About pronunciation over word boundaries?

[bzimmerman]

Hi. I'm new to the forum. This question has been floating around in my head for about a week now, so I thought I'd get it out.

When you're reading a sentence aloud like 日本語を話す, for example, would you lengthen the お sound in 語 to 2 morae due to the を particle, or do you distinguish the particle from its word audibly? Same goes for a word that starts with a vowel following a word that ends in the same vowel.

[Ongakuka]

Welcome to TJP, bzimmermanさん! Nice to make your acquaintance!

You asked a good question. In the case of your example, 「を」 , which is indeed pronounced 'o' is actually spelt 'wo.' I can't say it is really pronounced like we say 'wo' in English, but particularly in such cases where 「を」 is preceded by an 'o' sound, you may be able to discern a very slight change in inflection moving onto the 「を」。 (A linguistics student will be able to explain a lot better. Or if you can find your example spoken by a native speaker you might see what I mean.)

Sometimes it is pronounced/sounds like an elongated 'o' sound. As long as you recognize in your head that it is にほんごを　（As oppose to にほんごー）　I don't think it should matter too much.

あくまでもノンネイティブの理解の上。

[furrykef]

To me it usually sounds like a long "o". And then there are times where you have a long "o" before を, where it sounds like an even longer "o" (but difficult to distinguish from a normal long "o" in rapid speech). But I think subtle cues such as a drop in pitch at the を can help distinguish it.