Why is it 「ロワイアル」?


Always loved the "Battle royale" anime, but am curious about why in the
Japanese title it's「ロワイアル」.

Shouldn't it be something like「ローヤル」, if you wanted to match the French
pronunciation? Why the「ワ」?

(I know royal is「ロイヤル」)




Pretty simply, because there's a /w/ in the French _royale_ /rwajal/. The
onset cluster /rw/ is not allowed in Japanese phonotactics, so one of two
repair strategies must be used:

  1. Epenthesis (inserting a sound to break up the consonant cluster)
  2. Deletion (removing a sound to eliminate the consonant cluster)

In Japanese loanword phonology, both strategies are used, but epenthesis is
much more common. The vowel /o/ is inserted between /rw/ and the result is ロワ.




Pretty simply, because there's a /w/ in the French _royale_ /rwajal/. The
onset cluster /rw/ is not allowed in Japanese phonotactics, so one of two
repair strategies must be used:

  1. Epenthesis (inserting a sound to break up the consonant cluster)
  2. Deletion (removing a sound to eliminate the consonant cluster)

In Japanese loanword phonology, both strategies are used, but epenthesis is
much more common. The vowel /o/ is inserted between /rw/ and the result is ロワ.

