[EVA] Re: another japanese question

[Richard Fung]

On Fri, 7 Nov 1997, Patrick Yip wrote:

>      "V" is usually represented in Japanese by putting two "dots" on top
>      of the katakana for "U", like when you want to write "GA", you put two 
>      "dots" on "KA". This way of representation only happens in katakana,
>      because the "V" sound exists only in the foreign loan words. 
>      
>      So the katakana breaks down as "E-V(A)-N-GE-RI-O-N"
>      
>      
> ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
> Subject: [EVA] another japanese question
> Author:  Aino Minako <minako at jps.net> at Internet 
> Date:    11/6/97 10:24 AM
>      
>      
> hi patrick,
> i'm trying to figure out the katakana of the word "evangelion". i assume 
> that it's "e-v-a-n-ge-ri-o-n". however, i can't find the "v" in this 
> japanese book i have. are they kanji or nonstandard katakana? thanks!
> -- 
>      



Yes, the Japanese language does not have a "V" sound.  Say, the villain
"Vega" in Street Fighter 2, the sound "ve" is presented with a "he" plus
two dots to become "be", hence "Bega" which sounds very close to Vega.  So
"B" is used to imitate the "V" sound.  Another example is "Vegeta" of
Dragonball Z, in Japanese romanji should be "bejita".  The title "Eva" is
kind of an exception, I for one have never seen the v sound presented with
a "u" + two dots until now.


Rich (Shinomori Aoshi)
rfung at eden.rutgers.edu