We don't always like being nonplussed

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Flail it Yourself: V for Vexation (Conclusion)

As I mentioned last week, there are two ways to write loanwords with Vs in them with katakana. The other of these is a modified U kana, the default version of which is seemingly pronounced "Vu." In practice it's usually modified by a small vowel sound to become Va, Vi, etc. Take a look at  the Evangelion logo for a good example:




EDIT! It's been pointed out that the Evangelion logo's pretty stylized, which makes it hard to make out what I'm talking about. So have a look at the Valkyria Chronicles 3 logo too- that's much closer to stock katakana:


Despite this, an awful lot of Japanese creators still use the B family of sounds. Particularly for the letter V itself, which is nearly always written "Bui." Which comes off as pretty damn comical sometimes:



Bui! Bui! Bui! Bictory!

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