Does anybody know why you sometimes use a line in katakana, for example: " splatoon" = - Feed Post by Jonasan

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  dorada

  that line indicates that the vowel of the syllable is lengthened, like in きょう

  July 1, 2015 at 4:53am
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  Natsuko1

  It extends the vowel sound that comes before it. In hiragana you would write うう but in katakana it's ウー. Another example would be おう which is just an elongated "o" sound, yet uses an う to show it. In katakana it's simplified to just オー.

  July 1, 2015 at 4:55am
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  mog86uk

  Strange example word, "splatoon"... but I highly doubt it is spelt like that in katakana. What it spells is more like "splato oon". Instead of トウ (romaji: to + u) it would need to be written トゥ (romaji: tu).
  
  So, the ー lengthens the vowel sound of トゥ (tu), the same as if you had written トゥウ (tuu).
  
  スプラトゥーン in romaji is "supuratuun", which an English listener would spell as "splatoon" if he had to write what he heard.

  July 1, 2015 at 7:30am
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  mog86uk

  カートゥーン (kaatuun) "cartoon" is a very similar and much more normal example--one you can actually find in a Japanese dictionary. ^^

  July 1, 2015 at 7:38am
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  Jonasan

  Thanks everyone and yes you have to spell it like that, look it up. In the Japanese commercials they say supuratuuuuuuuun!!! I love that game and it's Japanese commercials.

  July 1, 2015 at 9:02am