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What's the correct pronunciation of his name? Luffy or Rufi?

[At the One Piece wikia](http://onepiece.wikia.com/wiki/Monkey_D._Luffy), it
says "Monkey D. Luffy (モンキー･D･ルフィ Monkī D. Rufi)".


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one-piece
What's the correct pronunciation for Luffy or Rufi?


This answer needs a premise.

You see, Japanese don't distinguish between the L and R sounds. The L doesn't
really exist and the R is not pronounced like in English. It's more similar to
the Italian/Spanish R but it's not rolled. Also, FI doesn't belong to the
standard Kana — ha, hi, hu (fu), he, ho — but it's constructed.

Based on this, you could say both (and probably for Japanese there really
isn't a difference like for us). But apparently Oda meant the name to be
**Luffy** (can't find a source yet), and since the Japanese language cannot
faithfully represent this name it became _Rufi_ , being the closest match to
the actual name.


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Luffy is the official spelling, which you can see printed on official
merchandise.

「ルフィ」 ( _rufi_ ) is the Japanese pronunciation of this name. The first
syllable of it is **pronounced by the average Japanese person as an[alveolar
tap](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alveolar_tap)** (written in the
[International Phonetic
Alphabet](http://www.elearnenglishlanguage.com/blog/learn-
english/pronunciation/vowels-phonetics/) (IPA) as the fishhook-shaped **ɾ**
symbol. Note how this symbol subtly differs from the English **r** letter)
plus an **"oo" sound** (as in "root," "google," etc. Written in the IPA as "u"
or in the standard symbol as ū. See the English Language & Usage SE for
details on "u" [here](https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/36905/why-
are-there-3-different-ways-to-pronounce-oo)).

The Japanese syllabograms _ra, ri, ru, re,_ and _ro_ (ラ、リ、ル、レ、ロ、 or in
hiragana, ら、り、る、れ、ろ) are alveolar taps, which are a type of [liquid
consonant](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_consonant) that sound rolled.
They **do not directly correspond to any English letter** such as R (which is
written in the IPA as ![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/GqFd7.jpg) . Notice that phonetically it is
not the same as the thin fishhook-shaped **ɾ** symbol). An alveolar tap **can
sound approximately like _any_ of the following English letters: R, L, or D**.
In Japanese pronunciation, it is **equally acceptable** to pronounce 「ルフィ」
sounding like a rolled R, a non-rolled R, an L, or a D.

Since many native English speakers do not grow up exposed to listening to the
alveolar tap, many think they are hearing an R or L while listening to
Japanese and therefore romanization of Japanese into romaji uses "r". This is
the exact inverse of some Japanese people hearing an English R or L and
thinking that they are hearing an alveolar tap. [**Some Japanese can
distinguish the
difference**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_of_English_/r/_and_/l/_by_Japanese_speakers#Perception)
in listening to the English R versus L versus alveolar tap, even though they
cannot accurately replicate R and/or L, while some Japanese cannot hear the
difference. Some can pronounce the difference between R and L. Some cannot
originally distinguish and pronounce the difference but [can learn to via
phonetics
training](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perception_of_English_/r/_and_/l/_by_Japanese_speakers#Effects_of_training).

The natural English pronunciation of the spelling "Luffy" would most likely be
with an L sound and a short "uh" sound (as in "ruff, "just," etc. Written in
the IPA as ![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/dBrIr.jpg) or in the standard symbol as ŭ).
However, **such an intended pronunciation would have been written** in
katakana as 「ラフィ」 ( _rafi_ ) with an "ah" sound (as in "call," "also," etc.
Written in the IPA as ![enter image description
here](https://i.stack.imgur.com/qEZk7.jpg) or in the standard symbol as ô), so
we can deduce that Oda did not have "luh" in mind as the correct
pronunciation.

「フィ」 is a
[glide](http://japanese.gatech.edu/WebCTVista/JAPN1001/contents/Lesson02/katakana/2.7.html)
(not unlike a [diphthong](http://www.fonetiks.org/sou3ja.html) slide) of 「フ」 (
_fu_ or _hu_ ) + 「イ」 ( _i_ ) = " _fui_ " sped up becomes " _fi_ ". It is
analogous to the long I sound (as in "sunny," ski," etc. Written in the IPA as
"i" or in the standard symbol as ē).

In International Phonetic Alphabet, 「ルフィ」 is pronounced **ɾ u f i**. To
present this in perhaps an easier-to-read spelling, we could write "roo + fee"
where the "r" is rolled (as much or as little close to an English L as you
like).


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