Blanca
ブランカ
Buranka
How It Is Said
- ブbu
- ラra
- ンn
- カka
Buranka: 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
- Japanese has no l. It uses its one sound between l and r, a light tap of the tongue, written ラ リ ル レ ロ: ラ (ra).
- ン is a humming n, and it counts as a beat of its own.
Blanca means white in Spanish.
To Type It
On a computer with Japanese input switched on, type burannka (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 ブランカ 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
