Re: [LoGH] [no spoilers] Werewolf/Beowulf [long]
Rob Ketcherside (roba@anime.net)
Thu, 28 Sep 2000 14:34:13 -0700 (PDT)
On Thu, 28 Sep 2000, Hank Wong wrote:
> On Fri, 29 Sep 2000 xerxes@pacific.net.hk wrote:
>
> > The reason you heard something like "Beowulf" in the
> > LoGH panel is that the sound "we" was substituted
> > by the sound "be". In the Japanese language, the
> > sounds "we"/"ve" and "wi"/"vi" are missing. When
> > adopting a foreign word with "we"/"ve" and "wi"/"vi"
> > sounds, these sounds are substitiuted by Japanese
> > "be" and "bi". So "Waerewolf" or "werewolf" becomes
> > "be-i-o-wa-ru-fu" when transliterated, which sounds
> > like "Beowulf". Other examples are "vitamin" and
> > "elevator". In Japanese they sound like "BI-ta-mi-n"
> > and "e-re-BE-ta".
Um, what? The sound "we" is not written as "be". It is an "u" followed by
a small "e". I agree with you that V sounds are usually replaced with B,
but there are other ways this is done in modern times. I'd like you to
produce an example where "we" becomes "be".
