What's the phonetic difference between toraianguru (トライアングル, the correct word
in Japanese) and torayanguru (トラヤングル)? Do they both sound the same and it's
purely a matter of orthography, or is there some deeper difference?
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2016-02-02T19:54:05.857
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2016-02-05T16:41:56.290
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question
phonetics
Why isn't the word for triangle トラヤングル?
In short, they don't sound the same:
[ト]{to}[ラ]{ra}[イ]{i}[ア]{a}[ン]{n}[グ]{gu}[ル]{ru} sounds closer to the
pronunciation of the English source term. The `/aia/` vowel combination (as
`/a i a/`) makes a clear analog of the English `/aia/` pronunciation (as `/aɪ
æ/` for the `i` and `a` in the middle of _tr **ia** ngle_).

Meanwhile, [ト]{to}[ラ]{ra}[ヤ]{ya}[ン]{n}[グ]{gu}[ル]{ru} has no `/ai/` combination
at all, and doesn't sound as close to the English term.

(Musings: rather than [ト]{to}[ラ]{ra}[ヤ]{ya}[ン]{n}[グ]{gu}[ル]{ru}, a closer
phonetic match might be [ト]{to}[ラ]{ra}[イ]{i}[エ]{e}[ン]{n}[グ]{gu}[ル]{ru}.)
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2016-02-02T22:03:20.830
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2016-02-02T22:03:20.830
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answer
A part of the reason is nontransparent transcriptions are generally not
approved in Japanese. The word _triangle_ obviously splits up into _tri_ +
_angle_ , thus we favor the spelling トライ{tri} + アングル{angle}, which reminds us
of the original breakpoint. If English _triangle_ should sound トラヤングル (while
it doesn't to me), I don't think much people write it directly under today's
convention.

The rule holds true even if syllable linking occurs, such as: ログ{log}イン{in},
キック{kick}オフ{off}, ポップ{pop}アップ{up} etc. There are indeed some usages in
blogosphere that like
[ホッテントリ](http://d.hatena.ne.jp/keyword/%A5%DB%A5%C3%A5%C6%A5%F3%A5%C8%A5%EA)
"hot entry" or プラギン "plugin", but they're all intended geekish slangs.

In [this post](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/q/18878/7810) @istrasci has
suggested, you can see some exceptions like パイナップル{pineapple} and
ラインナップ{lineup} (and ランナウェイ{runaway}, ワンナウト{one out} etc.), yet they're only
allowed in _n + vowel_ environment.

**PS**  
I don't know if this is trivial enough, but, purely from Japanese standpoint,
トライアングル and トラヤングル would not sound the same. The former is seven morae long,
the latter six.
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2016-02-05T16:32:39.543
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2016-02-05T16:41:56.290
2017-04-13T12:43:48.447
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answer