Hi there,

I’m presently in the early stages of season two, where じゃありません (It Is Not) is introduced.

On the video on that page, I hear Konichi make use of four syllables to pronounce it in full, but when he breaks it up into two pieces, the じゃ part and then the ありません, he makes use of five syllables.

My initial thought was that when kana are similar in sound, like long vowels, they’re combined into a single longer syllable. In this case, じゃあ (jaa) was a single syllable stretched long.

However, at the end of the chapter in its practice area, a female speaker provides the speech and I can hear slight, but definite, あ after the じゃ, making her usage five syllables.

Doing a quick search, I stumbled across a song that uses じゃありません for its lyrics, where I can hear this sole あ even more clearly.

It’s something that I’m not hearing on Konichi’s speech. To ensure it’s just not me just hearing things (or the lack of them) and be thorough, I’ve placed Konichi’s and the female speaker into an audio editor to compare them. Image here. Konichi’s voice is on the top. I can clearly see the あ in the female’s voice but Konichi’s appears to be a continuous single じゃ.

This kind of threw me off once I reached the practice area as I had gotten used to avoiding the sole あ.

Although I don’t see it in the Konichi’s audio spectrum, could this just be me? If not, which of these is the more correct way, or can both be used? Am I correct in thinking that じゃあ can act as a single syllable, much like a long vowel?

Thanks for any replies.