I was wondering, I learnt an う lengthens the sound before it. When I learnt
the word みずうみ I thought it is a long u and saw it as a whole new word, but I
noticed みずうみ exists of 2 words: みず (water) and うみ (sea), the u does not
function as lenghteing the ず but as the first syllable of うみ. I am a bit
confused here: Do you say "mizu umi" or "mizuumi" as one word (with a long u)?

Thank you in advance!

日本語の学生より。
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2014-04-01T08:53:18.910
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2014-04-02T04:07:10.047
2014-04-02T04:07:10.047
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question
pronunciation pitch-accent
How do you pronounce みずうみ? (lake)
In terms of etymology, みずうみ is indeed derived from two words, but it's now a
single word--much like how English _housewife_ is a single word, even though
it's clearly derived from _house_ + _wife_.

This doesn't really matter for how you pronounce two /u/ vowels in a row,
though. You just hold the sound for an extra beat ("mora"), like it's a long
vowel:

> /mizuːꜜmi/

Here, the `ː` symbol indicates a long vowel and the `ꜜ` symbol indicates a
noticeable drop in pitch.

* * *

The drop in pitch is called a "pitch accent", and in this word it occurs after
the second /u/ sound. The red line in the following shows the basic pitch
pattern of the word, rising after the first /mi/ and falling after the second
/u/:

> みずうみ{LHHL}

I've checked four dictionaries, and all four say the pitch accent is in this
location. However, several users have commented saying that the accent is
often moved one mora to the left:

> みずうみ{LHLL}

In any case, you can listen to a recording of this word that someone uploaded
on [Forvo](http://ja.forvo.com/word/%E3%81%BF%E3%81%9A%E3%81%86%E3%81%BF/#ja).
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2014-04-01T09:15:18.080
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2014-04-01T22:25:08.240
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answer