Saoirse
シアーシャ
Shiāsha
How It Is Said
- シshi
- アa
- ーa
- シャsha
Shiāsha: 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
- Saoirse is an Irish name, and Irish spelling follows rules of its own; katakana follows the sound alone: シアーシャ (Shiāsha).
- The bar ー makes the vowel before it long, one beat more: アー (ā).
- A small kana joins the one before it into one beat: シャ (sha).
To Type It
On a computer with Japanese input switched on, type shia-sha (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 シアーシャ 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
