EclecticWarrior wrote:
I get so ticked off when people call Light Yagami "Raito". I've read it's because they think a Japanese person can't have an English name, which is stupid. I've seen official Japanese art with his name spelled as "Light" in romaji and most Japanese fanartists call him that in English. "Raito" has no meaning as far as I'm aware in Japanese. Rather, ライト is an alternative reading of the kanji 月 , normally read as つき.
not wishing to offend, or state things you already know, only trying to offer a potentially different perspective/food-for-thought as to why they might be spelling it as such out of likely thinking it most proper... if the name requires context, sorry for the misunderstanding, as the name is actually not familiar other than associating it with having heard of it in relation to the anime "death note"(of which has never been viewed).
"light" would not properly be spelled "light" using romaji(among other reasons, like a lack of a few of those letter pairings in kana["ai" sounds a hard "i", "i"'d sound like "ee" on it's own, and there are no "gh" or lone "t" pairings in kana], there's no "l" to spell such in kana, so "l" shouldn't be used in romaji spellings... romaji is used to best depict japanese pronunciation in english characters, much like pinyin or wade-giles writing systems have attempted to most accurately interpret chinese logograms into english characters while retaining proper chinese pronunciation.), "light" would just be "light" written in english(not that that couldn't be used as an aesthetic english stylization in japan, as kanji and kana are often used to accent japanese memorabilia and media here in accompaniment of english... but they'd probably still read it aloud as "raito"). "ライト" would be katakana for "ra-i-to"/"light" as if it was a non-japanese name, as that is one of katakana's main uses(other than some unique compounds in katakana, katakana and hiragana produce the same sounds just written as a different character set), to spell out the sound of non-japanese names, businesses, trademarks, fictional words, onomatopoeia and borrowed words(alternatively, have found it interesting to have seen/noticed in different japanese media that non-japanese people/characters or half japanese people/characters with japanese names still get their names spelled out in katakana instead of hiragana or kanji as a full japanese person/character by birth's name would be spelled). if you try looking up your first and last names in romaji, you'll likely find it awkwardly spelled, and potentially with omitted or extra characters... but that's how you'd introduce your name to japanese people in japan(despite the likely lack of a direct meaning for the name in japanese.), and written upon a business card in katakana.
also, if light is being used as an english name, it would not need to have a direct translation in japanese meaning for it to be converted to the japanese pronunciation "raito". there are far fewer sounds in spoken japanese than english, so it would be harder for a japanese person who hasn't studied english to effortlessly say "light" without practice as to how that word should sound, than it would to just say "raito" while sounding close enough... it'd basically sound like "light" with a very soft or omitted "o" at the end when spoken despite looking like it should sound like rye-toe if to pronounce it as if written english.
lastly, could certainly be wrong in stating this for it being a very new and confusing concept, but it sounds most kanji don't appear to have a normal reading. they have onyomi(chinese pronunciation... chinese logograms being origin to the adopted system of writing), and kunyomi(japanese pronunciation), and their use is entirely reliant upon context, and some words may have multiple onyomi and kunyomi, or even only one or the other. supposedly, if a kanji is on it's own, unless a japanese name, it's probably pronounced using the onyomi, and if in accompaniment of other neighboring characters the kunyomi is more likely used. so unless "light" is referred to as "moon"(among other possible interpretations depending on context)/"tsu-ki", it's probably not in reference to a japanese name(though having tried looking it up, "raito" didn't appear an onyomi pronunciation, only saw one for "getsu", and then one for the already mentioned kunyomi as "tsuki").
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七転び八起き
15 Apr 2017, 6:40 pm
