About romanization that is incorrectly re-Japanized
What the hell, brain?
So, you (flist, not brain) probably know "Kyou kara maou", the light novel series (and manga series, and anime series, and who knows what else - it's very popular), or at least know that it exists.
You might also know that it's supposed to mean "Demon King from Today onwards" (I have no idea how to translate that into a non-awkward English phrase - it's "Ab heute Dämonenkönig" in German, if that helps, haha).
I've read the first volume of the novel series on recommendation by a friend but never really cared about it. I sort of know what it's about, and that's about it. What I want to say has nothing to do with the content anyway, so let's forget about everything except for the meaning of the title.
Here, have some Japanese script that your browser hopefully displays: 今日からマ王！ (the マ is actually inside a circle, but I'm too lazy for that right now.)
The meaning is more or less clear because even if the 'ma' is in Katakana マ and not in Kanji 魔 and therefore doesn't actually have a meaning if you see only this one character, you've got the 'king' right next to it and then the content and yeah, it's kinda clear what the 'ma' is supposed to be.
In Latin script, you don't have Kanji (or Japanese characters in general). The more you read Japanese in Japanese script, the more you rely on Kanji to tell you what stuff means. I find it very hard to read and understand romanized Japanese, and when we (group of exchange students some years ago, irrelevant to this post) showed Japanese friends a booklet with "everyday Japanese expressions" in Roman letters for German tourists, they had to decipher every single letter and read the word out loud several times before they understood it. It was fascinating.
But I'm going off topic. I was talking about the phrase "Kyou kara maou".
When I saw this phrase today, of course I knew what it was about and what it meant. My brain decided to be contrary, however, and gave me another possible rendering of the romanized phrase: 今日から舞おう！
That means "Starting today, let's dance!" "Tanzen wir ab heute!" (Curiously, that phrase is awkward in both English and German. Fascinating. I must be even less skilled at translating as I thought.)
That, dear brain, had nothing whatsoever to do with the context I saw this phrase in. Please explain.
P.S.: I'm positive I'm not the first person to see that.
P.P.S.: Today, it rained. A lot. ._.v
So, you (flist, not brain) probably know "Kyou kara maou", the light novel series (and manga series, and anime series, and who knows what else - it's very popular), or at least know that it exists.
You might also know that it's supposed to mean "Demon King from Today onwards" (I have no idea how to translate that into a non-awkward English phrase - it's "Ab heute Dämonenkönig" in German, if that helps, haha).
I've read the first volume of the novel series on recommendation by a friend but never really cared about it. I sort of know what it's about, and that's about it. What I want to say has nothing to do with the content anyway, so let's forget about everything except for the meaning of the title.
Here, have some Japanese script that your browser hopefully displays: 今日からマ王！ (the マ is actually inside a circle, but I'm too lazy for that right now.)
The meaning is more or less clear because even if the 'ma' is in Katakana マ and not in Kanji 魔 and therefore doesn't actually have a meaning if you see only this one character, you've got the 'king' right next to it and then the content and yeah, it's kinda clear what the 'ma' is supposed to be.
In Latin script, you don't have Kanji (or Japanese characters in general). The more you read Japanese in Japanese script, the more you rely on Kanji to tell you what stuff means. I find it very hard to read and understand romanized Japanese, and when we (group of exchange students some years ago, irrelevant to this post) showed Japanese friends a booklet with "everyday Japanese expressions" in Roman letters for German tourists, they had to decipher every single letter and read the word out loud several times before they understood it. It was fascinating.
But I'm going off topic. I was talking about the phrase "Kyou kara maou".
When I saw this phrase today, of course I knew what it was about and what it meant. My brain decided to be contrary, however, and gave me another possible rendering of the romanized phrase: 今日から舞おう！
That means "Starting today, let's dance!" "Tanzen wir ab heute!" (Curiously, that phrase is awkward in both English and German. Fascinating. I must be even less skilled at translating as I thought.)
That, dear brain, had nothing whatsoever to do with the context I saw this phrase in. Please explain.
P.S.: I'm positive I'm not the first person to see that.
P.P.S.: Today, it rained. A lot. ._.v