Loooongwave

 

Nami dasshu, the wave dash, is important in Japanese punctuation to represent a range between figures. But another, less formal use springs up in text messages, YouTube comments and online chat forums: placed at the end of a word it marks a long, drawn-out vowel sound to create a comic, sarcastic or cute effect. Where in an alphabetical language the repetition of single-sound characters is possible (‘Hiiiiiiii!’, ‘no waaaayy!’), in a syllabic system it can be harder to specify. Placing a wave dash at the end of your word symbolises the trailing off of sound with notable space-efficiency (‘マジで〜’: ‘seriouslyyyyyyyy!’) and pleasing pictorial aptness.

 

The shape is literally suggestive – a diagram, even – it perfectly draws the drawing-out of a sound, traces the up-down modulation in tone. A mini sine wave, a certain frequency of oscillation, wavering pitch that stretches and modulates meaning.

 

But this is not entirely new. Accents were used in Ancient Greek polytonic orthography1 to indicate pitch change when speaking certain syllables. One of these, the circumflex, is also sometimes printed in the form of the tilde, and marks pitch that starts high and falls. It is consciously musical; the Latin word accentus (from which comes all our associated words) corresponds to the Greek for ‘song sung to instrumental music’.

 

A ‘sing-song’ nature marks this chat-room use of ~ ; it is tremolo, a warble, a waver – and puts it at the feminine end of traditional gender associations. It is not the deep bass ‘noooooooo’ of slow-motion action-film heroics, but the high ‘byeeeeee!’ of enthusiastic teenage girlhood, cute and unthreatening. Users report employing it to soften messages, make them feel less serious. It’s a creative workaround when communicating online, removed from the complex vocal nuances that convey meaning; a rigid character set can’t stop you from being silly. And as anyone who ever misinterpreted a joke text can tell you, it’s good to know when someone is just kiddinnnngggg~