Holly
ホリー
Horī
How It Is Said
- ホho
- リri
- ーi
Horī: three 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 double ll is one sound in English, so katakana writes it once: ホリー.
- 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: リ (ri).
- The bar ー makes the vowel before it long, one beat more: リー (rī).
Holly is 柊 (hiiragi) in Japanese, a character also used in Japanese names.
To Type It
On a computer with Japanese input switched on, type hori- (the - key gives the bar ー), 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 ホリー 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
