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Old 11-05-2007, 01:59 AM   #234
Josh Reyer
 
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Location: Aichi-ken, Nagoya-shi
Join Date: Nov 2005
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Re: Resisting Aikido Shihan

Quote:
Giancarlo DiPierro wrote: View Post
I suppose that is the more common rendering in katakana, although it's not really close to the way the word is pronounced here. There is a clear ur sound at the end rather than an aa. They also don't usually pronounce the second 'a' (it sounds a bit like LANK-ster), so I even thought about using еп rather than ел, but I figured that would be going too far.
Be that as it may, ル is used to transliterate final "l", never final "r". Examples:
ball/bowl - ボール
mail - メール
cancel - キャンセル

Whether the "r" is strongly rhotic or not (the final "r" in my name is quite rhotic), it's either ア (like door - ドア, computer - コンピュータ) or a lengthed "a" (Reyer - ライヤー, typewriter - タイプライター, helicopter - ヘリコプター). A Native speaker of Japanese will see ランカステル and assume it's "L/Rancastel".

And actually, using "ku" instead of "ka" would be perfectly acceptable, if that's how it's pronounced. "Gloucester" is "グロスター" and "Worcester, MA" is "ウースター", after all.

Last edited by Josh Reyer : 11-05-2007 at 02:08 AM.

Josh Reyer

The lyf so short, the crafte so longe to lerne,
Th'assay so harde, so sharpe the conquerynge...
- Chaucer