[quote="VideogameDC":37ga4r33]It’s more like a regional thing when it comes to Yamasaki’s name! I always thought I didn’t wrote his name in romanji right, or it was more like a grammar thingie, so I’m glad you wipe away my concern about this. [/quote:37ga4r33]
Yeah I never knew there were different ways of pronouncing the same Kanji in East and West Japan. Interesting!
I think technically romaji is a phonetic representation of Japanese with Western lettering, perhaps it just means a z is the easiest way to pronounce it for most people in Japan? Kind of like how some in Japan said Tsukitei was harder to pronounce. But Yamasaki with an s is what his family probably used in their region of Japan. Though obviously "Housei" is what he is known as now.
At the end of the day people will know who you mean when saying Yamazaki, Yamasaki, Tsukitei or Housei so they’re all fine when not actually speaking to him directly.
[quote="soudou":353c26ob]Yeah I never knew there were different ways of pronouncing the same Kanji in East and West Japan. Interesting!
I think technically romaji is a phonetic representation of Japanese with Western lettering, perhaps it just means a z is the easiest way to pronounce it for most people in Japan? Kind of like how some in Japan said Tsukitei was harder to pronounce. But Yamasaki with an s is what his family probably used in their region of Japan. Though obviously "Housei" is what he is known as now.
At the end of the day people will know who you mean when saying Yamazaki, Yamasaki, Tsukitei or Housei so they’re all fine when not actually speaking to him directly. [/quote:353c26ob]
I wrote Yamazaki instead of Yamasaki several times when talking about Housei, but I had no idea of that thing with his name.
But then, I remembered about some other things (Saya zamurai instead of Saya samurai, and Mitsubishi instead of Mitsu ishi) and I found this:
Yeah that does look confusing… steps away slowly
Then again English isn’t perfect either with all those "silent letters" and such that you write but never say. Like Psychology being pronounced without the p.
Also reminds me… the guy who invented the term "GIF" named it after the peanut butter company "Jif" and intended them to be pronounced the same, but it’s more intuitive in English to say it like the first part of "Gift" instead. Especially if you’re in the UK like me and aren’t familiar with a US-centered peanut butter company. It’s even made the news a few times:
I never knew that about the slight difference in pronunciations of names in different parts of Japan. Interesting!
I do know that many words change their first sounds when attached to another word though.
If you learn Japanese, you’ll learn it and the rules in class