I've seen this mistake in many many websites, and the real correct format of writing it in romaji should be Aa! Megami-sama or Aa! Megami-sama!.

I think people have been using the Aa! Megami-Sama format because they find it like as an analogy to the Ah! My Goddess format, i.e. three letters A!MG and hence A!MS.

What do you folks think about this? I know this isn't much a big deal, but it's certainly nice to follow one unique titling.

^_^

Well, I think it would be obvious that it's Aa! Megami-sama, simply because '-sama' is a very common used Japanese term. Haven't noticed that mistake myself, really. Only thing that annoys me at times is when they say Ah! Megami-sama instead of the Aa!. Silly mistake, yet can get quite annoying.

lol well actually i've never payed attention really to that mistake... basically because i only use Ah! My Goddess as a title maybe...

yeah i agree, if ppl are going to use the japanese title then they should use it properly rather than butcher the language.

pardon my ignorance of the sudelties of Japanese to English conversion but could you elaborate on the exact nature of the error so that it will fall into my realm of comprehension?

The exclamation in Japanese is "Aa!" which can be translated in English as "Ah!" or "Oh!" Hence, in English it is either "Ah! My Goddess" or "Oh My Goddess!" Some English speakers trying to write the original Japanese title write it as "Ah! Megami-sama", when it should be "Aa! Megami-sama." It is a very minor error, and shouldn't be taken seriously since it is easy to understand what the person is writing about.

Incidently, before anyone jumps me for using "Oh My Goddess!", I will point out that Fujishima-sama PREFERS that translation, since it is a play on the expression "Oh My God." Dark Horse asked him when they started translating the manga.

I will also point out writing a Japanese word in English (Romanization) is always hazy at best,, and hence there is no 100% correct way to write it in English (there are actually 3 different systems for doing this: Hepburn, Official, and Japanese). The actual title is a combination of hiragana and kanji, so however it is spelled in English, it is wrong by default.

Larry

Yes KeiichiK1, I am familiar with the fact there is no officially correct way of wording romaji. You have highlighted the mistake of Ah! instead Aa!, and also the Oh My Goddess! pun. I am aware of all of that.

I'm simply saying that many use Aa! Megami Sama or Aa! Megami-Sama instead or Aa! Megami-sama.
In Japanese honorifics, the suffixes "-kun", "-san", "-sensei", and here "-sama" are spelled usually with a hypen and then the honorific with the first letter in lower case.

Thus it should be Aa! Megami-sama.

waahhhh!!!!! you just impressed me KeiichiK1!!! :blink: you know so many things! :bg: lol

I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but hey, at least I'm on topic, and somebody might just learn something!

My credentials: I have a degree in English from a well respected University, and am slowly but surely learning to speak and read Japanese as time permits. Therefore, I have several "Learn Japanese" books, and I have used them for information for this post. Now, on with the show.

My comment was in reference to Reiyuka's point, Kei... not yours. But since you have thrown down the gauntlet, I shall rise to the occasion. I'm too old and gruff to let someone try to school me!

First of all, it depends on context, in some cases such as "oneechan" a hyphen is not used (although they usually translate that as "sis," don't ask me why, it really means "honored older sister"). This is especially true when dealing with titles instead of proper names. Furthermore, using a hyphen for honorifics is NOT a universal convention. For example, Kamisama is as correct as Kami-sama (look up "God" on www.freedict.com if you don't believe me). This is mostly a matter of personal preference. Most translators, when they bother including the honorific at all, add in a hyphen to seperate it out from the main word. This is to help with understanding for people who do not read or speak Japanese. However, this is merely a convention that some people follow and some people don't. I have several manga where they leave out the honorifics entirely because they think nobody in America understands them, which robs a lot of the meaning from the story.

As I pointed out, the real correct way to write it is in a combination of hiragana and Kanji. The first two characters of the logo are the sound for "a" in hiragana, so it is "Aa." The third character is the hiragana version of an exclamation point, Bringing it up to "Ah!" The next three characters are kanji for "goddess" (The fourth character is Kanji for woman, followed by two Kanji that mean "God," which is how you write "megami" in kanji). The seventh character is hiragana for the sound "sa" and the eighth is hiragana for "ma." This brings us to the ninth character, which is the same as the third, an exclamation point (which is usually dropped when translated into English by the Japanese companies *shrug*). Hmm... something's missing... oh, a character for a hyphen, not to even mention the word "my" ("mai" would be correct, I believe, although "waga" probably would be too)! This Kosuke Fujishima guy must be some kind of hack! Going by a strict interpretation, it would be "Aa! Megamisama!"(Ah! Goddess!) :sheep:

Finally, I'll point out that if it is hyphenated, "sama" should be capitalized. According to the MLA style, when referencing the title of a movie or television show, said title should be underlined or italicized and all major words should be capitalized. In addition, the first and the last word should always be capitalized, and the second part of a compound word is considered a seperate word for those purposes.

Really though, it all boils down to a matter of personal preference and how you were taught. "Romanji" is more a way of helping pronunciation and ease of reading than a "set in stone" list of rules. Heck, I use a hyphen too, because it is easier to understand, but it really isn't incorrect if someone leaves it out. Just because someone doesn't do it the same way you do, does not mean they are wrong. I'm really not trying to come down on you hard (although it may seem that way because I tend to ramble once I get going), just respect the fact that other people have a different style of romanization than you do, but that doesn't mean they are wrong.

Larry

PS. I was just kidding about what I said concerning Kosuke Fujishima. I have nothing but respect for Fujishima-sama.

Larry,
I am in ow and bow to your mountain of wisdom. To know so much of MLa style operations is simply beyond my comprehension

nah...I appreciate your kind words, but keep in mind that I spent 4 years in college, and every paper I wrote with sources was done in MLA style. Majoring in English, you can imagine how many papers that was (I have several boxes full of old papers I wrote). I write a lot, constantly, so I do know a bit about it. I guess I'm kind of like Keiichi, only his passion is mechanics and racing, while mine is writing.

I just don't think it is cool to get hung up on how someone spells the title. Let's face it, there are tons of ways to write it, and something so small shouldn't get in the way of our discussing it. I try not to sweat the small stuff, like misspellings or grammer or punctuation while I'm here, because it isn't like any of us our trying to be published. I think this topic should probably be closed... it is a pointless arguement that can only cause division among us (kind of akin to getting a bunch of Final Fantasy VII fans together and asking "Ok, is it Aeris or Aerith?" - Blood shed will insue, I promise you).

To end on a humorous note, Mark Twain once wrote, "It's a poor mind that can only think of one way to spell a word."

Larry

Mark twain os my God....

Good for you larry, I have only been in college for a year so far and my teachers have used two differnt MLA documentation styles.. one from about 89 and a 04 eddition, nnot much changes exept "work cited" a real pain to get right...

So any 102 research papers of the 12 page verraty?
just kidding

Going by a strict interpretation, it would be "Aa! Megamisama!"(Ah! Goddess!)
Yes precisely. I actually use a lot of Japanese online dicitonaries, and that's one of the sources I use to learn Japanese.
I'm aware of the omitted hyphen, yup.
Stuff like Oniichan, or Oneesan (our lovely Inoue Kikuko as Kasumi *sigh*).
Yes to put it strictly it really should be Megamisama.

Hell, you sure put on a good lecture there. I too am learning some Japanese, and thus knew half of what you were talking about there.

i can understand that everyone's enthusiasm for the Japanese language stems from the love of anime. Knowing another language is a very useful tool but thinking about it seriously, does anybody here think it will actually be of real use to them?
if one is going to learn a new language to improve ones career prospects then wouldnt it be better to learn a language like Mandarin. Since the market in China is growing at such a rapid pace, business opportunities will be in abundance there. Unless of course you're thinking of working in Japan or a japanese company or something.

Eh... why learn stuff just to make money? I want to learn Japanese because I love the culture and their art, and I think it will help my appreciation of it. Or as Keiichi said in the manga, "Because it's fun. Now THAT is a perfectly valid reason for doing anything."

Larry