Thursday, January 12, 2012

Another Rambling post...

I notice people sometimes argue about whether the name of the titular mech of Gundam 00 is spelled "00-Riser" or 00-Raiser".  This argument sprouts from a difference of pronunciation between English and Japanese of the sound "ai".

To translate it from its Japanese spelling of 00-ライザー, the literal spelling is "00-Raizaa", or 00-Raiser.  In English, that would imply a spoken pronunciation similar to the phrase "00-Razor".  However, anyone who's seen 00 in Japanese can attest that it's pronounced "00-Riser".  In Japanese, the root "raise" would sound like "rise".  In English, it sounds like "raze."

As an English speaker, the correct way to spell the name is 00-Riser.  That is how the spoken pronunciation would be spelled in English.  00-Raiser is the Japanese spelling, and really only makes sense when written in kana.

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