In the last lesson (#200! ^_^), we looked at one-word sentences using i-adjectives. Like this one:

寒い！
さむい！
It's so cold!
Literally: "cold!"

Then we made those sentences stronger by dropping the い and cutting the final sound short with a little っ, like this:

寒い　→　寒っ！
さむい　→　さむっ！
It's so cold!
Literally: "cold!"

In this lesson, we’re looking at another casual way to emphasize these sentences.

In the case of 寒い, we can change it to:

寒い　→　さみー！
さむい　→　さみー！
It's so cold!
Literally: "cold!"

Here, む and い are combining into み, which we then draw out as みー.

Like when we used the small っ, this increases the emphasis of our sentence. However, it has a lighter, more playful nuance than the version with っ.

Also, the っ version tends to make it sound like you're surprised at the extent that this situation is [i-adjective]. This nuance of surprise is not included as strongly with the morphing sound [さみー] version.

At least, thinking about it now, these are trends I've noticed with these usages.

Next, I'm going to explain some loose sound-morphing rules. To be honest, though, I never thought about rules for changing these sounds; I simply learned them one at a time via exposure to the language.

So let's not stress too much about memorizing stuff, yeah?

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Important Note About Intonation

Although this is some highly useful, awesome Japanese, this is one of the lessons that would be better taught in person, because intonation can have so much influence on the level of emphasis.

Before you let that stress you out, consider that the same is true of English.

I could say "It's so cold" with a flat voice, almost like a robot, and it would seem that I don't really think it's too cold.

Or, I could put a sharp stress on "so," saying "It's so cold," and it would sound like I think it's extremely cold.

Or, I could say "It's soooo cold," and I might mean that it's extremely cold, or I might be using sarcasm to say that it's not cold.

Similarly, these Japanese sentences can also change in nuance quite a bit depending on the intonation and/or use of exclamation marks. When you finally do hear them used in real life, please try to pay special attention to the intonation being used by the native speaker... I think you'll find that, as a human being, you have a pretty natural sense of intonation in many languages, including Japanese.

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　-u + i → iiiiiii!　
When the second to last kana ends in a "u" sound, the "u" will morph into an elongated "i" sound.

This change is not only casual, but it also sounds rough, teenage-like, and "manly." If I child were to use the following phrases in front of their parents, they'd probably be scolded.

Example:
〜む ＋ い → 〜みー！

寒い　→　さみー！
さむい　→　さみー！
It's so cold!
Literally: "cold!"

眠い　→　ねみー！
ねむい　→　ねみー！
I'm so tired!
Literally: "sleepy!"

Example:
〜つ ＋ い → 〜ちー！

暑い　→　あちー！
あつい　→　あちー！
It's so hot!
Literally: "hot!"
Note: Since we're writing あつい as 暑い, we know that this is talking about hot temperature outside (i.e. the weather). If we were talking about, say, hot food, then we would write あつい as 熱い.

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Mega-Special Note

Please note that this practice of morphing the last sound for casual emphasis of an i-adjective is only used for certain words. For example, you're unlikely to ever hear someone do this with the following two words...

まずい　→　✕✕✕
This is disgusting!
Literally: "unpleasant (taste)!"
Note: There may be some people that say まじー, but I've never heard it, and Rei has never said this.

安い　→　✕✕✕
やすい　→　✕✕✕
That's so cheap!
Literally: "cheap!"
Note: Theoretically, this should be やしー... but nobody says that.

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　-o + i → eeeeee!　
　-a + i → eeeeee!　
When the second to last kana ends in an "o" OR "a" sound, the "o" or "a" will morph into an elongated "e" sound.

Example:
〜も ＋ い → 〜めー！

キモい　→　きめー！
きもい　→　きめー！
That's disgusting!
Literally: "gross!"

Example:
〜ま ＋ い → 〜めー！

美味い　→　うめー！
うまい　→　うめー！
This is delicious!
Literally: "delicious!"

Example:
〜さ＋ い → 〜せー！

めんどくさい　→　めんどくせー！
This is such a hassle!
Literally: "bothersome!"

Example:
〜か ＋ い → 〜けー！

高い → たけー！
たかい　→　たけー！
It's so expensive! // It's so high/tall!
Literally: "expensive // tall!"

Example:
〜な ＋ い → 〜ねー！

汚い　→　きたねー！
きたない　→　きたねー！
It's so dirty!
Literally: "dirty!"

Example:
〜た ＋ い → 〜てー！

冷たい　→　つめてー！
つめたい　→　つめてー！
This is so cold.
Literally: "cold!"

固い　→　かてー！
かたい　→　かてー！
It's so hard!
Literally: "hard!"

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(Sort of) Exceptions

If the morphing creates an impossible kana combo, then the consonant will disappear.

For example, 速い（はやい）has や (ya) and い (i), so theoretically it should morph into ye. But there is no kana for "ye," so instead we just use え.

The same thing happens with ～わ＋い, which becomes え, because "we" doesn't exist in kana.

Example:
〜や ＋ い → 〜えー！

速い　→　はえー！
はやい　→　はえー！
She's so fast!
Literally: "fast!"

Example:
〜わ ＋ い → 〜えー！

怖い　→　こえー！
こわい　→　こえー！
That's so scary. // I'm scared.
Literally: "scary!"

弱い　→　よえー！
よわい　→　よえー！
He's so weak!
Literally: "weak!"

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By the way, if you ever meet a native Japanese teacher that teaches stuff like this, please be sure to thank them.

Back when I was struggling to learn this language, I never met a single teacher who shared this kind of casual, fun, everyday Japanese. But surely these awesome teachers are out there somewhere. ^_^

Also, I guess we can't really blame teachers for focusing on the formal (and often useless) stuff. That's what all the tests and job interviews use. But… it's… just... so... boring!