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From what I understand, **the hiragana characters above should make the word
jidoushiya** , but **for some reason it is actually jidōsha**.

Why did the word change this way even though the characters are:

> **じ** → ji, **ど** → do, **う** → u, **し** → shi and **ゃ** → ya?
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2017-07-11T22:46:39.817
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2017-08-09T03:12:17.977
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question
pronunciation orthography rōmaji
Why is じどうしゃ (jidoushiya), jidōsha instead?
The small ゃ is different to the larger や. When using the smaller ゃ after a
character in the i-line, it modifies the sound before it;

So, しや='shiya' but しゃ='sha' Similarly, りや='riya' but りゃ='rya'

As for the ō, this is a notation which refers to an extended sound. Following
お with う extends the sound to be twice as long, and this can be written either
as 'ou' or 'ō' depending on personal preference.

Edit: this shows all the ways you can modify characters in this way in
hiragana: [![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Y3WYy.jpg)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/Y3WYy.jpg)

You can also do similar things with katakana such as ティ='ti' because this
isn't normally a sound you can make in Japanese. These can usually be guessed,
though.
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2017-07-11T22:56:57.650
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2017-07-11T23:15:27.003
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answer
The combined form is said as 拗音 (yō-on), as contracted form which special mora
(syllable) formed by palatalized sound. Unlike chō-on (長音 = long sound) which
counts as 2 moras, even written with 2 letters (the second one is smaller form
of ya, yu or yo) it considered as single mora.

自動車 (jidōsha) as example word consists of 4 moras, all of them are on-readings
from their respective kanji:

  * 自 (ジ/じ) => daku-on (濁音), 1 mora
  * 動 (ドウ/どう) => daku-on + chō-on, 2 moras
  * 車 (シャ/しゃ) => yō-on, 1 mora

NB: Katakana form "ティ" (ti) doesn't considered as yō-on even using similar
construction, it is part of additional letters specially created to form
English or foreign loanwords/gairaigo (外来語).

References:

[Hiragana chart](http://japanese-lesson.com/characters/hiragana/index.html)

[Katakana chart](http://japanese-lesson.com/characters/katakana/index.html)
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2017-07-12T01:25:20.797
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answer