I want to know the correct romanization for ベオウルフ.
For me, it's Beōrufu, because the pronunciation of Be-o-wulf has a long vowel (oo/ou/ow/oh). However, some people discord for being a foreign name.
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1 Answer
Firstly, using the macron for indicating long vowels is only really used in (Revised) Hepburn romanization, so "correct" would mean "according to the rules of Hepburn romanization".
Secondly, Hepburn only uses ō for long vowels and here there isn't one! One way that points to this fact is that the word in katakana isn't spelled オー, but オウ.
Actually, ベオウルフ is a good transcription because for one it reflects the fact that the ウ is a substitution for "wu" (definitely not a lengthener of "o"); further, it suggest the pitch as ベオウルフ【LHHLL】, whereas ベオールフ would have to be ベオールフ【LHLLL】 (the former is much closer to the English pronunciation, which has a secondary stress at "wu").
In any case, I think you should romanize ベオウルフ as beourufu in Hepburn and as beouruhu in Nihon-shiki/Kunrei-shiki/Wāpuro.
answered Feb 11, 2016 at 19:24
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My intuition tells that they should be ベオウルフ{LHHLL} and ベオールフ{LHLLL} (Tokyo accent). Feb 12, 2016 at 4:19
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1@Earthliŋ Phonetically you might be right that オー forms a continual pitch slope, but we perceive it as an ordinary 2nd mora high word like ドミニオン{LHLLL}, for Tokyo accent system doesn't really have rise/fall morae. Feb 13, 2016 at 2:43
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1At least, it'll make some inconsistency if you write it that way in this notation. Feb 13, 2016 at 8:23
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1@Earthliŋ As far as I know most of the recent works on loanword accents are published in each paper rather than books. How about citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/…, f.waseda.jp/uenok/ronshu/ronshu_01_sakamoto.pdf or coelang.tufs.ac.jp/mt/ja/pmod/practical/02-06-01.php. 新明解アクセント辞典 seems to have an overview about accent rule. Feb 13, 2016 at 11:28
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1That said, every source I gave above contains examples against my introspection... The accentuation of loanwords could be very fluid, and changes with times. Feb 13, 2016 at 11:36