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Are there words written with "ei" or "ou" that are pronounced with both vowels
instead of as a long vowel? I think this is true in cases like 拾う and している,
but are there cases of it happening where you'd expect to find a long vowel?

I ask because I thought I heard 姪 pronounced this way.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2012-02-18T16:35:22.657
4718
2019-05-06T06:56:41.243
2014-03-26T12:27:53.427
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question
pronunciation vowels long-vowels
things that look like long vowels but aren't
Yes, you are right.

For 拾う and している, I think everybody pronounces them with _ou_ and _ei_.

For 姪, I would pronounce it _mei_ , but I'm not convinced that some people
wouldn't pronounce it _mee_. In the case of 姪御{めいご}, which is sonkeigo for 姪,
I think even I would pronounce it _meego_.

I don't know if there are strict rules about when to pronounce it either way,
but here are some guidelines that I think might help:

**Hiragana and kanji**

  1. Pronounce them as written if part of different words/morphemes/kanji, i.e. している, 乗っていく, 子牛{こうし}. I put 拾う under this rule as well, considering ～う a present-tense ending.

  2. Pronounce kun-yomi as written, but on-yomi (when it doesn't go across 2 kanji) as long vowels, i.e. 名 _mee_ , but 姪 _mei_. 塔 _too_ , but 問う _tou_. In the middle of morphemes, though, like in 儲{もう}かる _mookaru_ , pronounce as long vowel, even for kun-yomi. Not sure if 姪御 as _meego_ would fall under this exception as well, though.

  3. Certain common words, like もう, こう, そう, どう are pronounced with long vowels.

**Katakana**

Simple, pronounce as long vowel when using ー, otherwise separately, i.e. スペイン
_supein_ , but ページ _peeji_

Sorry for being wishy-washy, but I think with these guidelines, you should be
OK in 99% of the cases. I'm curious too if there are any standard rules for
this.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2012-02-20T14:58:30.313
4742
2019-05-06T06:56:41.243
2019-05-06T06:56:41.243
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answer