(As a non-native speaker) I interpret that single sokuon っ as an utterance by itself unconnected to the previous line, perhaps a glottal stop of some kind. Please disregard my comment, since I can't seem to delete it! Perhaps the lack of a double-n in 'minasan' is intended to convey a sense of urgency, like he's hurrying to get his warning out before it's too late?Īnd I just realized I misread the double-consonant in the post is referring to the small 'tsu' at the end of 'shinigam-', not the lack of a double-n in 'minasan'. L (the name of the character in the image) is warning the other people in the room about the Shinigami, and getting cut off in the middle of the word. 'Minasan' is intended to be addressing 'everyone'. Filed by Victor Mair under Writing systemsĪs a fan of Death Note (the source of the bottom image), I can offer some context.The Japanese script consists of the following elements: kanji, katakana, hiragana, romaji, which afford it great flexibility - and complexity. This is an interesting visual way of showing a double consonant. Since there is no context, I am not sure if 'Minasan' is the subject of the sentence or an address like 'Hi, everyone'.

= shinigam….m)Įveryone, the Grim Reaper…r… OR Everyone is the Grim Reaper.r… 'Minasan, shinigam (incomplete み）…tsu (small sizeつ=double consonant)…. Lengthened kanji and kana are certainly seen in cursive handwriting, but not generally tied to pronunciation. ニッポン, etc.), or just the playfully pastiche mixing of diverse writing system elements, orthographic flexibility is one of the things I like most about Japanese, and this is another great example of that tendency.Īlllllll (emphasized) of them (the stuff) inside the package as well. Whether it's creative glosses to create multiple simultaneous meanings (永遠 as とき = eternity + a single moment, etc.) or choosing a different script for a different connotation or emphasis (日本 vs.

Occasionally, the wave dash elongation and emphasis effect is also created with the kana small forms - and this can even be doubled for overspeakification, i.e., ありがとう→ありがと〜→ありがとぉ～īut the point here is that the elongation of a kanji is unusual, as pointed out by the caption for the original Twitter post: All of those forms are variations on the long vowel mark in katakana (ー). In fact, I've never seen it with kanji that I can remember offhand. Transcription, translation, and explanation from Nathan Hopson:Įverything / all in the package / wrapping, tooĮxcept, with the elongated kanji this is probably more like:Įlongating with the wave dash '〜' or a dash, hyphen, etc., is pretty common practice in informal written Japanese, but almost exclusively with hiragana and katakana.

Death note rules romaji