From what I understand, the hiragana characters above should make the word jidoushiya, but for some reason it is actually jidōsha.
Why did the word change this way even though the characters are:
じ → ji, ど → do, う → u,し → shi and ゃ → ya?
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2It's a small ゃ, not a large や. – Angelos Jul 11 '17 at 22:50
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fyi, those are hiragana, not kanji. – Andy Jul 12 '17 at 00:11
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The small ゃ is different to the larger や. When using the smaller ゃ after a character in the i-line, it modifies the sound before it;
So, しや='shiya' but しゃ='sha' Similarly, りや='riya' but りゃ='rya'
As for the ō, this is a notation which refers to an extended sound. Following お with う extends the sound to be twice as long, and this can be written either as 'ou' or 'ō' depending on personal preference.
Edit: this shows all the ways you can modify characters in this way in hiragana:
You can also do similar things with katakana such as ティ='ti' because this isn't normally a sound you can make in Japanese. These can usually be guessed, though.
M Palmer
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this explains things for publications since the end of WW2, but prior to that (and occasionally after) you would see しや for しゃ etc along with some other historical spellings. – A.Ellett Jul 12 '17 at 05:21
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The combined form is said as 拗音 (yō-on), as contracted form which special mora (syllable) formed by palatalized sound. Unlike chō-on (長音 = long sound) which counts as 2 moras, even written with 2 letters (the second one is smaller form of ya, yu or yo) it considered as single mora.
自動車 (jidōsha) as example word consists of 4 moras, all of them are on-readings from their respective kanji:
- 自 (ジ/じ) => daku-on (濁音), 1 mora
- 動 (ドウ/どう) => daku-on + chō-on, 2 moras
- 車 (シャ/しゃ) => yō-on, 1 mora
NB: Katakana form "ティ" (ti) doesn't considered as yō-on even using similar construction, it is part of additional letters specially created to form English or foreign loanwords/gairaigo (外来語).
References:
Tetsuya Yamamoto
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