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The story
A thread on the Hello! Project board caught fire after a new fan got tripped up by the difference between the “Miimi” and “Chii-chan” spellings. Both nicknames sound similar when spoken aloud, so the simple question that kicked things off was: why is one written with a big “i” (い) and the other with a small “i” (ぃ)? The thread dug into whether the “i” is pronounced as its own distinct beat or is just a stretched-out vowel, whether the member herself has adopted an official spelling, and the fact that similar “Chii”-type nicknames — written as 「ちー」, 「ちい」, and 「ちぃ」 — actually refer to three completely different members. By the end, the discussion had spiraled all the way into Japanese “mora” theory (the basic unit of sound length).
What people said
Don't you even know how to read Japanese?
Aren't they pronounced the same — "mii-mi" and "chii-chan"?
Nobody actually says 「ちーちゃん」(chii-chan, long vowel)
it's 「ちぃちゃん」(chii-chan, small i).
「みいみ」and 「みーみ」sound totally different to begin with.
Are you even Japanese?
but since she herself uses 「みいみ」, it eventually became the standard.
I can't tell the difference lol
It's the difference between a long vowel and two separate beats.
Same with 「ちぃ」and 「ちい」,
「まあ」and 「まー」,
「はるさん」and 「春さん」.
If the member herself doesn't accept that pronunciation, it doesn't count.
Okay, got that.
So then what's the difference between 「ちぃちゃん」and 「ちいちゃん」?
and
「ダースベイダー」
(two different Japanese renderings of "Darth Vader") sound different, don't they?
Of course those sound different — the vowels themselves are different.
The point above was that nobody can tell 「ベーダー」from 「べえだー」apart, right?
「あぁ！」
「ああ！」
Those all sound different, don't they?
that pretty much means you're not actually from Japan.
Sorry, I was just bad at Japanese class.
end up sounding exactly the same to me.
The 「い」in 「みいみ」gets a firm, deliberate push.
The small 「ぃ」in 「みぃみ」is a lighter touch.
And 「みーみ」just stretches the vowel out with no push at all.
Seems like lately people have started calling her "Dan-chan" instead.
but the official spelling got settled as 「まーちゃん」during the Ustream show "Guest: Maa-chan."
That's exactly
why Iikubo stubbornly keeps calling her "Maa-chan" (with the small a) instead.
Yep — read this and it'll make sense:
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/モーラ (the Japanese Wikipedia page on "mora")
まあちゃん・まぁちゃん → Sudo Maasa
ちぃーちゃん → Morito Chisaki
ちーちゃん → Tokunaga Chinami
ちいちゃん → Okai Chisato
Small correction:
まーちゃん → Sato Masaki
まあちゃん・まぁちゃん → Sudo Maasa
ちぃちゃん → Morito Chisaki
ちーちゃん → Tokunaga Chinami
ちいちゃん → Okai Chisato
So like み・い・み (three separate beats)
versus みぃ・み (two beats)?
Yeah, exactly.
Actually, if you think about it, 「みーみ」and 「みいみ」should end up sounding the same.
Thanks,
I think I'm finally getting it.
「みーみ」just stretches the vowel,
but 「みいみ」re-articulates the 「い」— those are totally different.
the natural Japanese way
and it becomes 「血ぃ吸うたろか」.
And we're right back to square one.
Background and Key Points of This Topic
At the heart of the thread is the idea that writing the kana 「い」large or small (as a reduced kana) isn’t just a matter of preference — it reflects a real difference in “mora,” the basic unit of sound length in Japanese. A long vowel that simply stretches the sound, as in 「みーみ」, reportedly sounds different from a two-beat pronunciation that re-articulates the 「い」, as in 「みいみ」. Even more important is the fact that these spellings are tied to specific individual members: the thread cited examples like 「まーちゃん」(Sato Masaki) versus 「まぁちゃん」(Sudo Maasa), and 「ちーちゃん」(Tokunaga Chinami), 「ちいちゃん」(Okai Chisato), and 「ちぃちゃん」(Morito Chisaki). In other words, nicknames that sound nearly identical are kept distinct by changing how they’re written. There’s also the case of 「まーちゃん」, whose spelling was officially locked in during a Ustream broadcast — a reminder that management and the members’ own preferences, not just pronunciation theory, help decide these spellings. Readers might easily write this off as simple “fan spelling inconsistency,” but it’s actually a distinct system where differences in sound and the need to tell individual members apart are both at work.
*This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Hello! Project board) thread “New to the fandom, but why does “Miimi” get a big “i” while “Chii-chan” gets a small one?“
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