Japanese punctuation?

Question

In hiragana words are normally extended by one of the syllabaries (such as どうふうする / doufuu suru), but in katakana a long mark is used for the words instead. (Such as コーチ / koーchi.)

Why? Why not コウチ / kouchi instead?

No, Toto, not 高知.
コーチ as in "coach".

Answer 1

Bacially, old Japaense didn't need long mark "ー" in Japanese sentenses.
See Hiragana and Katakana table, there is no this mark.

When western words came into Japan, probably about 130-140 years ago, peple noticed the pronouciation is different from Japanese, and found there are some new sounds, such as long vowel and diphthong, etc which Japanese didn't have. So language scholars set several new rules. The long mark is one of them.
This mark is basically used for Katakana words which describe foreign words.

eg.
coffee コーヒー
juice ジュース
coach コーチ

Today, Japanese language is changing every year. Young Japanese use this mark for Hiragana as well.
eg. わおー　wowoooooowooo 　助けてー　heeeelp meeeeee!

If I answer you simply, because the コーチ (coach ) is foreign word originaly.

Actually there are more complicated history and rules. However, you remember this mark is often used for forein vocabulary basically. You won't be in big trouble.
If you found this mark between Hiraganas or Kanji, the word is basically spoken Japanese (so that, it is hard to find in the dictionary. right? Maybe you can find in Anime though.).

PS:I have never seen どうふー, いー , わおー, 助けてー　etc. in formal documents and business mails. Maybe found in Anime??
But you can write those コーチ,　コーヒー in those formal documents.

Answer 2

Actually, you can extend syllabaries, but in hiragana, it won't be counted as new syllabaries.

Hiragana is used for writing real japanese word, not some word that was adapted to the japanese reading system. And that is why, that word must be written as is, and not just 'how to read' like katakana.

For example, you cant write 'いい' (good) as 'いー'.
Because in this case, people will read it as just 'i', not 'ii'.

same case with 'どうふう', of course you can write is as 'どうふー', but people will read it as doufu, not doufuu (which of course, means something else).

And コーチ isn't koUchi either, it supposed to be koOchi.
because the long mark means you have to repeat the last sound.
In this case, the last sound from KO isn't U but O.
t's a bit different.

Answer 3

It might be because it doesn't always represent a vowel extension. I know the pronunciation is the same, but in katakana the extension marker sometimes shows the "r" sound. For example, the name "Mark" in katakana would be the symbol for "ma" followed by the "--" and then "ku." In Japanese, the name is pronounced the same as if it were written an "maaku" in hiragana, but it doesn't represent the same sound, so in katakana they use a "--" instead.

Answer 4

I don't actually have any idea, but perhaps it has to do with Katakana being used primarily for foreign words or emphasis?

Answer 5

Smimasen. Watashi wa totemo baka desu.

Answer 6

高知？

Answer 7

I am sorry, but I dont know :( 知らない。