I wonder if you could help me - with determining the correct Irish spelling for several Japanese names (Leeko and Kenji); I'd appreciate it VERY MUCH.
(Note: I know virtually no Irish - so I've just been referring to several internet sites for ideas.)


Someone assisted me a bit - and guided me to the spellings below...but I still have a few questions.
(Note: all Japanese nouns are very short.)

For Leeko, I was told to write: Léceo, but I wonder why it couldn't simply be Léco.


For Kenji (like "Ken" + "jee" in English - but with short vowels), I was told to write: Ceindí, but I'm not sure why my informant included the long accent over the "i", since I want a short vowel. So, could I simply write it as Ceindi?

Could it simply be written as Cendi; or is the "i" needed after the "e" for some reason?

Last but not least, since Irish does not have a "j" sound nor "j" letter, how does one write a "j" sound?
Would I need to use a "d" as my informant suggested (i.e., Ceindi).
Would this really produce a "j" sound?
Would it not produce a "d" sound? (I'm confused here.)

Thank you for any help you can offer me.

To reproduce the "j" sound in Irish, you need to use D followed by a slender vowel, such as "i". The "..dí" would reproduce the sound such as "jee"

Le meas,
Larry.

A Sheamas, a chara

The suggested spellings you have received here are as good as you're going to get anywhere.

As regards your first question: "For Leeko, I was told to write: Léceo, but I wonder why it couldn't simply be Léco."

- The reasons WHY Irish vowel+consonant combinations sound the way they do is much too detailed a topic for the here and now, but suffice to say that IF you spelled it 'Léco' it would sound more like 'lay-KUH' where you WANT it to sound like 'lay-KOH' (pardon my phonetics), so the spelling you really want is 'Léceo'.

-As to the other name, Ceindí is probably your best bet, as suggested, because the combination of d+í gives a sound that closely approximates 'gee' or 'jee'. Place the emphahsis on the FIRST syllable (m.s. KEN-jee).

Remember, the orthography of Irish and Japanese are two VERY different kettles of fish. For instance, Japanese words like 'sarariman' which are spelled to give a sound like 'salary-man'.

Le meas (Yours sincerely)
Creag 'Fintan' Batty