Amber
アンバー
Anbā
How It Is Said
- アa
- ンn
- バba
- ーa
Anbā: four beats, each about the same length. Japanese has no strong stress, so the name is said evenly, beat by beat.
What Happens to the Sounds
- The English ending -er is written バー (bā): Japanese follows the British way of saying it, with no r.
- ン is a humming n, and it counts as a beat of its own.
Amber is 琥珀 (kohaku) in Japanese.
To Type It
On a computer with Japanese input switched on, type annba- (the - key gives the bar ー and nn gives ン), then press F7 on Windows or Control+K on a Mac to turn it into katakana. On a phone, type the same letters with the Japanese keyboard and choose アンバー among the suggestions.
Why Katakana
In Japan, names from abroad are written in katakana, the script for words from other languages. Kanji versions of Western names are mostly invented, and a Japanese reader often sees odd meanings in them; the katakana is what a Japanese person would really write. More on katakana and names
