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I started playing the Japanese version of Ocarina of time and noticed that
navi is spelled as ナビィ instead of just ナビ. I know that you can combine e.g. フ
and イ for フィ, but the one in ナビィ seems redundant.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-03-28T20:30:15.867
15114
2014-04-05T04:38:21.940
5033
question
words katakana
In the japanese The legend of Zelda (e.g. Ocarina of Time), why is navi spelled ナビィ and not just ナビ?
I'm not 100% sure if I'm right, but my guess with this is that it just makes
the name seem more _unique_. The Zelda universe is full of unusual names, and
this might be a shortcut in Japanese to indicate a slightly more exotic name
given the limitations of the syllabic writing system. If I see ナビィ instead of
ナビ it makes me think that the "i" sound should be inflected in some non-
standard way, even if the characters themselves don't specify exactly which
way. In Okinawa, for example, ナビィ is the word for 鍋{なべ}. I can't find a
pronunciation guide for it, but the fact that it's used for Okinawa-ben alone
should be enough of an indication of what the effect is, I hope.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-04-05T04:38:21.940
15250
2014-04-05T04:38:21.940
1797
15114
answer