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I'm ordering some wall-size prints of me and my dog Zuko (instagram @zukoandspock) and would like his name on it in Japanese characters.

Can someone provide me examples of writing this name out in Man'yōgana? Is there an easy way to make my own variations?

IPA (English): [[zuːkoʊ]] (IPA from key here)

Edit. Made question non-opinion based, specifically about Man'yōgana and variations.

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  • The OP has tried to make this question not opinion based, so I'm going to reopen it.
    – user1478
    Commented Sep 25, 2016 at 0:55

1 Answer 1

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Stress on the 1st syllable ?

i guess . . . 4 moras in Japanese ? . . . maybe 3 or even 2.

  • ズーコー

  • ズーコ

  • ズコ

ズーコ sounds like a nickname for a girl (could be male, as in ジーコ ) === ジーコ (Zico) ことアルトゥール・アントゥネス・コインブラ(Arthur Antunes Coimbra、ポルトガル語発音: [aʁˈtuʁ ɐ̃ˈtũnis koˈĩbɾɐ]、1953年3月3日 - )は、ブラジル出身の元サッカー選手、現サッカー指導者。 愛称である「Zico」は「やせっぽち」の意味で、より ...


If you want to use Man'yogana or something like it, the possiblities are endless.

( キラキラネーム https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%82%AD%E3%83%A9%E3%82%AD%E3%83%A9%E3%83%8D%E3%83%BC%E3%83%A0 )

But you've come to the right place. (!) There'd soon be several other people who will be offering suggestions and great insight.

Boy! Was I wrong ! ! ! w w w (I'm still new to this forum.) I'll tell you of other (better, friendlier) places to ask, ... maybe tomorrow, unless you need it now. Maybe you could try Chinese.SE -- seemed less draconian there, last time i checked.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27y%C5%8Dgana

Zu == 受 授 殊 儒

U == 宇羽于有卯烏得

Ko == 古姑枯故侯孤児粉 / 己巨去居忌許虚興木

Many scholars believe that Old Japanese had two different O vowels, o1 and o2. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Japanese#Vowels ........ o2 (ə), and the four secondary (less common) vowels i2 (ï/iy), e1 (e/ye), e2 (ë/ey), o1 (o/wo). )

My (almost random) pick for ズーコ from the above is: 殊烏子 (if Zuko is female) (Ok, it works for males too -- as in Confucius)

I picked 烏 (crow) after the Chinese folk notion (or folk wisdom) of 孝鸟 or 鸦有反哺之孝.


塗香(ずこう)とは、仏像や修行者の身体に香を塗って、けがれを除くこと。また、その香。仏に捧げる六種の供物の一種。 数種の香木を混ぜて粉末にし、粉末のまま乾燥したものと、浄水と混ぜ練香としたものがある。一般には粉末にした、抹香状の薄茶色の香を ...

図工 === 図画工作(ずがこうさく、英語: Arts and Crafts)は、日本の初等教育における教科の1つ。中学校・高等学校の美術・技術に相当する。略して図工(ずこう)ともいう。

www.sputnikmusic.com/bands/Zooco/67998 -- Zooco is a Japanese R&B singer, first becoming known as the vocalist of Escalators, before going on to join Soul Lovers. When Soul Lovers disbanded in 2002, Zooco ... ------------ Maybe her real name is Kazuko (or Shizuko ...) and Anglophones would call her [ka-ZOO-koh] ...

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  • Thanks for the answer - but apart from phonetic correctness I was looking for something artistic. As I read more about the japanese language, I came across this question here: japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/36798/… and this (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27y%C5%8Dgana) article on Wikipedia that suggest a more intricate script to represent proper nouns. I'm not an expert in Japanese so please correct me if I'm wrong, but this is what I was looking for.
    – Ani
    Commented Aug 31, 2016 at 19:57
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    @ananthonline "something artistic" sounds like it's probably better suited for our chatroom.
    – Earthliŋ
    Commented Aug 31, 2016 at 23:09
  • Thanks @h-ha. I will accept your answer - but had one question. From your table above (and your sample, did you pick one character from each group? What does the / represent? Two groups of characters?
    – Ani
    Commented Sep 1, 2016 at 16:31
  • Also, yes. StackExchange seems to be getting quite draconian. It seems weird that a forum based on collaborative discussion actively discourages it despite each party putting in thought, time and effort. Ohwell.
    – Ani
    Commented Sep 1, 2016 at 16:34
  • @ananthonline -- Hi. I hope you're well, -- I didn't realize this was unfrozen. (after nearly a month ! w w w ) -- Do you have more questions? Would you like to see a similar question that got permanently frozen up ?
    – HizHa
    Commented Oct 14, 2016 at 20:00

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