Why is Doraemon spelt like that?
ドラえもん
Notice that? The name uses both katakana and hiragana. If you don't read kana, notice how the first two characters are angular, the other three more rounded.
Weird. My local expert hasn't a clue. Any suggestions?
3 件のコメント:
This is a big guess here, but I do know that the "emon" part is an ending that is part of traditional Japanese names. Some people think Doraemon is called that because he likes dorayaki (bean paste filled pancake) but wikipedia says it's from the word for stray cat "dora neko". Here's the guessing part--the dora is written in katakana to make it more his name, rather than a Japanese word. The Doraemon is actually two parts of his name, the dora and the traditional ending. Does that make any sense at all?
Donna
Thanks for that. It does make make sense - I guess. Doesn't entirely explain the choice of two kana, but it seems satisfactory. After all, some Japanese do away with the kanji they were given, or use Romaji spellings so I guess this is just like that.
Cheers
Nah, they just spell it like that to confuse us.
By the way... you've been tagged!!
http://englishalien.blogspot.com/2007/05/tag-im-it.html
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