Transliterating the last name Cobaxin


I want to know the trick to transliterating names in to Japanese.

I previously asked this question and it was suggested to look up famous names.

That worked until I came up on one of my friend's last name, which is
`Cobaxin`.

I couldn't find anyone famous/popular with that last name.

Is there a set of rules to follow when transliterating names into Japanese
Katakana?

I wouldn't like to bother you guys for every single name that I can't figure
out :P

P.S:

The origin of the name is Spanish so in Spanish it's pronounced `ko-ba-kzeen`.

However in English it's pronounced `ko-ba-kzen`.

I'm thinking it's somewhere in between コバクゼン or コバクゼィン. What do you guys
think?




Usually, words are transcribed based on how they sound--or how it is imagined
that they'd sound, since many words are borrowed into Japanese via print and
aren't actually heard.

  1. A Spanish-speaking friend offers /ko'βaksin/ as an [IPA transcription](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipa) of _Cobaxin_. Based on that, I think you can straightforwardly transcribe the Spanish version of the name in Japanese as コバクシン, replacing the consonants with their closest equivalents and adding the [epenthetic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epenthesis) vowel /u/. 

The vowel /u/ is the most common epenthetic vowel in Japanese and is usually
the default choice after consonants other than /t/ and /d/. After these two
consonants, adding /o/ is most common.

These vowels are added when you need to break up an illegal consonant cluster.
Consider the English word _strength_ :

> ストレングス /sutoreɴgusu/

Here, English _strength_ /strɛŋθ/ has the consonant cluster /str/, which is
not possible in Japanese, so vowels are inserted to break it up, resulting in
/sutor/. (However, since the English has no /g/ sound in most dialects, we can
guess that this transcription was made from an imagined pronunciation based on
spelling. This is often the case.) As you can see, /u/ is added in each case,
except after /t/, where /o/ is inserted instead.

Generally speaking, you can get pretty far by adding these two vowels whenever
necessary. But giving a complete set of rules for transcription is probably
beyond the scope of a single answer, I'm afraid; I'll focus on _Cobaxin_ for
the rest of this answer.

  2. You indicate that in English the final vowel of _Cobaxin_ is more like /e/ than /i/. If that's correct, then I think you could write コバクセン instead.

  3. In your transcription, you've written `z` rather than `s`. If you think this is more accurate, then コバクジン or コバクゼン would be fine, again depending on the final vowel.

  4. If you intend to write /si/ or /zi/, I would stick to the standard シ／ジ rather than write セィ／ゼィ or スィ／ズィ. 

I don't think Japanese speakers usually distinguish [si] from [ɕi] or [zi]
from [ʑi], so there isn't a lot of use in distinguishing a "straight" /s/ or
/z/ from the [allophone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allophone) that usually
occurs before /i/. If you did write it with the less usual katakana
combinations, I don't think people would pronounce it the way you intend very
often.

So, depending on how you think the `s` and `i` should be pronounced:

コバクシン・コバクセン  
コバクジン・コバクゼン

I would use one of those.




Usually, words are transcribed based on how they sound--or how it is imagined
that they'd sound, since many words are borrowed into Japanese via print and
aren't actually heard.

  1. A Spanish-speaking friend offers /ko'βaksin/ as an [IPA transcription](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ipa) of _Cobaxin_. Based on that, I think you can straightforwardly transcribe the Spanish version of the name in Japanese as コバクシン, replacing the consonants with their closest equivalents and adding the [epenthetic](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epenthesis) vowel /u/. 

The vowel /u/ is the most common epenthetic vowel in Japanese and is usually
the default choice after consonants other than /t/ and /d/. After these two
consonants, adding /o/ is most common.

These vowels are added when you need to break up an illegal consonant cluster.
Consider the English word _strength_ :

> ストレングス /sutoreɴgusu/

Here, English _strength_ /strɛŋθ/ has the consonant cluster /str/, which is
not possible in Japanese, so vowels are inserted to break it up, resulting in
/sutor/. (However, since the English has no /g/ sound in most dialects, we can
guess that this transcription was made from an imagined pronunciation based on
spelling. This is often the case.) As you can see, /u/ is added in each case,
except after /t/, where /o/ is inserted instead.

Generally speaking, you can get pretty far by adding these two vowels whenever
necessary. But giving a complete set of rules for transcription is probably
beyond the scope of a single answer, I'm afraid; I'll focus on _Cobaxin_ for
the rest of this answer.

  2. You indicate that in English the final vowel of _Cobaxin_ is more like /e/ than /i/. If that's correct, then I think you could write コバクセン instead.

  3. In your transcription, you've written `z` rather than `s`. If you think this is more accurate, then コバクジン or コバクゼン would be fine, again depending on the final vowel.

  4. If you intend to write /si/ or /zi/, I would stick to the standard シ／ジ rather than write セィ／ゼィ or スィ／ズィ. 

I don't think Japanese speakers usually distinguish [si] from [ɕi] or [zi]
from [ʑi], so there isn't a lot of use in distinguishing a "straight" /s/ or
/z/ from the [allophone](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allophone) that usually
occurs before /i/. If you did write it with the less usual katakana
combinations, I don't think people would pronounce it the way you intend very
often.

So, depending on how you think the `s` and `i` should be pronounced:

コバクシン・コバクセン  
コバクジン・コバクゼン

I would use one of those.

