Tori wrote:I believe "Nanpure" is rather a portmanteau word for "number play", thus num-play... But I'm not sure...
I think it's short for ???????? (Number Place).
Tori wrote:In the same way, why umlaut vowels in german words are not transcribed as the vowel itself ?
e.g. "ü" are transcribed "ue", where they should be "u", according to the convention... Or am I wrong ?
In Germany the official transcription is ä = ae, ö = oe and ü = ue. So far, we have followed these rules for German words. However, they are obviously not applied to diacritics from other languages (like Nausicaä = Nausicaa) or with an artistic purpose (like "Heavy Metal Umlauts", i.e. Motörhead = Motorhead).
Connie wrote:Why is it when converting Kanji for the current romaji name that some words get translated, while others don't?
Generally we translate all gairaigo and wasei-eigo terms to their proper original spelling. However, exceptions are allowed on a case by case basis, especially for abbreviated and contracted words. Most of the time it depends on how the west has "reimported" the words.
Some popular examples:
Shortened words back to their original full words, f.e.:
???? -> Pachi-Slot rather than pachisuro or Pachi-Slo
???? -> Pro Wrestling rather than puroresu or Pro Wrest (although Pro is still shortened)
Shortened, but translated, f.e.:
????? -> Famicom rather than famikon or family computer
???? -> Persocom rather than pasokon or personal computer
Shortened, but only partially translated, f.e.:
???? -> lolicon rather than rorikon, lolicom or lolita complex
???? -> Cake-ya rather than keekiya *
????? -> Junk-ya rather than jankuya *
* Hmm, maybe it's better to not translate such mixed words at all...
Not translated, f.e.:
??? -> anime rather than anima or animation
???? -> Ganpuru rather than Gunman's Proof, Gunple or Gunpro
