So I understand that ジ and ヂ are pronounced the same. However, I see these romanized as “zi,” “ji,” and “di.”
When I write my name in katakana, it has the “di” sound at the end, so I’ve always used ティ, which is pronounced the same way as both ジ and ヂ, right? I know you’re not supposed to in standard Japanese, but I’ve always made the distinction between the sounds, saying ティas “di” while saying ジ and ヂ as “ji.” Which should I be using? Is it just a matter of preference?
On an unrelated note, when is ヴ used? I believe it’s a more recent development meant to introduce the “v-“ sound from loan words? With that being said, is there any real reason to use it? Technically, you could write テレビ as テレヴィfor more accurate pronunciation, right? But this just adds a character and isn’t very necessary, I’d imagine. The only instance I can think where it can maybe work is with DVD (ディーブイディー) replacing ブイ with ヴィ, not to mention ディcoming back here (so why wouldn’t ジ or ヂ be used?).
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>When I write my name in katakana, it has the “di” sound at the end, so I’ve always used ティ, which is pronounced the same way as both ジ and ヂ, right?
No, ティ is pronounced “ti”, as is timber. If you want “di”, you should write ディ, which is pronounced like “di” in dimple. ヂ and ジ are pronounced like “ji” in Jim.
>On an unrelated note, when is ヴ used? I believe it’s a more recent development meant to introduce the “v-“ sound from loan words?
Yes, that’s basically it.
>Technically, you could write テレビ as テレヴィfor more accurate pronunciation, right?
Sure, but there really isn’t a “v”-sound in Japanese, and it may depend on when the word was introduced, and what is simpler to write. Writing テレヴィ would be fine, but it’s longer and takes more time to write than テレビ