Tail in Japanese?

SaiyaMel · Post by **SaiyaMel** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 5:33 pm

Many times in the series i've heard the characters referring to Goku's and other Saiya-jin's tails as "sippo" or something like that.. what is the correct word/spelling?

caejones · Post by **caejones** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 5:57 pm

Shippo(u) from InuYasha gets his name from the word for tail, if I remember correctly... so... that's probably it. Whether or not the h is included depends on which romanizing system you use.

The S · Post by **The S** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:39 pm

Shippo(u) is the most common translation I've seen. Goku's pronunciation of it like "sippou" might be a result of his dialect (see the corresponding topic in this same forum.

Vivisection · Post by **Vivisection** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 9:57 pm

Yup, I believe the correct word is "shippo" (しっぽ in hiragana).

SaiyaMel · Post by **SaiyaMel** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:31 pm

But i recall hearing Krillin, Bulma and anyone else who mentioned the word in the series, pronounce it "see-poh",,, and Goku with his accent - it rolls off his tongue more like "spoh".

Post by **TripleRach** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 11:36 pm

Vivisection wrote:Yup, I believe the correct word is "shippo" (しっぽ in hiragana).

Mmm hmm, and the kanji for it is 尻尾.

Gokuu doesn't pronounce it as "sippo," though. Japanese doesn't actually have a "si" syllable, at least for traditional Japanese words; the /si/ mora is pronounced "shi." (Similarly, /ti/ is pronounced "chi," and both /zi/ and /di/ are pronounced "ji.") Nowadays, it is possible to approximate an actual, non-palatalized "si," but that's relatively recent and is only used for words very newly imported from other languages.

As for the Inuyasha character, his name is Shippou (しっぽう), which has a longer O sound at the end than "shippo" does. It's also written with the kanji 七宝, which is an actual term that means "seven treasures." It could be a pun on the tail "shippo," but it seems like a coincidence.