Am I correct assuming that both おお and おう are homophones in Japanese - both being pronounced as long o? I suspect I am, since that's what I'm indirectly reading in various tutorials. If so, are there any (non necessarily exhaustive) rules to guess the correct spelling of the words with long o? I speak several languages where there are no strict spelling rules, but still there are some hints that help guess the right spelling most of the time. Is there such a rule for おお vs おう in Japanese?
Answer
Etymology. おお comes from an earlier おほ or おを, while おう can come from any of おう、あう、おふ、or あふ (and potentially えう、えふ、ゑう、ゑふ if it's now よう). This is due to sound change - originally all of these were distinct pronunciations, but they have since been reduced to a single sound ([o:]).
Typically you can guess that [o:] in Chinese loanwords will be spelled with おう (since neither おほ nor おを ever occurred in any Chinese loanwords), and that in native Japanese words it will be spelled with おお (since the combinations that led to おう were fairly rare compared to おほ and おを, though they do occur).
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