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I don’t know how to say my last name in Japanese, just to be more specific than the topic title.
My last name is Høg. The most of you probably don’t know the letter “ø”. It’s a Norwegian and Danish letter.
Let me try to explain the ø for you.
It is nothing like “o,” as some of you may think. It’s rather pronounced like the word “were” just without the “W”.. and shorter. So if you should say my last name I think it would be something like “HereG”, but it is still not the right way to pronouns it.
hmm.. how can I explain it better.
By the way, “Høg” means “Hawk” in Danish.
Maybe I can find a recording where it’s pronounced on the internet.
Found it: http://static.ordnet.dk/mp3/11022/11022302_1.mp3
Okay now you’ve learned a little bit Danish, do you then have any idea about how to say (and spell) it in Japanese?
I hope you see why ほぐ isn’t satisfying.
… Sounds to me like a choked-off “Hee” in the recording.
Anyway, you’re never going to be able to get a perfect transliteration, so pick whatever you think fits best and go for it. Also, write it in katakana. So ホグ or ヘーグ or whatever you like. Doesn’t seem like there’s any famous people with the surname Høg, so Google and Wikipedia aren’t helping. (Though I did find one disturbing site where Danish students of Japanese were being taught to write their names in kanji. Ew.)
There was a guy in my Japanese class from Norway, his name was øvynd. Trying to remember how the teacher pronounced it… might have been エービンド, but she always had trouble remembering haha. Does that help? You just have to choose the closest sound in Japanese, no names are going to be spot on. Also, I don’t think HereG is a very good example, since it has an “R” in it :P
If you ever have trouble describing how a word/letter is pronounced, it’s probably best to use IPA notation. Wikipedia actually has a recording of ø since it’s in the IPA: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close-mid_front_rounded_vowel
Okay. Thank you
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