JapanForum.com  


Reply
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
(#1 (permalink))
Old
sandanjuu's Avatar
sandanjuu (Offline)
New to JF
 
Posts: 14
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Zagreb, Croatia
unlogical name translation - 03-09-2008, 04:48 PM

so, there's this game... Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII?
and this guy here in it... ヴェルド? Verudo?

why is his name romanized as Verdot? he's not officially named like that, but that's how he's named at Wikipedia.

wouldn't it be more logical if his name is Veld, since ル is used instead of l or lu and ド instead of d at the end of a foreign word/name?
and, if his name would be Verdot, wouldn't it be spelled as ヴェルドト?

please tell me if i'm right or if i'm talking jibberish. again.
Reply With Quote
(#2 (permalink))
Old
MMM's Avatar
MMM (Offline)
JF Ossan
 
Posts: 12,200
Join Date: Jun 2007
03-09-2008, 05:12 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by sandanjuu View Post
so, there's this game... Before Crisis: Final Fantasy VII?
and this guy here in it... ヴェルド? Verudo?

why is his name romanized as Verdot? he's not officially named like that, but that's how he's named at Wikipedia.

wouldn't it be more logical if his name is Veld, since ル is used instead of l or lu and ド instead of d at the end of a foreign word/name?
and, if his name would be Verdot, wouldn't it be spelled as ヴェルドト?

please tell me if i'm right or if i'm talking jibberish. again.
It's probably going for the French pronunciation. Verdot rhyming with the wine Merlot (Mer-low).
Reply With Quote
(#3 (permalink))
Old
Nagoyankee's Avatar
Nagoyankee (Offline)
中庸を得るのだ~
 
Posts: 2,119
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Tokyo, Japan
03-09-2008, 05:35 PM

MMM is right as usual.

Japanese is a phonetic langauge. When the Japanese transliterate a foreign word into katakana, we go by the 'sound' of it, and not the 'spelling' in its original language. So the silent letters in the original language will be completely omitted in the katakana transliterations.
Reply With Quote
(#4 (permalink))
Old
anrakushi's Avatar
anrakushi (Offline)
草上之风必偃
 
Posts: 351
Join Date: Dec 2007
03-09-2008, 10:48 PM

Quote:
Originally Posted by Nagoyankee View Post
MMM is right as usual.

Japanese is a phonetic langauge. When the Japanese transliterate a foreign word into katakana, we go by the 'sound' of it, and not the 'spelling' in its original language. So the silent letters in the original language will be completely omitted in the katakana transliterations.
while i'm not complaining about MMMs answer as well, i agree completely i have to get a little anal about this blanket statement you have made Nagoyankee. if you look at many brands in Japan that are written in Katakana you can see they translated the name into katakana by the letters and not the sound. Another example is that just about every international student in Japan will have their name on their student card written in Katakana and it will have been done in the office by people who have never heard the persons name pronounced, thus they go by the spelling and this can lead to some pretty bad conversions.
Reply With Quote
(#5 (permalink))
Old
sandanjuu's Avatar
sandanjuu (Offline)
New to JF
 
Posts: 14
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Zagreb, Croatia
03-10-2008, 06:14 PM

well, thanks to everyone for replying made it more understandable for me...

making it a French pronunciation makes sense... but i'm not quite sure if he's meant to be inspired by French people...?

how would you people romanize his name if he was just another generic English-speaking video game character?
Reply With Quote
(#6 (permalink))
Old
anrakushi's Avatar
anrakushi (Offline)
草上之风必偃
 
Posts: 351
Join Date: Dec 2007
03-10-2008, 11:13 PM

i would never pronounce the T on the end of the name in english so i think i would do it exactly the same way.
Reply With Quote
(#7 (permalink))
Old
sandanjuu's Avatar
sandanjuu (Offline)
New to JF
 
Posts: 14
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: Zagreb, Croatia
03-13-2008, 06:24 PM

oh. ok then thanx everyone! i just started learning Japanese so your help is very much appreciated
Reply With Quote
Reply


Thread Tools

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

vB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Trackbacks are On
Pingbacks are On
Refbacks are On




Copyright 2003-2006 Virtual Japan.
SEO by vBSEO 3.0.0 RC6