Jabrow - correct spelling?

[Dunpeal]

Well it seems the name appears on-screen in 0083 ( http://img396.imageshack.us/img396/1834/jabrowmx3.jpg ). So does that mean that whoever came up with Jaboru as official was rather ignorant in the matter and didn't know the name already appeared in-animation?

[Oruma]

Being in-animation is good, but Gundam is notorious for the numerous edits, retcons and engrish words. Subsequent spelling AFAIK has been fixed to Jaburo.

Remember kids, when it's New Yark instead of New York, you know you're in an Engrish universe

[Mark064]

Engrish is not the case of New Yark. The city has been renamed for whatever reason. The spelling for New Yark is ニューヤーク while New York is ニューヨーク. For whatever reasons various locations in America have been renamed while other places such as Dublin and Odessa were not renamed.

Dunpeal: You are assuming that 0083 is right. I think the Jaburo spelling predates 0083.

[Zeonic Glory]

I'd just put it as one of those little inconsistencies. (i.e. Kycillia/Kishiria)

[Toxicity]

Spelling and pronounciations are something that you'll hear many different variations of. I lol everytime i watch the 08th MS team when Sanders pronounces GM Gee-Em instead of Jim.

[Lans]

Spelling and pronounciations are something that you'll hear many different variations of. I lol everytime i watch the 08th MS team when Sanders pronounces GM Gee-Em instead of Jim.

It's not funny at all. For most people I know including me, GM is read Gee and Em and not Jim as in Jimmy. It's really confusing for us to use Jim since Jim is Jim and not GM. Frankly, this is Japanese animations. It's not about english pronunciation right or wrong. It's the same with us (who don't born with english tongue), hearing the same name and stuffs on the anime being voiced differently by english speaking people. It's nothing personal but it's a moot point to laugh at them.

[bluemax151]

Even native Japanese speakers sometimes disagree about how foreign words should be written in Katakana.

[Toxicity]

Geez dude lighten up. Just because I find something moderatly funny that you dont doesnt automatically make me or what I'm laughing at wrong or not funny. It's all a matter of opinion.

I was simply making a statement relavent to the topic about spelling and pronounciation, and the example i used just happened to be something that gives me a nice small laugh just because I'm so used to hearing it pronounced another way.

If you don't find it funny, that's fine and all, but don't bash me because I do.

[Dunpeal]

Oh, and I remember the name "Zanscarl" appeared on-screen in one of V gundam episodes.

[Lans]

If you don't find it funny, that's fine and all, but don't bash me because I do.

My apologize. It's just that you maybe the 100th or more persons that I encountered bringing up this problem. I hope it could break the chain since nobody seems to say otherwise regarding this issue.

IMO there's nothing great with ability to say knightmare perfectly in English. And certainly there's nothing wrong to pronounce it kunaitomeru like the anime do.

[Dark Duel]

I would not rely on in-episode on-screen shots unless no alternate officially-recognized spelling exists, as they are often not the correct one.
For example, in one episode of Gundam Seed, the spelling "BACOW" or something to that effect appears, when by the time that episode aired the official spelling was already known to be "BuCUE".

[mcred23]

It's not about english pronunciation right or wrong.

Yeah... it's about the translation being right or wrong, and as faithful as possible to the original context. In the original Japanese, GM was always pronounced as "Jim" (Something that reminds me of one of the supposed origins of the Jeep's name, that it maye have come from it being called "GP" at one point), so technically, "Jim" (Or however one spells that sound, be it "Gym" or some other way) is the proper way to say the name of the RGM-79 (And everything based on it). The English dubbings of the Gundam OVA's started saying it as "Gee-Em" for whatever reason (Mind you, these are the same ones that give us "Jabrow" and that incorrect spelling/pronunciation, as opposed to the correct "Jaburo"), and that has stuck for a lot of people (Myself included, and I've been fully aware that technically it's wrong for many years).

Really, at this point, it doesn't matter whether you use the proper pronunciation (Or in some cases, even spellings). The average English-speaking fan will know who you are talking about whether you say "Kycillia" or "Kishiria", "Char" or "Sha", "Gee-Em" or "Jim", or if you butcher "AEUG". And since the bulk of our interaction takes place over the interwebs, pronunciation hardly matters 99% of the time (Although at the very least, it is wise to be aware of the proper/official pronunciations of people, places, or mecha).

At least, that's my take on the whole issue.

I would not rely on in-episode on-screen shots unless no alternate officially-recognized spelling exists, as they are often not the correct one.
For example, in one episode of Gundam Seed, the spelling "BACOW" or something to that effect appears, when by the time that episode aired the official spelling was already known to be "BuCUE".

Or, Zeta Gundam's infamous "DANGAR" warning on a canister of G3 gas. No spellings, be them mobile suits or places or even normal words, are safe!

[Imperial]

Engrish is not the case of New Yark. The city has been renamed for whatever reason. The spelling for New Yark is ニューヤーク while New York is ニューヨーク. For whatever reasons various locations in America have been renamed while other places such as Dublin and Odessa were not renamed.

Wasn't the whole "New Yark" bit a deliberately made decision that was intended to reflect languages changing over time?

[Phantomexe87]

Perhaps in the distant future, Engrish has become an official language.

I never understood why the Japanese made so many English errors (not just in Gundam either), it's probably the easiest and most wide-spread language currently around, surely couldn't be that hard to have someone double check their writing.

I always thought of New Yark as a future joining of the cities New York and Newark. Like how the conceptual San Angeles is a portmanteau of San Francisco and Los Angeles.

[young_oldtype]

I never understood why the Japanese made so many English errors (not just in Gundam either), it's probably the easiest and most wide-spread language currently around, surely couldn't be that hard to have someone double check their writing.

English may be what's almost the universal language but the quantity of speakers must also be put into consideration. Although well-known, the language is not spoken much in most of East Asia, and the result is multiple grammatical and spelling errors. And typos.

Translators also have something to do with this issue. I remember someone bring up Zeta MS names and their supposed original English spelling. Most of the time, it is probably the misinterpretation of the Kana's context that is involved.

Now for the case of New Yark and Jaburo, there's this certain guy before(I forgot the name sorry) who did this certain translation for Gundam, which resulted in some name changes, which is probably the same thing that happened to the said names; here's why UNT was changed into Earth Federation. For some reason or another, that translation is made canon.

[Lans]

I never understood why the Japanese made so many English errors (not just in Gundam either), it's probably the easiest and most wide-spread language currently around, surely couldn't be that hard to have someone double check their writing.

We're talking about animations that dates back to roughly 1993, 15 years ago. At that time, I wonder just how many english able persons were there in Japan. The figure could be just as slim as 0.5 or 1% of the whole total population. It's due to their own unique sets of writting and language. It's hard to study other language when you got your own sets of alphabets that you use everyday and everytime.

For most East Asian, most of the words pronounces in English can be written in two or three ways without losing the pronunciation. DANGER can be written as DANJER, DENJER, or even DANGAR. If you ask the person to read those, he/she will pronounce it the same way as English person read DANGER.

On the contrary if you ask them to speak "DANGER", he'll read it like Dan-GER (like Dan for Danny and Ger for gear walk) or DAN-Ge ER. It's way different than the correct english pronunciation for "danger".

It's something that happens naturally because of different languages and the way of speaking that East Asians has. It’s nothing to do with laziness in cross check or using the dictionary.

The same also happens with English speaking people. You can't pronounce the word GUNDAM like the Japanese do. If you only hears it without reading it, I'm sure you'll write it differently like Gandam or else.

IMO the condition has improved. Newer animations like the Gundam00 has been able to show us decent and proper use of correct English. Although the pronunciation is still decent-at-best. You’ll never get use to, like how they speak ‘Yes my lord’ (code geass) in such a Japanese-way.

[Wingnut]

The same also happens with English speaking people. You can't pronounce the word GUNDAM like the Japanese do. If you only hears it without reading it, I'm sure you'll write it differently like Gandam or else.

It works in reverse too if you only see the word GUNDAM, you might pronounce it differently like the memorable movie dub of 0079 and those British Gunpla commercials that spoke it as Gundamn instead of Gundum.

[Lans]

The same also happens with English speaking people. You can't pronounce the word GUNDAM like the Japanese do. If you only hears it without reading it, I'm sure you'll write it differently like Gandam or else.

It works in reverse too if you only see the word GUNDAM, you might pronounce it differently like the memorable movie dub of 0079 and those British Gunpla commercials that spoke it as Gundamn instead of Gundum.

As a matter of fact, yes. Just like how we try to read Hyaku Shiki in english, that would be a bit off. Sadly even the newest animations like the Macross Frontier wasn't able to cope with such accuracy. They seems to let go of their english accuracy after half of the series. Probably it's because of the required extra time that they doesn't have, or just plainly to save some budget for the extra CG.

[Imperial]

I never understood why the Japanese made so many English errors (not just in Gundam either), it's probably the easiest and most wide-spread language currently around, surely couldn't be that hard to have someone double check their writing.

Easiest?

"Though" versus "through?" "Phone" versus "freak?" "Mission" versus "intuition?"

The arbitrary phonetics alone are enough to make the English language horribly unwieldy. It is not the easiest language to learn by any means, particularly when you consider English and Japanese have completely different roots.

[Battosai28]

I never understood why the Japanese made so many English errors (not just in Gundam either), it's probably the easiest and most wide-spread language currently around, surely couldn't be that hard to have someone double check their writing.

Yeah dude, I hate to say it but your way off. For people who natively speak non-latin based languages, English is possibly the hardest language to learn. Also, it is not the most widely spoken language in the world, but the third (More people speak Mandarin and Spanish)

By the way, I'm surprised that there has been no love for my man "Galcia" from 0080.