Is there an error in this song's subtitles or I'm not understanding it correctly?


[Here is the song.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZQ1d1SFVX0) My confusion
comes in first seconds of this song (also repeated in the end):

ずつと ずつと (Zutzuto Zutzuto) → "one by one" (?) or ずっと ずっと (Zutto Zutto) →
"forever forever"

So, this is what subtitle lyrics display... つ in the middle seems big one,
rather than small one so first variant seems to be correct, but maybe it's
just font being ambiguous like this and its actually small っ. But if you
listen to what is actually sung, its totally different, something like:

つめた つめた (Tsumeta Tsumeta) → may be this 冷た "cold", maybe you know more
meanings that better fit context?

So is there really this huge error in subs (and not only subs, but on all
lyrics sites in the Internet I could find)? Or am I just hallucinating? My
theory is – maybe they changed lyrics in the last moment before recording
song, and didn't had time to change lyrics texts, so they left it as it is?




You're both misreading and mishearing it. The singer sings it as three
syllables rather than than two, but it's still basically 'Zu-u-tto'.
Additionally, it's definitely a small っ - just compare the size of it to the
large つ in ついていこう two lines later.

ず (and all other ザ行 kana) are often pronounced with [dz] rather than simple
[z], so perhaps that's the root of your mishearing.

[![Here is the ずっと　ずっと
line](https://i.stack.imgur.com/hvlnH.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/hvlnH.png)

[![And here is the ついていこうって
part.](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ohNI0.png)](https://i.stack.imgur.com/ohNI0.png)

As you can see, the っ in the ずっと is smaller than the beginning part of
ついていこうって, and the same size as the っ in って. Additionally, ずつとずつと makes no
sense, because ずつ is always paired with a number word and not used on its own.

Additionally, compare the sound of the と in the first line to the た in ドキドキした
in the next line. They sound clearly different. The American English 'long O'
is a diphthong [ou] - like a Spanish or Japanese short O followed by an 'oo'
sound in the same syllable, but the Japanese O is, as I have just said, just
the first part of that sound.

And there's definitely no め sound at all there. If every single source on the
internet, including those transcribed by Japanese people, say one thing, and
you hear another, you should probably accept that you're the one who's hearing
it wrong.

