A bit confused on a name

[Eric Urashima]

As I read through Love Hina again I notice, Tokyopop uses 3 different names for Mitsumi, Mitsumi/Mutsumi/Matsumi


I was wondering if theres a correct form of her name or just varies.

[r0b0-tr0n]

Mutsumi (むつみ) is the correct spelling. The variations are just Tokyopop screw-ups.

[hinarei]

does happen from time to time. Editing a long-running series means there's bound to be mistakes.

Lots of people here when I started refused to call her Mutsumi, preferring Mitsumi instead That trend appears to have died out somewhat, so yes, what r0b0 says is correct

[Kataja76]

Erikku-san is really a lot like me! I have paid attention to the same inconsistence.

Somehow understood that the Tokyopop people mixed up the new character name Mutsumi with Mitsune and produced Mitsumi. But when I came across Matsumi, I was like *facepalm*.

Just think about the n00bs who do not even know of Natsumi and face all this variation.

***

BTW do you guys remember Shinomu? Seems to me that there is no /b/ sound in Pararakelsian. On the other hand, I think Kaolla occasionally used the Shinomu form, too. Maybe it was just the easiest way to point at foreigners' odd accents to use a mu kana? Or maybe shinomu means something funny in Japanese?

[Keitaro004]

Originally Posted by Eric Urashima

As I read through Love Hina again I notice, Tokyopop uses 3 different names for Mitsumi, Mitsumi/Mutsumi/Matsumi


I was wondering if theres a correct form of her name or just varies.

LOL, they called her Mitsumi. Isn't there a blue haired girl from Kappa Mikey who is named that?

Well, I guess the editor don't remember her name, even after translating a few thousand pages.

[hinarei]

Originally Posted by Kataja76

Erikku-san is really a lot like me!

Suu preserve us, there's two of him!

Hope this has helped iron out your question, Eric!

Originally Posted by Kataja76

Just think about the n00bs who do not even know of Natsumi and face all this variation.

Oh my... the oceans of confusion they may have to cross to figure that one out Makes you wonder how Natsu-chan herself managed to keep track

Originally Posted by Kataja76

BTW do you guys remember Shinomu? Seems to me that there is no /b/ sound in Pararakelsian. On the other hand, I think Kaolla occasionally used the Shinomu form, too. Maybe it was just the easiest way to point at foreigners' odd accents to use a mu kana? Or maybe shinomu means something funny in Japanese?

Yes. I just put that down to poking fun at foreigners. We do that toward Japanese people because their language doesn't include certain sounds or letters, so as they can't always get the hang of pronunciation of English, we can't always grasp Japanese

Kaolla using 'Shinomu' was adorable

[!]

Hmm, also another strange thing, in the scans i read, they always spelled "Kaolla Suu", however in the anime, they spelled it as "Kaolla Su" in the OP, confusing

[hinarei]

yeah, was a bit odd. I think there's a bit of fuzzlement there, as her surname has a long u sound. I think Kaolla's name is written with a symbol denoting a long u sound as well

That and on quite a few occasions Kaolla was referred to as Suu, rather than by her first name. Hard to say whether this got on her nerves or not, but if I recall, she noted when Shinobu first called her 'Kaolla'

Odd one, is our Suu-chan

[Kataja76]

I have a theory that would make the Su ~ Suu issue completely clear. I have touched this before, but now I am coming up with more geographical and historical references.

Fan scanlators just stayed true to the Japanese original, latinizing it letter to letter, and produced Suu. I have even seen Kaora Suu. Official translators, while botching a ton of other things, paid attention to the wider cultural context.

(Side note: The Konami PS2 LH game guide of 2003, ISBN 4-06-339682-7, which is 95 % in Japanese, uses the latinization Kaolla Su in her profile, p. 11. An illustration on p. 79 has "Kaora Su (Adult)". The editor had a bad day? )

The Kingdom of Molmol is a Southern Pacific archipelago (LHm VIII:69, p. 178) without any close contacts to Japan, and has been discovered by Europeans or Americans most probably during the XVIII century (see the English Wikipedia, History of Samoa, Tokelau, History of Fiji and Kiribati for comparison).

The international standard for writing Molmolian in latin letters is most probably based on English or German. (French is less probable, but my reasoning would get quite complicated if I went into that). Anyway, thus it is quite natural to write Su with a single u while pronouncing a long u sound.

I have yet to clear how the obvious Indian cultural influences have reached an archipelago that lies to the east of the IDL.

Originally Posted by hinarei

Makes you wonder how Natsu-chan herself managed to keep track

*Katajainen rereads LHm X:80, p. 30 and roffles* Darn you Hinawreck, almost got me there!!


You calling her "-chan"? She is not quite the youngest girl of the story, you know.

[hinarei]

Sorry, Kata I'll use the honorifics out of context sometimes. If Ryo were here, he'd bop me for that

The only one I really stick to is calling Haruka "Oba-san" Probably should call her "-dono", though, as she is obviously my superior

I'd heard a bit about the differences in pronunciation and deriving from island languages before... I'd like to read through for some more details, but that's very interesting Thanks very much!

[Kataja76]

Originally Posted by Kataja76

The international standard for writing Molmolian in latin letters is most probably based on English or German. (French is less probable, but my reasoning would get quite complicated if I went into that).

I was wrong. After studying this webpage, I have concluded that the Japanese variant Suu could be derived from either Sou or Su written according to a French-based system. Both would sound pretty much like Su to English speakers, anyway.

*sigh* I guess we will never get to know the colonial history of Molmol and Pararakelse for sure.

***

I still maintain that Pararakelsian does not have a /b/ sound. They have a /p/ and an /m/, and seemingly the voicedness of /b/ makes them hear it as /m/.

...And since both Nyamo and Kaolla tend to make the same mistake, this could be a phonological feature shared by Pararakelsian and Molmolian! I conclude that either they are closely related languages or one has had a strong influence on the other.