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Old 2013-04-28, 09:30   Link #50
Jan-Poo
別にいいけど
 
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: forever lost inside a logic error
The confusion between "Rivaille" Levi" is really starting to bother me.

The original name in katakana is リヴァイ romanized with the hepburn system becomes: RIVAI

Now "Rivaille" isn't completely right, it does it right until "rivai" even considering the pronounce (in french) but then the last part is entirely made up.
A proper transliteration of "Rivaille" in katakana would be リヴァイユ (RIVAIYU) the same way "Versailles" is officially transliterated as ヴェルサイユ (VERUSAIYU)

However the other common transliteration is "Levi" or "Levy" which sounds even more wrong to me. The only "Levi" that I know of is the name of biblical tradition which is still used as family names by many jews.
The problem is that in every language that I know of it is pronounced as LEH-VI which in katakana is レヴィ (REVI).

I just can't wrap my mind around this assumption that if I see "Levi" I am supposed to think it as a shortening of "Leviathan". I don't think that there is any language where you would pronounce "Levi" like that, certainly not german.
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