Why are words sometimes broken into syllables when said?


This occurrence appears to happen when the speaker is trying to sound cute, or
is possibly under the influence of something... They break one of the words
into syllables or characters, with pauses in between where they broke up the
word.

For an archetypal example:

> ご飯にする？お風呂にする？それとも、 **あ・た・し** ？  
>  "Do you want dinner? Or do you want a bath? Or do you want _me_?"

Or, when one character confesses their love to another, you might hear だ・い・す・き
_da-i-su-ki_ "I-love-you".




Japanese is not as [tonal of a
language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_\(linguistics\)) as English with
its rhythmic iambic pentameter (English is said to be ["a stress-timed
language"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phonology#Rhythm)) or
[Chinese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Chinese_phonology#Tones)
(Japanese does have some tones, such as _kami_ [paper] vs. _kami_ [god] vs.
_kami_ [hair] or _hashi_ [bridge] and _hashi_ [chopsticks]). In English,
emphasis is often accomplished by changing the tonal stress of the sentence.
For example, "What are you [doing NOW]{LLLLLLHHH}?" or "[What are YOU doing
now?!]{LLLLLLLLLHHHLLLLLLLLLLL}" or "[What ARE you doing
now?!]{LLLLLHHHLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL}" or "[WHAT ]{HHHHL} are you doing now?!"
Because Japanese does not default to this, enunciating syllables with pauses
is an alternate way to create emphasis in a sentence.




Japanese is not as [tonal of a
language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_\(linguistics\)) as English with
its rhythmic iambic pentameter (English is said to be ["a stress-timed
language"](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_phonology#Rhythm)) or
[Chinese](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Chinese_phonology#Tones)
(Japanese does have some tones, such as _kami_ [paper] vs. _kami_ [god] vs.
_kami_ [hair] or _hashi_ [bridge] and _hashi_ [chopsticks]). In English,
emphasis is often accomplished by changing the tonal stress of the sentence.
For example, "What are you [doing NOW]{LLLLLLHHH}?" or "[What are YOU doing
now?!]{LLLLLLLLLHHHLLLLLLLLLLL}" or "[What ARE you doing
now?!]{LLLLLHHHLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL}" or "[WHAT ]{HHHHL} are you doing now?!"
Because Japanese does not default to this, enunciating syllables with pauses
is an alternate way to create emphasis in a sentence.

