Japanese Ranguage: Difference between revisions

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Whele a joke is made about plonouncing "R's" and "L's" incollectry in Japanese, or othel plonunciations.

When this trope is used, the letters are often reversed where the sounds they are making are not ones that would cause that ~~problem--i~~.e. "R" (when pronounced "are") being replaced with "L", when a long "ah" sound would be more likely.

When this trope is used, the letters are often reversed where the sounds they are making are not ones that would cause that problem—i.e. "R" (when pronounced "are") being replaced with "L", when a long "ah" sound would be more likely.

There is some truth to this: Japanese has neither English R nor English L - it has a sound that might be best described as a combination between an R and L<ref>physiologically this sound does exist in English but for psychological reasons sounds quite different: it's the alevolar tap used to make the quick 't' or 'd' sounds in words like "better" or "rider".</ref>, if not for the incredible variation it sees in various dialects of Japanese. So, a native Japanese speaker who's not fluent in English can have difficulty telling when to use an R or an L, or will simply use their native R/L sound (which quite often sounds like the wrong letter to an English native). If you want to know what this is like, try pronouncing some Welsh or Gaelic words. The same is true of Korean - it has R's and L's, but these are different allophones of the same phoneme, which is pronounced as an L when it's at the end of a syllable (which doesn't happen in Japanese). Sometimes it's an honest mistake, rather than humor.

There is some truth to this: Japanese has neither English R nor English L - it has a sound that might be best described as a combination between an R and L,<ref>physiologically this sound does exist in English but for psychological reasons sounds quite different: it's the alevolar tap used to make the quick 't' or 'd' sounds in words like "better" or "rider".</ref> if not for the incredible variation it sees in various dialects of Japanese. So, a native Japanese speaker who's not fluent in English can have difficulty telling when to use an R or an L, or will simply use their native R/L sound (which quite often sounds like the wrong letter to an English native). If you want to know what this is like, try pronouncing some Welsh or Gaelic words. The same is true of Korean - it has R's and L's, but these are different allophones of the same phoneme, which is pronounced as an L when it's at the end of a syllable (which doesn't happen in Japanese). Sometimes it's an honest mistake, rather than humor.

Also applied to other [[All Asians Are Alike|Asians]] - even if the accent doesn't fit (though Chinese are prone to r/l mistakes as well), or with exaggerated accents of their own.

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Ret's keep the obvious and numelous erectolar jokes to a minimum, sharr we?

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=== Exampres of use fol humol: ===

=== Exampres of use fol humol ===

== Adveltising ==

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCKxWQCs3f0 An old Jell-O commercial] from the 50's shows a Chinese baby trying to eat Jell-O with chopsticks while the narrator speaks [[Japanese Ranguage]]. This is a good demonstration of the trope applied to Chinese accents: all the R's become L's, but the L's are untouched (it's not Jerr-O).

* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCKxWQCs3f0 An old Jell-O commercial] from the 50's shows a Chinese baby trying to eat Jell-O with chopsticks while the narrator speaks Japanese Ranguage. This is a good demonstration of the trope applied to Chinese accents: all the R's become L's, but the L's are untouched (it's not Jerr-O).

== Anime and Manga ==

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** That's actually sort of correct. The title refers to Celty, a Dullahan, so spelling it ''Durarara'' is itself an example of this.

** It's ''also'' supposed to be the onomatopoeia for the sound of a motorcycle ("[[The Enigma of Amigara Fault|Drrrr]]"), so it's basically an untranslatable pun that would be "incorrect" either way.

* There's a fair chance that [[Japanese Ranguage]] may have been involved in the naming of "Kallen" from ''[[Code Geass]]''. When pronounced it sounds more like "Karen", which would make somewhat more sense given her <s> English</s> Brittanian background, and was in fact used by some fansubbers. However, the official transliteration is Kallen, which could possibly be due to someone aware of the problems with [[Japanese Ranguage]] and overcompensating. Granted there's no actual evidence for this, but it is at any rate a theory held by a decent enough portion of the fanbase, and there are fans that reject the "Kallen" transliteration outright.

* There's a fair chance that Japanese Ranguage may have been involved in the naming of "Kallen" from ''[[Code Geass]]''. When pronounced it sounds more like "Karen", which would make somewhat more sense given her <s> English</s> Brittanian background, and was in fact used by some fansubbers. However, the official transliteration is Kallen, which could possibly be due to someone aware of the problems with Japanese Ranguage and overcompensating. Granted there's no actual evidence for this, but it is at any rate a theory held by a decent enough portion of the fanbase, and there are fans that reject the "Kallen" transliteration outright.

** At least one fansub of ''[[One Piece]]'' pronounces the town of A'''''l'''''abasta as A'''''r'''''abasta.

** It was explicitly used in some fansubs, where she called herself Kallen when referring to her English bloodline, and Karen to Japanese.

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* The Funimation dub of ''[[Axis Powers Hetalia]]'' gives this, naturally, to Japan. And seems to make a point of giving him the opportunity to exclaim "I can't berieve zis!"

* The B-V version of this trope is probably the reason [[Black Lagoon]]'s female lead is nicknamed "Revy." "Reby" would be a more natural shortening of "Rebecca," but "Revy" is the official translation for some reason. Possibly because it looks and sounds cooler. "Levy" also crops up in some translations.

* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam AGE]]'' has been using English words for the [[Mecha Expansion Pack~~|Mecha Expansion Packs~~]] the AGE Gundams use throughout the series: AGE-1 Titus, AGE-2 Double Bullet, AGE-3 Fortress, etc. Most of them have been translated fine, except for the AGE-1's close-combat high-speed form: the AGE-1 "Spallow" (presumably meant to be "Sparrow").

* ''[[Mobile Suit Gundam AGE]]'' has been using English words for the [[Mecha Expansion Pack]]s the AGE Gundams use throughout the series: AGE-1 Titus, AGE-2 Double Bullet, AGE-3 Fortress, etc. Most of them have been translated fine, except for the AGE-1's close-combat high-speed form: the AGE-1 "Spallow" (presumably meant to be "Sparrow").

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A: [[Incredibly Lame Pun|Eileen]].<br />

Q: What do you call a ''Japanese'' woman with one leg shorter than the other?<br />

A: ~~[[Japanese Ranguage|~~Irene]]. }}

A: Irene. }}

* What do you call Lady Gaga's [[Oireland|Irish]]-Japanese stepsister? - [[Queen|Rady O'Gaga]].

** Given the information in that link, does this deserve some sort of [[Reciprocal Trope]] trope?