Can someone quickly explain this Japanese to me, a Q not a translation!?

Question

I understand the various Kana but I would like to know why some are small in size compared to other ones.
Like this: ヴォ and ウァ... random Kana I typed by why is the one smaller, how does it affect pronounciation?

Answer 1

The smaller kana changes the pronounciation slightly. When you see a small kana next to a large one, it does something to change the way the word is said. Much like っ/ッ changes how you say a word in Japanese (Example: かっこいい = kakkoii, with a double "k" sound as opposed to かこいい kakoii which doesn't make sense in Japanese) a small kana that comes after a normal sized-one changes how it is said.
Note: It, until small tsu, does not change the pronounciation for anything AFTER it. Only the single kana that comes right before it.

Whereas ヴ would normally be "vu", the small オ (O) kana changes the pronounciation so it becomes "vo" because it doesn't appear in regular Japanese.
Example: volume (in order to comply with how it is in English) is spelled as ヴォリューム [voryu-mu]. Also take note of the small ユ (yu) that comes after リ (ri). It changes ri's pronouncitation from ri to "ryu".

The Japanese sometimes also do this if the same kana is written twice in a row. For example, some Japanese might type かっこいい as かっこいぃ. I seem more girls do this than guys, and mostly on the Internet when they're just being fun.
It can also work for sound effects. Like ウァァァァ [uaaaaa!].

Answer 2

Well, if you're working with something that's spelled in romaji with double letters right next to eachother (Like tto in a word), but in Kana, you only see "to" and a "Tsu" infront of it, then that means that the kana infront of it is pronounced like a double consanent (is that how you spell it? the letters that aren't vowels). Also if you see "Ki" followed by a small "ya", that means it's "Kya". same with stuff like "Ja". if you translated the kana into romaji, it would be "Ji-a", just said as "Ja". Do you get it? Also, if you see an "Ou" in romaji, it just means that it's a longer "O" sound. I hope you get it now! If you still don't, go on a website that has Kana and stuff like that and see if it explains it, or look in some books! I find this website helpful: www.omniglot.com. To go to Japanese, follow this link.

http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese.htm

I also find www.yesjapan.com very helpful! Get an account if you want, it's very useful!

Answer 3

in japanese, there were originally only the folloing letters:

あいうえお
a, ee, oo, eh, oh,
かきくけこ
ka kee koo keh koh
がぎぐげご
ga gee goo geh goh
さしすせそ
sa shee soo seh soh
ざじずぜぞ
za jii zoo zeh zoh
たちつてと
ta chee tsoo teh toh
だじずでど
da jee zoo zeh doh
なにぬねの
na nee noo neh noh
はひふへほ
ha hee hoo heh hoh
ばびぶべぼ
ba bee boo beh boh
まみむめも
ma mee moo meh moh
や　ゆ　よ
ya yoo yoh
らりるれろ
la lee lu le lo
わ　を　ん
wa o nn

than, as foreign languages came into Japan, there became the neccesity for diffrentiating "r"'s and "l"s, "b"s and "v"s.
ヴァ is "va", whereas ば, is "ba" the small letters weren't used so much until other languages came in.