Frozen - Why is Anna transliterated as アナ not アンナ?


[Frozen's Japanese](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/94713/in-the-
japanese-dub-of-frozen-anna-says-unmei-fate-destiny-the-late-sayaka) name is
more similar to what Frozen's original name was supposed to be: アナと雪の女王 but
not アンナと雪の女王.

I tried looking up about アナ vs アンナ for Frozen, and there are a lot posts, but
of course they're in Japanese (otherwise, this post wouldn't exist). 1 of the
posts I understood albeit just a bit is
[アナと雪の女王（frozen）のアナ(anna)は正確にはアンナじゃないのですか？](https://detail.chiebukuro.yahoo.co.jp/qa/question_detail/q12134772322)
An answer appears to use 'channel' as an example which is チャネル not チャンネル

> 発音としては「アナ」にしか聞こえません。
>
> 同様の例にchannelは「チャネル」にしか聞こえません。
>
> televisionのchannelは「チャンネル」と呼ばれることが多いですが。

Not sure what to make of this. Actually, 'channel' I know is ちゃんねる as in
らっきー☆ちゃんねる from [Lucky
Star](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Star_\(manga\)) (らき☆すた) - and I'm
realising just now this is hiragana not katakana.

  1. Why is Anna here 1 n?

  2. Is this specific to the Norwegian Anna as opposed to the usual English Anna, which, what, would be 2 n's?




This is an interesting question, but it has more to do with English and its
phonology than it does Japanese. I think those Japanese users on Yahoo who
state they hear 「アナ」 in the English version of the movie pretty much hit it on
the mark.

**tl;dr** : You don't nasalize the first vowel /æ/ when pronouncing that name
in English, unlike some other languages, thus creating a difference between
translations of that name from various languages, represented by that ン.

English is not a nasal language, as is often said about the language when
compared to other similarly widely spoken languages like French or Portuguese.
Yes, it's true English doesn't have fully nasalized vowels as French,
Portuguese, and some other languages do. But there's a twist: partial
nasalization of vowels does occur in English. Let me give you a few examples
to illustrate this point which I think any fluent speaker of English will get.

  * ME /mi/   
When you say this word, you simply go from the consonant /m/ to the vowel /i/
and there is nothing to follow /i/ which brings up the rear. There is no
nasality involved after /m/. When executing the vowel all air goes through the
mouth.

  * MEAN /min/   
When you say this word, you go from /m/ to /i/, and then conclude with the
nasal /n/. The magic happens before you go into nasal mode. Most English
speakers, when they get ready for the nasal consonant, partially nasalize the
preceding vowel, which in this case is /i/. The nasal flap in the back of your
mouth, situated around the soft palate, diverts the air and channels part of
it to the nasal passage. Try and pronounce it a few times and you will get the
idea.

  * MEANING /ˈminɪŋ/   
When you pronounce this word, the partial nasalization process that happens
with "mean" doesn't happen here, because of this other phenomenon in English:
partial nasalization doesn't occur in the same word if the only sound between
them is a nasal consonant. So with "meaning" you don't nasalize the /i/. In
fact it is an often heard mistake from English learners to nasalize vowels in
words like this.

  * PAINTING /ˈpeɪntɪŋ/   
Again nasalization is possible here because between /eɪ/ and /ɪ/ there are two
consonants now /nt/ and there is a break after the nasal /n/. And thus partial
nasalization can occur with the diphthong /eɪ/.

* Note: I borrowed Macmillan English Dictionary's phonetic symbols which might deviate ever so slightly from the standard IPA but that's really not important here.

Back to Anna. The pronunciation of the name Anna /ˈænə/ follows the same rules
(I say rules but these things are descriptive, namely they describe how
natural speech is). That tells us you don't nasalize the first vowel and you
shouldn't add an extra ン when you transcribe it in Japanese, which is exactly
what the translators did here. It is a clear-cut /æ/ + /nə/. And that's why to
a lot of Japanese ears it sounds like アナ, as it should.

In comparison, the name Anna (Анна) is pronounced differently in Russian with
distinct nasalization. Listen to
[this](https://forvo.com/word/%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%BD%D0%B0_%D0%BA%D0%B0%D1%80%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BD%D0%B0/#ru).
That's why the Japanese title of Leo Tolstoy's _«Анна Каренина»_ is アンナ・カレーニナ.

