"Baby" or "Bebi"?

Post by **desirecampbell** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 6:03 am

Yeah, it's been brought up before I just wanted to reconfirm that the punis actually 'baby'. Does anyone have any actual proof for it? I can't even think of any. He's small. That's about it.

There might be something in the GT Dragonbox book aboot it, I found a couple of images, but je ne pas le Japanese.

- http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b372/ ... Image6.jpg
- http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b372/ ... Image2.jpg

And maybe the Toei website?
- http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/dragongt/ ... dex02.html

Damn my monolingualism!

BlueSky · Post by **Kaboom** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 10:33 am

I know the pun is on "Baby," but I, for one usually say/type it as "Babi," just so it won't sound/look ridiculous. But you're right. Is it, by an chance, actually "Bebi?"

Olivier Hague · Post by **Olivier Hague** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 11:59 am

I've always seen the name spelt as "Baby" in alphabet, on official merchandise.

Li'l Lemmy · Post by **Li'l Lemmy** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 12:23 pm

As Mr. Labrie has so angrily stated on occasion, the pun is Baby. I myself actually used to spell it as Bebi, but that was before I knew everyone's name is a pun on something-- and before I knew that "Bebi" served to piss off the webmaster so bad.

I've always wondered why these things aren't just set to avoid any question. The board already spells Freeza a certain way, so why not some others?

Suupaa Gohan 2 · Post by **Suupaa Gohan 2** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 4:32 pm

It IS supposed to be Baby, but again, I grew up on spelling it "Bebi", and just like my incorrect spelling of the main character's name (G-o-k-o-u), I just can't let go of my old habits when they date THAT far back. ^^;

Though I always thought it was a PROFOUNDLY stupid name, to begin with...even if he wasn't Tsufurujin himself, Bebi was designed by the Tsufurujin race, and I always felt it'd have been much more effective to give him a FRUIT pun, especially when he's taking over the prince of the VEGETABLE race...even Dr. Myuu, who WAS supposed to be Tsufurujin...I mean, even in that flashback in DBZ Episode #20, the Tsufurujin sure looked pretty HUMAN-esque to me…ugh. Just more reasons GT screwed with the canon (though I suppose one could debate that since they weren't in the Manga the Tsufurujin weren't canon to BEGIN with ><), in my humble opinion.

kvon · Post by **kvon** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 5:12 pm

ベイビ (beibi)=Baby
ベビー (bebi-)=Bebi

The Katakana Toei used was the latter one, which is different than how Japanese spell the word "Baby". So in fact, "Bebi" is just following the tradition of not using the exact pun if the Katakana was spelt differently. We've seen the case with ギャリック砲 (Gyarikku Ho), which was written as Galic/Galick instead of Garlic because the spelling is different, despite the intended pun on Garlic, which spells ガーリック (Ga-rikku)(I think?).

My point is, neither of the two syllables of "Baby" matched the alternate spelling, so "Bebi" is the closest English spelling I can think of right now. Perhaps "Beby". Man, these lengthened Katakana is very complicated when it comes to spelling them in English.

In my opinion, "Bebi" is correct. "Baby" is not incorrect when referring to the pun, but it is inaccurate when it comes to spelling it.

Mr.Piccolo · Post by **Mr.Piccolo** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 5:42 pm

I like to say Bebi because the thought of an evil baby is just silly. Isn't he called Baby in the original version- Baby Vegeta, Super Baby, etc.?
-Rick

QuantumDestiny · Post by **QuantumDestiny** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 5:46 pm

Somehow I would rather it be 'Bebi' just because it gets kind of awkward for me to hear the characters call him Baby, and not think about how it sounds like they're coming onto him.

Post by **desirecampbell** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 5:55 pm

Mr.Piccolo wrote:I like to say Bebi because the thought of an evil baby is just silly. Isn't he called Baby in the original version- Baby Vegeta, Super Baby, etc.?
-Rick

I believe it's "Vegeta-baby" (or "Bejita-bebi" if you prefer). Which sounds all the worse.

Suupaa Gohan 2 · Post by **Suupaa Gohan 2** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 6:37 pm

QuantumDestiny wrote:Somehow I would rather it be 'Bebi' just because it gets kind of awkward for me to hear the characters call him Baby, and not think about how it sounds like they're coming onto him.

LMAO!! God, that's so true!! A villain named "Baby" is hard enough to take seriously, but when it comes down to Bebi-Vegeta, you've got a matter of conflict. Is it

Gokou-"Come on, Vegeta-Baby...come on down here and we can discuss this proper-like. Let's all stop the fighting, now, sweetie."

Or is it...

Gokou-"Kaaa...meee...haaaa...meee..."
Bebi-Vegeta-"Waaaah!!! Waaaaah!!" *throws rattle at Gokou's head*
Gokou-"Ugh!!"

I mean, come on!! Either way, calling him "Baby" sure makes it QUITE difficult to take him seriously.

Olivier Hague · Post by **Olivier Hague** » Sun Nov 26, 2006 11:56 pm

kvon wrote:ベイビ (beibi)=Baby
ベビー (bebi-)=Bebi

Actually, the English word "baby" is often spelled "bebi-" in kana.

Quick Google Japan experiment:
Baby (alphabet) + "bebi" (kana) -> 174,000 hits
Baby (alphabet) + "bebi-" (kana) -> 1,660,000 hits
Baby (alphabet) + "be-bi" (kana) -> 1 hit
Baby (alphabet) + "be-bi-" (kana) -> 31 hits
Baby (alphabet) + "beibi" (kana) -> 13,400 hits
Baby (alphabet) + "beibi-" (kana) -> 714,000 hits

We've seen the case with ギャリック砲 (Gyarikku Ho), which was written as Galic/Galick instead of Garlic because the spelling is different, despite the intended pun on Garlic, which spells ガーリック (Ga-rikku)(I think?).

Yep.

desirecampbell wrote:I believe it's "Vegeta-baby" (or "Bejita-bebi" if you prefer).

I believe it's "Baby Vegeta".

Castor Troy · Post by **Castor Troy** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 12:37 am

Vegeta Baby sounds like something Bulma would say.

kvon · Post by **kvon** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 1:05 am

Olivier Hague wrote: Quick Google Japan experiment:
Baby (alphabet) + "bebi" (kana) -> 174,000 hits
Baby (alphabet) + "bebi-" (kana) -> 1,660,000 hits
Baby (alphabet) + "be-bi" (kana) -> 1 hit
Baby (alphabet) + "be-bi-" (kana) -> 31 hits
Baby (alphabet) + "beibi" (kana) -> 13,400 hits
Baby (alphabet) + "beibi-" (kana) -> 714,000 hits

Youch! So much for my "uniformed spelling" theory. And to think that what I opposed would appear on top of the list...

So what you're saying is that there is no official (or definite correct) spelling for the word, or are loan words cared less in accuracy?

Presc503 · Post by **Presc503** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 1:42 am

FWIW, my name contains a long "a" as does the "a" in "baby", the loan word. My teacher, who is from Japan, wrote my name in katakana with the katakana symbols for "e" plus "i". Baby written in this way would look like Beibi- in romanji. However, I can still understand the spelling of Bebi- to be perfectly fine. I'll ask her tomorrow what the word is, unless someone comes up with the definitive correct spelling.

Presc503 · Post by **Presc503** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 1:53 am

Don't remember if this has been brought up, but Toei spells Bebi's name "Bebi-", or that is the equivalent in romanji. Hope this might clear some things up, but who knows.

http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/dragongt/ ... dex02.html

Olivier Hague · Post by **Olivier Hague** » Mon Nov 27, 2006 2:17 am

kvon wrote:So what you're saying is that there is no official (or definite correct) spelling for the word, or are loan words cared less in accuracy?

A bit of both, I guess?
While there are quite a few possible kana spellings for "baby", a couple of them are far more popular than the others. I guess they could be considered the "correct" spellings?

Deus ex Machina · Post by **Deus ex Machina** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 11:25 am

As far as I could tell, Baby (yes that's how I spell it) isn't a pun on anything other than Dr. Mu, and his desire to create his own child. Dr. Mu repeatedly calls him Baby, because at the time that's exactly what he was, and the title just sort of stuck.

I like the way "Bebi" is written, but it makes no sense that Dr. Mu would be calling him his bebi.

Rocketman · Post by **Rocketman** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 12:08 pm

I generally use 'Bebi', because 'Baby Vegeta' sounds like him from the Bardock special.

Then there's 'Baby Gohan' and 'Baby Trunks'....

linkdude20002001 · Post by **linkdude20002001** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 3:12 pm

It seems the DaizenshuuEX spelling is "Bebi". And it's "Bebi-Vegeta", not "Vegeta-Bebi". http://www.daizex.com/general/tidbits/s ... ters.shtml

Post by **desirecampbell** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 2:08 pm

Sorry to pester you, but if anyone with the ability to read Japanese could give a quick look over these scans and tell me if there's anything about the character's name being a pun on 'baby' or anything relevant to that, I'd be ever so greatful.

desirecampbell wrote:There might be something in the GT Dragonbox book aboot it, I found a couple of images, but je ne pas le Japanese.
- http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b372/ ... Image6.jpg
- http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b372/ ... Image2.jpg
And maybe the Toei website?
- http://www.toei-anim.co.jp/tv/dragongt/ ... dex02.html

Kanzenshuu

"Baby" or "Bebi"?

"Baby" or "Bebi"?

Some information

Re: "Baby" or "Bebi"?