Japanese Language Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for students, teachers, and linguists wanting to discuss the finer points of the Japanese language. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
Although it's not as common as キリスト, ハリストス is seen in the name of Japan's Orthodox Church. But why ハリストス if the pronounce of the Greek Χριστος is khristós (with a clear kri sound)? There is キリストス too, that is more common, though the last ス is always dropped.
Is that because of historical reasons? Regional? Is ハリストス an old pronounce? And if it is, why ハ instead of キ?
In modern (and medieval) Greek, Χριστος is pronounced /xristos/. The [h] in ハ is the closest Japanese can come to [x]. Compare バッハ for German /bax/.
It's not ヒ, because that would represent [ç] (I imagine German 'ich' [iç] would be transcribed イッヒ). It's not フ, because that would represent [f] or [ϕ]. It's not キ, because that would represent [c] or [k].
キリスト derives ultimately from the earlier Greek pronunciation /kʰristos/, via Latin /kristʊs/ and its descendents (probably early modern Portuguese /kʁisto/). キ is probably used instead of ク for a mix of two reasons. One, modern transcription conventions weren't yet in use, and an alternative method for putting extra vowels in (which languages like Māori use) is to add the same vowel as the next one. Two, the proximity of the /i/ probably makes the /k/ sound a bit more like [c] anyway.
