Thoughts/Disc on Name Pronounciation (not a 'How do I pronounce ____" thread)

[Nobu]

I am of the opinion that any name that's not native Japanese (e.g. Cirno, Flandre, Remilia) is ok to pronounce a bit differently than the katakana, if you are not speaking Japanese. If speaking Japanese, then obviously use the Japanese pronounciation.

Now, I am the type of person that cringes when I hear people say 'Sakura' with emphasis on the KU, but I am also not a purist. When the Japanese speak or use English names/words, they always render it into a gross approximation of the name/word in Katakana, so it seems fine to me to have our own liberties in pronounciation to fit it better into our own languages. We have distinction betweens Rs and Ls, so we should utilize them!


Names like Cirno I can see pronounced as 'Sear-no', 'cheer-no', and 'sir-no' when speaking English, though Sear-no and Cheer-no is a little closer to the Japanese pronounciation (without adding in that extra ru sound that always finds its way in r pronounciations of English words)

Flandre.. does anyone actually think/pronounce this is "Foo-ran-doooh-ru" when speaking English? I just go with 'Flan' or 'Flan-dra".

[Drake]

Foreign names I pronounce in english (or french, for the Scarlets), and the rest I pronounce in japanese, except my syllable stressing is still a bit off.

Only exception is Cirno which is too fucking weird for me to care about. Sea/r/no for me.

[Iryan]

Now, I am the type of person that cringes when I hear people say 'Sakura' with emphasis on the KU, but I am also not a purist.

German dub of Naruto says hi.  :V
Also, Suh-SOO-Keh. But more on topic...

When the Japanese speak or use English names/words, they always render it into a gross approximation of the name/word in Katakana, so it seems fine to me to have our own liberties in pronounciation to fit it better into our own languages. We have distinction betweens Rs and Ls, so we should utilize them!

Names like Cirno I can see pronounced as 'Sear-no', 'cheer-no', and 'sir-no' when speaking English, though Sear-no and Cheer-no is a little closer to the Japanese pronounciation (without adding in that extra ru sound that always finds its way in r pronounciations of English words)

Flandre.. does anyone actually think/pronounce this is "Foo-ran-doooh-ru" when speaking English? I just go with 'Flan' or 'Flan-dra".

I've seen many japanese stuff that romanizes it as "Frandoll", which makes sense for the katakana but is also obviously not the name ZUN gave her in the game. It is fair to say that ZUN is bad enough at english that with names stemming from other languages than japanese the katakana are best to be ignored.

Unable to read katakana or hiragana I always try to pronounce the name as written in romaji the way the letters would be pronounced in Latin or German, cutting the umlauts, of course. Considering that one of the more common puzzlers, Keine, is rendered correctly, I think it works. If a name has multiple romaji versions, I try to pronounce the parts in question as if they were somewehere in between each seperate version, for Meiling/Meirin, for example.

This leaves Cirno pronounced as, if written in English, Tsirno, the i being the same sound as in "winter" or "chill", of course.

[/stuff nobody cares about]

[FinnKaenbyou]

The problem with names like Cirno is that they don't really seem to belong in either language - it doesn't sound English, and it doesn't sound Japanese either. I ended up going for 'cheer-no' simple to follow the kana. :/

[Slaves]

Flandre.. does anyone actually think/pronounce this is "Foo-ran-doooh-ru" when speaking English? I just go with 'Flan' or 'Flan-dra".

i pronounce it like 'Fland-ray'

[theshirn]

Sir-no and Flan-dray.  Cirno might go against the Kana, but screw it, and I'm pretty certain that's how Flandre is supposed to be pronounced.

[_Zac_]

Chi-ru-no and Flan-dray here.

I always thought that's how Flandre was pronounced.

[Drake]

http://images.wikia.com/touhou/images/0/07/Pronunciation_FlandreScarlet.ogg

Holy crap I sound like a girl there.

[Nobu]

Katakana/Kanji is imperfect, which is probably why ZUN always renders names in Japanese and English, so that there's no ambiguity in how they should be spelt in English, or pronounced/spelt in Japanese. Unfortunately our alphabet language is phonetically ambiguous compared to hiragana/katakana. There can be multiple 'correct' pronounciations.

Both Alice, Alyse, Elyse, etc, can be rendered with the Japanese "アリス?, there really isn't a way to differentiate (even though they would be pronounced differently in English). And well, if ZUN didn't write Flandre's english name, she could have been Frandoll, or Flandouru, etc.

So, are you the type of person who accepts multiple possible non-Japanese pronounciations, or believe in one absolute correct pronounciation with the others being strictly wrong?

[TechyKat]

I always thought that Flandre sounds and looks like a French name, so I say it like that. Cirno is a wierd name so I don't care how people say it. Remilia looks like a european name to me as well. (As does many of the characters names.) So I always pronounce them how they look in English to me. Seeing other peoples pronounciations of the names and hearing them sounds odd to me.

[Momiji]

Flandre: "Flan-druh", 'though it's pronounced more like "Frown-druh" in French (rolled Rs, kinda rhymes with "flown the").  Still looking for a good sound sample of it, but I haven't found any yet... no surprise seeing how it's a Dutch-speaking area.
Cirno:  チルノ (Chi-ru-no) preferably, but sometimes "sir-no"

[Nine West]

Never really thought about name pronunciation that much since I rarely say any Touhou characters' name out loud.

However, due to not knowing how they are correctly pronounced, I have the tendency to seriously screw up their names. :V

[Seiryuu]

Searno and Flander.

That is all.

[Kuma]

Churr-no, or Cheer-no
Flan-dray, or Flon-druh
Hong May-leeng
Patch-oo-lee
Par-see
Tay
Noo-ay
CAP-TEN MOO-RAH-SA FUH-KING MEE-NAH-MEE-TOO
Maw-rih-sah or Muh-rih-sah (I fucking rage every time I hear ma-REE-sa)

[Slowpoke]

It's all open to interpretation, due to the contradiction in ZUN's romanizations. I don't see how フランドール romanizes to Flandre, and there's no way ナズーリン romanizes to Nazrin (there's got to be another vowel in there). So just go with whatever you want. Flander, Frandoll, Flandre (pronounced Flandra), and Frandle are all better interpretations of the katakana than Flandre. Just consider both the prounciation of ドール and the eliminate any spellings that sound implausible.

God I sound like a raging weeaboo when I discuss these things.

Also, PAWNYO LOEV SAOUSKAY.

Maw-rih-sah or Muh-rih-sah (I fucking rage every time I hear ma-REE-sa)

The "ri" Marisa should be pronounced as in Japanese. It's actually a Western name that ZUN probably just assigned kanji to. The worst weeaboos will sometimes do this to their own names.

[Momiji]

The "ri" Marisa should be pronounced as in Japanese. It's actually a Western name that ZUN probably just assigned kanji to. The worst weeaboos will sometimes do this to their own names.

Marisa is a weeaboo.  This explains everything.

[Nobu]

Yeah, based on the Western name, ZUN probably just took out the second s in Marissa to katakanize it into a neat ma-ri-sa, which also removes the emphasis on the RI (really Rih), then added random Kanji.

I can't stand it being called Ma-rih-sa either, but it's probably what the name's origins were anyway.

Marisa is a weeaboo.  This explains everything.

Remilia: Can you remember the number of times
you've eaten bread?

Marisa: Thirteen times. I prefer Japanese food.
 

[flurk]

generally i try to pronounce them as the japanese would, but i'm probably wrong about some names.

chee-ru-no.
paah-chou-lee.  (no idea if this is correct. i hear songs saying paah-chuu-lee though)
flen-der. (should probably be flun-der as it's the french pronunciation)
ma-ri-sa. ("ma" as in "mama")
yoh-mu.
ray-sen.
ey-reen.
mo-ko. (read without the last u)
keh-neh. (with silent H's of course)
sa-na-ey.

i think that's about all the doubious names.

[Edible]

Chill-no is pretty obviously what it's supposed to be. :V

[Nobu]

Chill-no is pretty obviously what it's supposed to be. :V

Yes, not so cleverly disguised with a 'ir' to confuse non-phonetic alphabets (i.e. English).

[LordVant]

I wanna learn Japanese so I end up trying to go with the katakana.

and there's no way ナズーリン romanizes to Nazrin (there's got to be another vowel in there).

Na-zu-ri-n, I see four characters, and there are four romaji sounds.....

anyway

Chi-ru-no
Re-i-mu - ray-moo
Ma-ri-sa - I do not emphasize the "ri"
Remilia - English sounds good with this, since she does seem to be from the Victorian era
Flandre - "a" like you go aahhh at the doctor, and dre like Dr. Dre.....dray
Sa-na-e - sounds japanese to me
Yu-ka-ri - sounds japanese
Yu-yu-ko - japanese
Youmu - "yo" and "moo"
Kanako Yasaka - definitely japanese to me
Suwako Moriya - same
Tewi - te-i...fast, like tay, they removed the "wi" character back in the 40s, after WWII
E-i-ri-n - or "eh" "reen"
Mo-ko - simple two syllable
Ke-ne - the spelling Keine reminds me too much of the Rammstein song "Keine Lust" awesome

[Drake]

The thing is that ナズーリン contains an extended u sound that is actually pronounced, so it's a bit ridiculous to romanize it Nazrin, considering the word "Nazrin" would probably not contain any u sound at all.

[Nobu]

The thing is that ナズーリン contains an extended u sound that is actually pronounced, so it's a bit ridiculous to romanize it Nazrin, considering the word "Nazrin" would probably not contain any u sound at all.

Fuck ZUN, there's no way i'm pronouncing her name Na-ZOOO-rin. Yet another reason to take ZUN's non-Japanese katakana phonetics with a grain of salt. I think Naz-rin is cute, no matter how butchered it may sound to ZUN's ears.


Has anyone else had the problem of trying to pronounce some of the names out loud, and realizing it feels awkward to you, even though you're so familiar with the name and reading it in your head? I was stumbling over Sanae earlier. o.o;

[Chainsaw Guitar]

(I fucking rage every time I hear ma-REE-sa)

... But that's the correct pronunciation of her name...

[Helepolis]

Why don't you all add a voiceclip (wav or mp3) of pronouncing the names of the following persons and add the native language you speak.

Hakurei Reimu, Kirisame Marisa

Izayoi Sakuya
Cirno
Flandre Scarlet
Remilia Scarlet

Yakumo Yukari
Konpaku Youmu
Saigyouji Yuyuko

Kamishirasawa Keine
Inaba Tewi
Fujiwara no Mokou

Shameimaru Aya
Yasaka Kanako

Hoshiguma Yugi
Kaenbyo Rin
Komeiji Koishi

Nazrin
Kogasa
Captain Minamitsu Murasa
Hijiri Byakuren

Typing != the same as saying it out loud. I will do it when I am back at home. I know the wiki has most names pronounced, but they are just weird ( the american one that is ) I am quite curious how different people from different countries pronounce them.

[Madacaek]

... But that's the correct pronunciation of her name...

now i'm just a simple country hyperchicken lawyer but every time I've heard a native japanese speaker say it, it was MAH-ree-sa.

[Nobu]

... But that's the correct pronunciation of her name...

now i'm just a simple country hyperchicken lawyer but every time I've heard a native japanese speaker say it, it was MAH-ree-sa.

There isn't really a major emphasis on the Mah part of Ma-ri-sa, it just might sound more emphasized because each syllable gets extra weight. Japanese have problems transcribing those English emphasises in Japanese because they're hard to render.

Like in my last example, Alice, Alyse, Elise, Aris, would all be rendered as　アリス、and Marisa, Marissa, Muhrissuh, would all be made into マリサ　and lose those emphasisses.