Japanised Names of Vormain

From: Alex Ferguson <alex_at_dcs.gla.ac.uk>
Date: Tue, 14 Feb 95 23:09:33 GMT


Takehiro Ohya says:
> I wonder the name "Mi Ka De" is somehow Japanese, because there
> are only symple consonant-vowel syllabaries. I suppose that
> Chinese has much more consonants than vowels.
> (like "Ming" or "Dong". There is no "-ng" consonant in Japanese.)

This is _lexically_ true, but doesn't really reflect the true situation, which is that vowels are much more key in pronunciation and meaning than are consonants (or than vowels are in Japanese, relatively speaking).

and suggests, with reservations that they sound funny, the Japanisations:
> Telask ---> Telasuku
> Valzain ---> Baruzain
> Zaktirra ---> Zakutira

This is much as I'd hypothesised myself. They sound okay to me, which may just prove I'm tone-deaf in Japanese. Naturally they don't make any _sense_ as Japanese words or names, but I hope only for verisimilitude, rather than accuracy.

> Tsankth ---> Sankusu, To-sankusu

I reckon this name is probably actually of (some) East Isle origin, myself. The Vorumai my call him by a "Vorumained" version of this (which as Takehiro illustrates, will sound rather unlike the original), or some other handle, or some term meaning "those fishy wako scuzball sub-peasants" (say).

Alex.


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