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Are you writing Tokyo, or Toukyo, as the literal romanization from the Japanese word would be? Wait, why are you using the Latin alphabet at all, when the offic
by anyfoo 2y ago
Are you writing Tokyo, or Toukyo, as the literal romanization from the Japanese word would be? Wait, why are you using the Latin alphabet at all, when the official Japanese spelling is 東京?
Just because English and German share a common spelling system (not completely, though), doesn’t mean words can’t be different. In English it’s still Cologne instead of Köln. In German it’s still Tokyo instead of 東京 or even just Toukyo.
I am German, by the way.
- ReleaseCandidat 2y agoWhile it is true that city names (at least the bigger ones) have their english version, names (surnames and first names) are not "translated" into their english forms if the used alphabet is (more or less) the same. Now you could argue that the name of the dynasty isn't the same as the surname "Habsburg", so that the usual rule does not apply.
- anyfoo 2y agoDo you write Iulius Caesar or Julius Caesar? Same writing system (or rather, it even originated there). Generally, even without the counterexample, you just postulated an arbitrary, somewhat contrived rule. "Cities can have different names, people cannot, but only as long as the writing system matches". You can want this, but good luck with getting language to adhere to it. If I'd correct Germans for all their "misuse", or at least idiosyncratic use, of English expressions (handy, public viewing, "learnings"...), it wouldn't make anybody happy. I put "misuse" in quotes deliberately, because German has just adopted these words into different meanings and connotations, just like Japanese did, and that's okay. Language prescriptionism is not realistic.
- pezezin 2y agoIf we are being pedantic, the correct romanization is Tōkyō.
- anyfoo 2y agoUgh, I mixed it up with Kyouto, thanks. (ou instead ō however is just as legal as oe is for ö in German.)