100366
I am watching the anime "Bleach" with Japanese audio, and I hear them talk
about something in the story called the Soul Society. When I look at the
transcript, I see, that 尸魂界 is used. Curious about the pronunciation, I
hear/see the translation in [Google
Translate](https://translate.google.com/?sl=ja&tl=en&text=%E5%B0%B8%E9%AD%82%E7%95%8C&op=translate)
romanized as ソウル・ソサエティ (Soul Society). I also see in the [Bleach
wiki](https://bleach.fandom.com/wiki/Soul_Society) referred to in the same
way.

Has Google Translate been trained to just accept that reading? But it also
doesn't make sense to me why the Japanese audio says a different, romanized
reading from usual combinations of kunyomi/onyomi. It is not clear to me if
there are multiple valid readings of this word.

Are there other words like this, or is this type of thing usually only done
for audio/video media? Is there a name for this type of pattern?
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2023-07-24T09:24:45.973
100362
2023-07-24T16:31:59.730
2023-07-24T16:18:08.757
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25682
question
words readings loanwords creative-furigana
Why can 尸魂界 be read as ソウル・ソサエティ "Soul Society"? Are there other words that can have a different loan word reading?
尸魂界 is a made-up word that is used only in Bleach, and its reading, ソウル・ソサエティ,
is also completely unique to Bleach. (See [this tag
info](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/tags/creative-furigana/info) of
[creative-furigana](/questions/tagged/creative-furigana "show questions tagged
'creative-furigana'")).

Since this is a popular title that has been around for decades, Google
Translate and similar services _may_ recognize the term along with its special
reading. However, since it's still a unique term used in only one title, it's
not surprising if Google Translate fails to offer the reading that Bleach fans
expect. Simply, there are no guarantees when it comes to such unique and
nonstandard terms.
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-24T16:31:59.730
100366
2023-07-24T16:31:59.730
5010
100362
answer