VOWEL PECULIARITIES. 13
ko, "a child;" ko, "incense."
koko, "here;" koko, "filial piety."
sato, " a village ;" sato, "sugar."
torn, " to take ; " torn, "to pass through."
tsuji, " a cross-road ;" tsfiji, "an interpreter."
zutsu, " [one, etc.] at a time ; " zittsu, " a headache." The only long vowels of common occurence are 6 and u. Long d hardly occurs excepting in the interjections a ! ma nd ! and sd ! and in the word obdsan, " an old lady," " grandmother." Long e hardly occurs excepting in the interjection ne. Long I does not occur, its place being take,n by double ii, as in yoroshii, " good," as it is considered that careful speakers sound the two i's separately.
14. When preceded by another vowel or by n, the vowel e is sounded as ye, i as yi, and o as wo. Thus ue, " above ;" kon-in " marriage," and shio, " salt," are respec- tively pronounced (and by many transliterators written) uye, konyin, and shiwo.
15. The vowels i and u are often inaudible or nearly so in common conversation, after the consonants/, k, s, sh, and ts, as
futatsu, "two," pronounced ftatsu.
watakifshi, "I," ,, watakslri.
takusan, " much," " many," ,, taxan.
gozainiasu, " there is," ,, gozaiuias,
shita, "below," ,, sJita.
tsuki, " the moon," ,, tski.
16. Hi has a tendency to pass into shi and even into simple sh, especially in the mouths of the vulgar of Tokyo, who pronounce for instance the word hige, " beard," 9&s&ige t
