Topic: All in a "L"

[kyo]

there one thing I love to know is... How in the heck can The japanese say lum name ? there no L in the Japanese vocabulary ! how can they say love, like, look do anyone know how they do it ?

[sidzero]

It's pronounced "Lamu" which sounds exactly the same as "Ramu". In japanese, the L and the R are a single soundform that sounds kinda like a combination of the two English letter sounds. Also, U's are often pronounced silently in Japanese. Go watch the anime, and I'm sure you'll hear it a few times.

[UruseiNeo]

I like Lamu way more than Ramu. And I like Lum 100% more than either of those.

I heard that the name Lum, while also coming from that supermodel or something, also sorta came from Rumiko herself as her nickname was Rum. So... yeah, another r/l single soundform

[Forgotten_Lum]

As for love, like and look, its just a different word, when watching anime listen to the words whenyou seen the subs, usually when someone says they love or like someone or something they have the word "suki" in there sentence, although the word doesn't translate into love, but more a importance in the sentence. The word most commonly translated to love is "daisuki" (i dont know the spelling so i took a guess)

[Jataru]

It's a commun error switch the "L" for the "R" in japanese.
If you look some episodes you will ear sometimes the name of Lum said with the "R" and others with the "L". And the word "love" in corrent japanese is "daisuki".

[sidzero]

And just because I feel like pitching in something utterly inane... I just want to point out that "daisuki" literally means "big like". How's that for pointing out the pointless?

[UruseiNeo]

I thought that ai  meant love or something like that.

[GiovaneDinamitardo]

It's pronounced "Lamu" which sounds exactly the same as "Ramu".

In the episode "the electric jungle" Lamù hold a bag with the written "Run": it's another way to translate "Lum", who is prononced "Lam-ù".

The "ù" is a personal adding, in japanese accents doesn't exist.

Some times ago I've met two japanese girls: they saied to me that "italian don't simply speak: THEY'RE SINGING INSTEAD OF SPEAKING", due tu our words full of accents.

[sidzero]

Aye, Italian isn't the only language like that, either. That, I think is one of the things I like about the Japanese language though, the fact that there is no real variance in pronunciations. No two letters have more than one pronunciation... unlike such letters as C, X, Q, T (adding an H after it changes the sound into one of two different ways of pronouncing the combination, for example), or any vowel. Learning to read Japanese should be pretty easy once you get past the hurdle of learning 4 completely different alphabets (including Kanji with it's ungodly amount of characters, though you really only need know around 3000 to be functionally literate).

[janus]

Just to clarify on things here

It has also been noted in articles about Miss Takahashi that while growing up, she'd often shorten her name and write it down as "Rum" or "Lum" due to the interchangeability of the letters "R" and "L" to the Japanese ear. It's true that Takahashi views Lum as her less inhibited alter-ego. So in a way the character of Lum is also based somewhat on Rumiko Takahashi herself.

[UruseiNeo]

I said that! ^_^

[cata]

It sounds so much better "Lum/Lamu" than "Ram/Ramu".

[Kroptik]

And to add some info, Lum's name (and body) is based on the Japanese model Agnes Lum.

At that time, she was nicknamed "Lum-chan" in Japan, though now that nickname can be confused with that of the fictional character Lum Invader from Urusei Yatsura.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnes_Lum

Her name comes from popular swimsuit model Agnes Lum.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lum_Invader

[kyo]

oh Kroptik I already Knew that info but thanks anyway

[cata]

The info that Kroptik has provided may be useful to other UY fans.