What is the longest Japanese word with a single syllable? ^_^
by 
Egao No Genki
ANSWERS: 3
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Ask a Japanese Philologist.
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Syllables are different in Japanese. All Japanese sounds follow the pattern of [vowel], [consonant]+[vowel] or [consonant]+[I]+[ya, yu, or yo]. There are five vowel sounds in Japanese, A, I, U, E, O. Basic sounds in Japanese sound like BA, BI, BU, BE, BO; KA, KI, KU, KE, KO; or MA, MI, MU, ME, MO. For the third type: BI+YA=BYA, BI+YU=BYU, BI+YO=BYO or KI+YA=KYA, KI+YU=KYU, KI+YO=KYO, etc. There is only one exception to these rules. The singular consonant [N]. But to a Japanese person, when [N] is used, it is a separate syllable. For example to an English speaker both BI and BIN are one syllable, but to a Japanese person BIN would be two syllables: [BI]+[N]. So from a Japanese perspective, the longest word with one syllable would be ALL words that are one syllable long. If you want it from an English perspective, it would probably be a word of the form [consonant]+[I]+[ya, yu, or yo]+[vowel]+[N]. Something like KYAAN, PYOUN or CHAAN. None of those are actual words, by the way. The Only word I can think of that has that form is JYAAN, which is usually written in English as JAAN. JAAN means "Ta-daa!"
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E-e-e-eh? (Said for about 2 seconds, Meaning I don't believe you. or Is that true?) O-o-o-o-i! (Said to a wife (2 to 4 seconds) by a chauvinistic husband in lieu of calling her name)
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