someone posted in our forums
Anyway, that whole line about the name being palattable in every language is hogwash. There is no native sound for “wi” in Japanese, the closest approximation would sound somewhere between “ui” and the intended “we”. Young Japanese won’t have a problem with it, but older ones will probably give up trying to pronounce it after a few months. Here’s hoping that the Japanese market comes up with an easier-on-the-stomach moniker for it.
[/quote:8030b58a5f]
but i don’t know how true that is[/quote:8030b58a5f]I’m no scholar of the Japanese language, but I know enough to tell you it’s not hard at all to pronounce. Japanese pronounciation is very straightforward, unlike English (it’s the reading the fancy characters that’s hard ;) )
From what the dictionary tells me, the Japanese have an obscene word that’s pronounced “wi” (the ‘i’ is pronounced like the ‘y’ in ‘angry’) and given it uses katakana, I think it’s just the “wee” from English.
As for “ii” I read in an article that it is a word meaning “good” and indeed, my trusty dictionary tells me it can mean “good, nice, pleasant, fine, excellent, agreeable, ok”.
As for the pronounciation, it’s hard to “explain” for an English speaker, but not hard at all to pronounce. Think something like “weehee” but with short “ee” sounds, all pronounced in one go.Still, it’s a silly, silly name
Even in French it sounds stupid (but at least not obscene) :lol: