Syllable ?

[Muhammed Suleiman]

>
> Dear  members,
>
> at the risk of momentarily converting the Indological List to a
> Japanological one, I would like to express my appreciation of the
> discussion last night regarding Japanese names, and the gender of their
> bearers, I would however like to ask for further clarification on one
> point.
>
> What is meant by a 'mora' ? And (perhaps this is a somewhat technical
> question, but surely someone can answer it) why does the number of moras
> appear to have such a marked bearing on the matter of names. Is it a rule
> restricted to names only ? I realize that Japanese is devoid of
grammatical
> gender, but does the mora-rule have any influence on words denoting
> male/female roles, or occupations, etc ?
>
> I look forward to some illuminating replies,
>
> Dr Muhammad Suleiman.