Transcription and pronunciation of words that had "wi" in them in English and are「ウィ」in Japanese


I was looking up how the name Will Smith is pronounced and written in
Japanese. Why does "Will" become 「ウィル」? I would have expected ワ to be used
instead for the first sound.

I found mentions of the "w" sound in English having a more rounded lip shape
in English than the closest Japanese sound, and I am guessing that part of my
confusion is that I probably don't understand how 「ウィ」 is pronounced in
Japanese. I found audio of Will Smith's name in Japanese, but it seemed to be
an automated voice and not a recording of a human, so I don't trust it.




As in many other languages, phonetic changes have occured in Japanese over the
centuries. One of them is with "wi". We actually used to pronounce the mora
"wi" as "wi". The hiragana for that was 「ゐ」 and the katakana, 「ヰ」.

In our time, however, this syllable has disappeared and has been replaced by
the consonant-less 「うぃ」 and 「ウィ」, respectively. Thus, 「ウィル・スミス」 is currently
the only "proper" way to pronounce "Will Smith" in Japanese.

In English, you no longer pronounce the letters "g" and "h" in the word
"daughter", do you? I won't even mention "knight" as you only pronounce half
of the letters in it. So what we are discussing is not a phenomenon unique to
Japanese.

"Whisky" in Japanese is 「ウィスキー」. Just as in 「ウィル」, it starts with the vowel
「ウ」 and not the consonant "w".

「ゐ」 and 「ヰ」, which I mentioned above, are now used **_only for aesthetic
purposes_**. Use them daily and you simply will look very weird. Take a look
at the official website for Nikka Whisky:

<https://www.nikka.com/story/>

It says 「ニッカウ **ヰ** スキー」. That does not mean, however, we read it as "Wiスキー".
The "wi" syllable is long gone in sound if not in kana/spelling.

Listen to the very first syllable in this commercial.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAVUs8r5tK8>




As in many other languages, phonetic changes have occured in Japanese over the
centuries. One of them is with "wi". We actually used to pronounce the mora
"wi" as "wi". The hiragana for that was 「ゐ」 and the katakana, 「ヰ」.

In our time, however, this syllable has disappeared and has been replaced by
the consonant-less 「うぃ」 and 「ウィ」, respectively. Thus, 「ウィル・スミス」 is currently
the only "proper" way to pronounce "Will Smith" in Japanese.

In English, you no longer pronounce the letters "g" and "h" in the word
"daughter", do you? I won't even mention "knight" as you only pronounce half
of the letters in it. So what we are discussing is not a phenomenon unique to
Japanese.

"Whisky" in Japanese is 「ウィスキー」. Just as in 「ウィル」, it starts with the vowel
「ウ」 and not the consonant "w".

「ゐ」 and 「ヰ」, which I mentioned above, are now used **_only for aesthetic
purposes_**. Use them daily and you simply will look very weird. Take a look
at the official website for Nikka Whisky:

<https://www.nikka.com/story/>

It says 「ニッカウ **ヰ** スキー」. That does not mean, however, we read it as "Wiスキー".
The "wi" syllable is long gone in sound if not in kana/spelling.

Listen to the very first syllable in this commercial.

<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAVUs8r5tK8>

