日本

I’m quite glad that I borrowed this book called “Basic Japanese Vocabulary: An Explanation of Usage” by 寿子山口(Toshiko Yamaguchi) from the library on Wed. It was in my bag till Fri when I suddenly remembered I’ve borrowed it, LOL. It basically (no pun intended) compares the differences between similar Japanese terms like 飲酒する and 酒を飲む; 習慣 and 慣習; 独学 and 自習 etc, etc.

Because of that, I’ve finally realised the differences between 日本 and 日本. I mean, にほん(Nihon) and にっぽん(Nippon). You pronounce Nihon as Ni-hon and Nippon as Ni followed by a short pause then a Pon. Here’s the quote from the book:

If you have listened to the Japanese cheer their national football team, you may have heard the word にっぽん. This is used more frequently in spoken language. にっぽん has a small っ before ぽ. This small sound is created by doubling the consonant /p/. This process is called gemination. Japanese words such as 学校（がっこう）’school’ and 楽器（がっき）’musical instrument’ are created by gemination. When people cheer competing teams, they get excited emotionally and want to convey their heightened emotions (or patriotic feelings) through words. People prefer to use にっぽん rather than にほん to convey these strong feelings. When you meet new classmates during the first week of the academic year, you will normally introduce yourself. You might say a sentence like 私はにほんから来ました. It would be odd to say にっぽん because there is no need to emphasise the fact that you are ‘from Japan’.

Cool, right?