Quote:
Originally Posted by duo797
Actually, I think the っ is called a ' glottal stop' (I'm 95% sure that's the right term. Regardless of whether I have the right term or not, the rest of my definition should be pretty sound) It's usually taught as doubling whatever sound follows it because that's what it does in romaji (けっこう = kekkou. Double the K). It's real function is to textually signal a stop in the flow of air when you're speaking. So if you saw one at the end of a phrase, for example, then that would be like an abrupt cutting off of a sound. For a really easy example: なッ...何?! 'Wh-... What?'. (I'm not sure if the っ should be hiragana or katakana, or if it matters at all.) |
We can nitpick all we want, but the fact is that saying it doubles the following consonant is accurate enough for someone in their first year or two of Japanese.
I mean, when you double a voiceless consonant in English, I think all you do is perform a glottal stop anyway.