Juliette
ジュリエット
Jurietto
How It Is Said
- ジュju
- リri
- エe
- ッt
- トto
Jurietto: five 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 final e is not said, but Japanese gives the sound before it a light vowel: ト (to).
- French j, and g before e or i, are soft, like the s of pleasure: ジ (ji).
- French u is said with rounded lips, between i and u; Japanese writes it with a small ュ: ジュリエット.
- 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 small ッ is a short pause that doubles the next sound: ット (tto).
Shakespeare's Juliet is ジュリエット in Japanese, written as the French Juliette is.
To Type It
On a computer with Japanese input switched on, type jurietto, 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 ジュリエット among the suggestions.
The Same Name in Other Languages
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
