Re: [LoGH] possible spoiler warning?
Thu, 28 Sep 2000 16:10:23 -0700
MIttermeyer's flagship name is ,in exact,"Beowulf".
And normally,it' subtitled in kanji "jin-rou"
which means "man-wolf". So,it is a werewolf.
And there's also another subtitle for this kanji.
It's "beiouruhu" in katakana. We ,Japanese don't read
those two kanji letters "beiouruhu". This katakana
subtitle is for the alfabet name "Beowulf".
We can see the meaning of his ship-name from kanji,
and we can understand the pronounciation(in Japanese accent though).
But ,also, I can say that it' very rare to use such a word like
"jin-rou". In Japan,when we mean "a werewolf", we usually use a
word "ookami-otoko". "ookami" means an wolf, and "otoko" means
a man. This way is very common.
Tanaka used another way of pronounciation putting those two kanjis
opposite. He wanted the name to sound cool. Because the other one
"ookami-otoko" is too familiar and it doesn't sound forceful at all.
Jpanese people can imagine "werewolf" from the sound of "ookami-otoko",
but, can't imagine it from the sound of "jin-rou". As mamy of you know,
there are mainly two way of reading when we use kanji. And moreover,
there are more ways to pronounce each kanji letter. In this "jin-rou"
case, we must see the kanji first.
So, both of katakana and kanji subtitles are written there.
And they are used for explaining different things.
Rikako
P.S. By the way, didi you receive my message sent to your private
e-mail address? Please let me know.
----------
>From: Lee Thompson
>To: logh@CSUA.Berkeley.EDU
>Subject: Re: [LoGH] possible spoiler warning?
>Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2000 13:51:10 -0700
>
> On Thu, 28 Sep 2000 16:20:50 -0400, you wrote:
>
>>At 10:50 AM 9/28/00 -0700, you wrote:
>>>Are you sure it's kanji and not katakana? Very very different for
translation
>>>purposes.
>>>
>>>
>>> >Mittermeyer's flagship must be called "Waerewolf"
>>> >instead of "Beowulf". In the novel, it is the only
>>> >flagship whose name is given in kanji (All other
>>> >kanji names are inventions in the anime. The author
>>> >never named Lutz's or Ulanf's flagships in the novel.
>>> >Forget Salamander or Bang-Goo and the small kanji characters in the
>>> >titles.), so there is no possibility
>>> >of the author's making any transliteration mistake.
>>> >Now I do not speak any Japanese except for a few
>>> >hellos and good-byes. But I have seen these 2
>>> >kanji characters ("man"-or-"person" and "wolf" as
>>> >mentioned by Hank Wong) combined in the same order
>>> >in other works. Judging from their content, that
>>> >combination cannot mean anything other than "werewolf".
>>
>> Most definitely it is kanji as I can read it and I do not read
>>katakana. It is literally "man" and "wolf". Although I still personally
>>prefer Beowulf given that its sister ship is the Tristan.
>
> I did a bit of looking up on this. And yes, the Kanji is 'werewolf' (well
> wolf+man) -- but the katakana is expressed as Beowulf so I thnk the latter is
> the true intent.
>
>
> That's my story and I'm sticking with it.
>
> --
> Lee Thompson
> shadow@nwlink.com
