name translation

[mattys]

How would one translate the surname "Sullivan"

[Freddy]

What would Freddy look like? just feels like a hard name to translate ^^

[JEM618]

Sullivan

 

サリヴァン

 

Freddy

 

フレディ

[Freddy]

Thanks is my reading right?

 

フ レ デ ィ

 

fu re do i

[mattys]

Wouldn't

 

ソ リ バ ン

 

be a slightly better interpretation? After all, it's not pronounced "Sah-llivan," it's pronounced "Suh-llivan." So I think So-ri-ban be slightly better... I was just wondering the oppinions of those on this forum. Any suggestions?

[mattys]

Ah I am at a loss. I think I am finally going to go with:

 

ス　リ　バ　ン　

 

based purely on it's artistic value vice the other one.

[Shorin Ryuu]

Well, it's because the Japanese do not have an "uh" sound. The "ah" is the closer approximation than "Oh" or "su".

 

I'm going to back up JEM618 on this one. The "Sa" sound is short, so it's not as bad as it looks. You're going to want to keep the "ヴァン" as well.

[JEM618]

Thanks is my reading right?

 

フ レ デ ィ

 

fu re do i

 

No, not quite.

 

チ = chi

 

Pronunciation is close to the ‘che’ in cheap.

 

チ + " = デ. The " changes the 'c' sound in ‘chi’ to a 'd' sound. The 'h' sound is blended.

 

デ

 

Pronunciation is close to the ‘dee’ in deep.

 

イ = i

 

Pronunciation is not like ‘I’, as you would think, it’s actually close to the ‘ee’ in ‘see’

 

This ィ is a small イ. When it follows a full syllable, it extends the sound of the preceding syllable and is not pronounced independently.

 

So, it’s closer to this; fu re dee.

 

If you say it fast five times, it starts to sound pretty good.

[JEM618]

Ah I am at a loss. I think I am finally going to go with:

 

ス　リ　バ　ン　

 

based purely on it's artistic value vice the other one.

 

If it’s purely for aesthetics, that’s fine.

 

Some confusion always lies in converting the Roman alphabet to its katakana equivalent. It’s not as simple as matching the consonants and vowels to their ‘equivalent’ katakana from a chart. I.e., the first two letters of ‘Sullivan’ are ‘su’ so the katakana must be ‘ス’.

 

If ‘Sullivan’ is pronounced ‘Sa(h)-la-van’ ‘Sa(h)’ is closer to the katana ‘サ’. Unlike English, Japanese is spoken with very defined vowel sounds. To explain, while our letter a can be pronounced ay, ah, or even eh, there is only one sound for it in Japanese. The vowel pronunciations are as follows:

 

a -- "ah" (as in car)

 

i -- "ee" (as in machine)

 

u -- "oo" (as in truth)

 

e -- "eh" (as in net)

 

o -- "oh" (as in home)

 

So, ス is pronounced like ‘Sue’. スリバン, when read with ‘Japanese’ pronunciation, is ‘sue-li-ban’. The ‘ban’, pronounced like fan or tan.

 

Omitting the ‘ィ’ between ‘バ’ and ‘ン’ also stiffens the pronunciation.

 

Compare ‘ban’, pronounced like fan or tan, to the softer sound of ‘bahn’ in the word ‘autobahn’.

 

Anyway, if you don’t anticipate anyone ‘reading’ it, i.e., there are no Japanese in you club or you don’t have a visiting instructor, don’t sweat it.

[cathal]

Try:

 

http://www.jun-gifts.com/personalizedgifts/namelisttwo/namelisttwomain.htm