the.com/mora
The pause that decides whether a Japanese word means rent or hell, basically.
means A mora is a basic unit of sound duration in a language — roughly the beat or timing-slot a syllable (or part of one) takes up, used especially to explain Japanese rhythm and vowel/consonant length.
from From Latin 'mora,' meaning 'delay' or 'pause' — the same word Romans used for a stalling tactic or a legal holdup. Linguists borrowed it to name the tiny unit of timing in speech: the beat it takes to say a short syllable. In Japanese, doubling that beat (as in a long vowel or a held consonant) can change one word into a completely different one — which is why a short pause really can separate 'rent' from 'hell,' depending on how long you linger.
- unit of
- timing, not sound, in Japanese
- classic example
- obasan vs obaasan, aunt vs grandma
- haiku math
- 5-7-5 counts morae, not syllables
- double consonants
- kitte takes one extra silent beat