Sometimes I wonder why some foreign words are transcribed into Japanese (Katakana) seemingly inconsistently or suboptimally. First is the inconsistent transcription of final nasals, and then the creation of germinates where there were none in the original language.
Firstly, being in contact with the manga & anime series JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, I found some transcription choices by author Hirohiko Araki odd. (English) words ending in /m/ he typically transcribes as ム *mu*—as in Khnum クヌ**ム** *kunu**mu***. So far so good. Fair transcription choice. Words ending in /n/ he typically transcribes as ン *n*, as in キング・クリムゾ**ン ** *kingu kurimso**n***. Nothing odd yet either. In isolation, word-final /N/ is typically analysed to be [ɴ], and [n] is closer to the place of articulation of [ɴ] than [m] is. So, maybe he just drew the line there to what counts as “similar enough” to [ɴ] to be transcribed as such. But, /ŋ/ in turn he transcribes as ング *ngu*, again, as in キ**ング**・クリムゾン *ki**ngu** kurimson*. However, [ŋ] is extremely similar to [ɴ], so much so that almost no language in the entire world distinguishes the two phonemically.
Secondly, most proper names in the manga & anime series *Sōsō No Frieren* are literally simply random German words. Most of them are transcribed pretty adequately in my opinion as a native German speaker. However, the transcribed name of character *Himmel* caught my attention. In German the word is pronounced /’hɪ.mɛl/ [‘hɪ.məl~-ml̩]. It was transcribed as ヒンメル *hinmeru* /hiNmeru/ [çimːe̞ɾ(ɯᵝ)]. I don’t know why the moraïc nasal ン *n* /N/ is here, phonetically lengthening /m/, as German doesn’t have any geminates, and *Himmel* thus is pronounced with singleton [m], not [mː].
I actually do have one hypothesis, as I have asked a similar question before but in regards to transcription in (Russian) Cyrillic. The most satisfying explanation for explaining anomalous transcription choice was, that the transcription wasn’t only attempting to somewhat bring across the foreign pronounciation, but also the approximate appearance of the word as written in its original script. That would explain why ム, romanised *mu*, was used for [m], spelt ⟨m⟩—why ン, romanised *n*, was used for [n], spelt ⟨n⟩—why ング, romanised *ngu*, was used for [ŋ], spelt ⟨ng⟩—why ンメ, romanised *nme* or even *mme*, was used for /mɛ/ [mə], spelt ⟨mme⟩.
What is your opinion / explanation for these anomalous transcription choices?
by CharmingSkirt95