Why "Tullece" and not something like "Turlece"?

[Zygote1999]

In romaji his name is Taaresu. The romaji equivalent of Tullece would be Taresu. It doesn't account for the elongated a sound, whereas something like Turlece or Tarlece (or even Turles) does.

With this in mind, why go with Tullece?

[MasenkoHA]

Because its anagram of lettuce. Lettuce lacks the letter r

[MyVisionity]

In romaji his name is Taaresu. The romaji equivalent of Tullece would be Taresu. It doesn't account for the elongated a sound, whereas something like Turlece or Tarlece (or even Turles) does.

With this in mind, why go with Tullece?

So that the pun is made clear to English speakers. Your examples are phonetically accurate, but obscure the pun.

レタス(retasu) = "Lettuce"
ターレス(taaresu) = "Tullece"

You could argue that the double-L in "Tullece" accounts for the elongated kana, but even if not, it's not a huge deal in my view. The pun is clear and the sound is close enough.

[Adamant]

I agree, Tullece isn't the most logical spelling and I never quite got how it became the "de facto" one the way it did. There's defintely ways to closer match the pun.

[MyVisionity]

There's defintely ways to closer match the pun.

Such as? I can't really imagine how to get much closer to the pun.

[VegettoEX]

and I never quite got how it became the "de facto" one the way it did

(1) Precedence in the Japanese "Tulece" spelling, followed by
(2) We used it on the site, followed by
(3) Steve Simmons used it on the FUNimation DVDs

That's pretty much it.

I can't necessarily speak to all of Julian's thought processes (he's the one who decided on "Tullece" for us back in the Daizenshuu EX days), but for me, yes, the double "ll" is an approximation of elongating something toward the beginning of that spelling while still being in the ballpark. The "tu" instead of a "tar" for the long taa sound there is a very close approximation of common pronunciation/slurring "in our language" making it all sound relatively alike.

(I recognize and take responsibility for that being a goddamn hell of a paragraph that makes absolutely no sense.)

And yes, of course, bringing out the pun source in the spelling. "Tullece" brings out the "lettuce". "Turles" is... nothing.

[jjgp1112]

Wasn't Taurus a popular fanlation? That sure was...something

[VegettoEX]

Wasn't Taurus a popular fanlation? That sure was...something

Yes, in wide usage in the fansub days.



One of those "well technically that's a transliteration, sure, but..." kinda things.

[Desassina]

There's defintely ways to closer match the pun.

Such as? I can't really imagine how to get much closer to the pun.

What you described in this thread is perfect. In my country, the dub had Talles, which along with Taurus, did not resemble any pun. Phonetically, Tullece represents a challenge in some languages, because it reads like tool-ess in mine. Once I learned how English people pronounce their words, Kafla, Vegetto and Geran ceased to be a problem.

[Robo4900]

I think the Big Green dub called him Turas, for the record.

[SuperSaiyaManZ94]

I think the Big Green dub called him Turas, for the record.

The Speedy dub IIRC called him Tares or something. It's certainly a toss up but the latter two are closer to the original translation that how FUNi translated it.

[TheGreatness25]

It's just one of those things that you have to play the balancing game of preserving the pun, preserving the actual name pronunciation (or as close to/adapted as possible), and directly translating.

As pointed out, the pun is based on "lettuce." Phonetically, it's "re-ta-su" or "le-ta-su" in Japanese. Tullece's name is "Taa-re-su" or "Taa-le-su." Now, just make it whatever you want. "Taless," "Tuless," "Talesu," erc. I like "Tullece," double-L and all. Just seems the closest to "lettuce." I guess you could do "Tulece," but it takes away in some way not having a double consonant in there.

"Taurus," "Tarles," "Turles," and all those don't hit the pun. Not "wrong," but kind of totally ignores the name origin. Also, you have all these vegetable puns that translate into the English version as vegetable puns ("Vegeta," "Kakarot," "Broly," "Paragus," all are still vegetable puns in the English version) that it's kind of strange that "Turles" is the exception.

There's also no real rule for what the name has to be, as long as you're happy with it. For example, I never go Ruth "Tarble." I used to go with "Table," but most people would pronounce that as "tay-bel." Then, I started using "Tahble" or "Taable," which I think is much closer to his name than "Tarble." It's all a balance---one that Funimation never seemed interested in doing.

[Adamant]

There's defintely ways to closer match the pun.

Such as? I can't really imagine how to get much closer to the pun.

Well... "Turlece", like the OP suggests, strikes me as the best approximation.

I can't necessarily speak to all of Julian's thought processes (he's the one who decided on "Tullece" for us back in the Daizenshuu EX days), but for me, yes, the double "ll" is an approximation of elongating something toward the beginning of that spelling while still being in the ballpark. The "tu" instead of a "tar" for the long taa sound there is a very close approximation of common pronunciation/slurring "in our language" making it all sound relatively alike.

The double l just strikes me as a weird way to indicate a long vowel sound. Maybe I'm just completely misinterpreting how a native English speaker would pronounce "Tullece", but to me it looks like it'd be pronounced pretty differently from ターレス.

Wasn't Taurus a popular fanlation? That sure was...something

That was a super ancient one from the days of Doubler and friends. I believe the common spelling at the time Mike and Julian pushed for "Tullece" was "Tales" (which... isn't a whole lot better than Taurus really).


"Tales" is apparently also the spelling Carlsen went with back in the day, which I did not know until now. There's some trivia for ya.

[MasenkoHA]

There's defintely ways to closer match the pun.

Such as? I can't really imagine how to get much closer to the pun.

Well... "Turlece", like the OP suggests, strikes me as the best approximation.

Turlece would be further away from the pun.

[MCDaveG]

For years, I was used to Turles... have no idea when I stumbled upon it, if it was fansubs or whatever.
It was probably based on the japanese pronounciation as "Taaresu".

Tullece makes sense based on the pun, but I guess, you can call the characters however you want, as we try to get as close to the western pronounciation of Japanised names as we can and either adopt the closest or official spellings. So no to Torankusu and Bejita.
In the end, we have a fusion of english Kakarot and Vegeta called Vegeto as it is left as is, instead of Vegerot (but Viz manga has it, was weird at first, but I kinda like it).
Still better than Vega in Polish dub if I remember that right

[Desassina]

There's also no real rule for what the name has to be, as long as you're happy with it. For example, I never go Ruth "Tarble." I used to go with "Table," but most people would pronounce that as "tay-bel." Then, I started using "Tahble" or "Taable," which I think is much closer to his name than "Tarble." It's all a balance---one that Funimation never seemed interested in doing.

How about Tuble? If you say vegetable very quickly, then the last two syllables sound like that, and it keeps the pun intact through its pronunciation, in spite of its written form, when Vegeta's is easier to associate than Tarble's to the full word.

[Adamant]

Such as? I can't really imagine how to get much closer to the pun.

Well... "Turlece", like the OP suggests, strikes me as the best approximation.

Turlece would be further away from the pun.

...how? It's got the "le", the "tu" and the "ce" from "lettuce" right there, with the double consonant replaced with an r to inducate the now enlongated vowel sound that wasn't part of the source word.

[Zephyr]

Turlece would be further away from the pun.

...how? It's got the "le", the "tu" and the "ce" from "lettuce" right there, with the double consonant replaced with an r to inducate the now enlongated vowel sound that wasn't part of the source word.

Because there's no "r" in lettuce.

I don't see how adding an "r" helps to indicate an elongated vowel sound anymore than a double "l" would; they're both consonants. Why not a double "u"? Add another vowel since it's a vowel sound being elongated: "Tuulece". Though I guess English pronunciation would probably compel one to pronounce that as "two-less", which a second "l" would ameliorate. "Tuullece", then, I guess.

[Adamant]

Turlece would be further away from the pun.

...how? It's got the "le", the "tu" and the "ce" from "lettuce" right there, with the double consonant replaced with an r to inducate the now enlongated vowel sound that wasn't part of the source word.

Because there's no "r" in lettuce.

There's no ー in レタス either, so...?

[Desassina]

I guess that the thought process behind the double L was to pronounce Tullece like tuh-less akin to "let us" in lettuce. People must have looked at how we spelled dull or null (but not bull and pull) and put it in there. However, I can't find words that end with -lece or -ece in English, so why keep the written pun intact? Edit: I found "spece" (spaz).