Question about missing Japanese characters

Japanese Language
1

Just wondering about writing western names in Hiragana (haven’t got further yet).
I’ve seen on Duolingo that they are written in Katakana, like most foreign words. My question is, if a name/word has a character that doesn’t exist in Japanese, what do you do?

For example, my name is Dominic. I know DO (ど）MI(み）NI(に)… but were do I get the C come from? would it be Ka? Ke?

The reason I ask, is because I’m looking to practice my Hiragana between calls at work by writing names of customers or colleagues so I can practice the strokes. It just suddenly occurred to me when trying to write my name! :laughing:

Thanks

2

Dominic would be ドミニク
If you really want to write that in hiragana, it would be どみにく

You’ll start to notice patterns from loanwords, in terms of how they adapt sounds into Japanese.

BTW, a good way to check names is to look up a famous person on Wikipedia and go to their Japanese article.

3

Thank you @Leebo for the quick response. I did think of KU when I hit submit. :blush:

Thanks again, I’ll continue to practice and learn.
:+1:

4

I was asking myself the same question a few days ago.
How do you write Stella in katakana?
I think it’s ステラ but i’m not really sure about it :cold_sweat:

5

That would absolutely be my guess… and Wikipedia confirms :wink:

Leebo that’s such a good trick thank you

6

Oh no! i was afraid to be right!
It sounds terrible, i think i’m just going to translate it.
星 is way better :smiley:

Dancing-star

7

If it makes you feel any better, you can’t even tell what my name is from the Japanese version.

tamagochan 8

giphy

2 Likes
9

Second this trick. It’s magical.

ハツカダイコン? :stuck_out_tongue:

10

:joy: how did you know?!

11

八の大根？ :thinking:

12

二十日大根 :slightly_smiling_face:

13

But why 20th day?

14

Don’t ask me. Why is the Japanese word for “greengrocer” written as “eight hundred shop”?

15

Because on the eight hundredth day, they invented agriculture and thus the profession of greengrocer came to be?

16

Yessssssss.

17

I think it’s safe to think that every dead consonant you just substitute it with respective consonant with the the vowel “U”, because Japanese usually elided the “U” sound. Although not always. Except “T” usually changed into “To”, and “M” sometimes can be “Mu” but can be “N”. And ‘R’ can be “Ru” but sometimes “––” giving the previous vowel a longer sound.

DoMiNiKu

SuTeRa

HaNBaGa––

MakKuDoNaRuDo

Just general idea.

18

I go by Dan rather than Daniel because its much less of a hassle in Japanese.

19

My name cannot be shortened :sob:

20

Unfortunate.