Peter
ピーター
Pītā
How It Is Said
- ピpi
- ーi
- タta
- ーa
Pītā: four beats, each about the same length. Japanese has no strong stress, so the name is said evenly, beat by beat.
By Language
| Language | Katakana | Rōmaji | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | ピーター | Pītā | |
| German | ペーター | Pētā |
What Happens to the Sounds
- The English ending -er is written ター (tā): Japanese follows the British way of saying it, with no r.
- The bar ー makes the vowel before it long, one beat more: ピー (pī).
- German -er at the end sounds like a short a, written ター (tā); so in German, Peter is ペーター (Pētā).
The apostle Peter is ペトロ (Petoro) in the Japanese Bible of 1987, and ペテロ in older translations; Peter Pan is ピーター・パン.
To Type It
On a computer with Japanese input switched on, type pi-ta- (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 ピーター 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
