I have a question regarding this word. I’m sure there are others but this is the one that always seems to have me notice it. Way back when I was learning hiragana one of the things I learned was that a えい is pronounced as a double え. Likewise, a おう is pronounced as a double お.
So here is my question. If the above is true why is 遠い (とおい) written with the double お and not a う. It’s pronoucned the same but just written differently. I realize this probably isn’t a big deal but I wanted to ask in case it has some extra meaning further down that I’ll learn or might have just missed.
3 comments
Why is ‘two’ written with a ‘w’ and not as ‘too’? I don’t know. Just accept it and move on I guess.
Because it used to be written as とほい [before the the kana reform](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_kana_orthography). おう was あう, あふ, already おう, おふ, わう and a bunch of other variations depending on the initial consonant; おお was おほ or おを (maybe sometimes already おお)
Same with とおか(10日), ほのお(炎) and こおり(氷).. it just happens sometimes. Not often, though.