How should I write my name using Katakana?


How should **Puttichai** , which is pronounced as put-ti-chai (pʊttɪʃaɪ), be
written using Katakana? I have been writing プッティチャイ for quite a while. But
then when I asked my friend, she told me that that writing may be a bit
difficult for Japanese to pronounce since it will be more like pu-(pause)-ti-
chai instead of put-ti-chai, and that using シャイ instead of チャイ is closer to
the original pronunciation. She suggested me to remove the ッ.

My question is what would be an appropriate way to write Puttichai,
considering closeness to the original pronunciation and ease of pronunciation
by Japanese etc.?




I'm having a little trouble understanding what you mean when you say that your
name should contain two "t" sounds in a row.

At least in English, I don't think it's possible to have a word where two
individual "t"s are pronounced in a row. A double "t" in English is pronounced
as identical to a single "t" when it occurs in the middle of a word (eg. in
the words "mitten" and "batter"), and when it crosses a word boundary it's
pronounced as a "lengthened consonant" just like those used in Japanese (with
a pause in between the consonant's onset and release, eg. in the phrases "put
together" or "night train").

I believe Puttichai is a Thai name (correct me if I'm wrong). I'm not at all
familiar with Thai phonology myself, but Wikipedia indicates that plosives in
the Thai language are always unreleased when they appear at the end of a
syllable. This suggests to me that perhaps the double "t" in "Puttichai"
should be an unreleased "t" followed by a released "t", which I think is
functionally identical to a "lengthened t". If this is the correct
pronunciation, I think プッティ would be a very close representation, much more so
than プティ (which is unambiguously a single short "t" sound).

As for the latter half of the name, if your phonetic representation ʃaɪ is
correct, this would indeed be better represented as シャイ (pronounced the same
as "shy" in English) rather than チャイ (pronounced the same as the first
syllable of "China" in English).




I'm having a little trouble understanding what you mean when you say that your
name should contain two "t" sounds in a row.

At least in English, I don't think it's possible to have a word where two
individual "t"s are pronounced in a row. A double "t" in English is pronounced
as identical to a single "t" when it occurs in the middle of a word (eg. in
the words "mitten" and "batter"), and when it crosses a word boundary it's
pronounced as a "lengthened consonant" just like those used in Japanese (with
a pause in between the consonant's onset and release, eg. in the phrases "put
together" or "night train").

I believe Puttichai is a Thai name (correct me if I'm wrong). I'm not at all
familiar with Thai phonology myself, but Wikipedia indicates that plosives in
the Thai language are always unreleased when they appear at the end of a
syllable. This suggests to me that perhaps the double "t" in "Puttichai"
should be an unreleased "t" followed by a released "t", which I think is
functionally identical to a "lengthened t". If this is the correct
pronunciation, I think プッティ would be a very close representation, much more so
than プティ (which is unambiguously a single short "t" sound).

As for the latter half of the name, if your phonetic representation ʃaɪ is
correct, this would indeed be better represented as シャイ (pronounced the same
as "shy" in English) rather than チャイ (pronounced the same as the first
syllable of "China" in English).

