Why "Freeza?"

[Sun-Wukong]

The "ie" as "ee" is Germanic in origin and can be seen in English words such as "achieve, "field," or "grieve."

Wait... "Grieve", and "F.r.i.e.z.a", both start with a consonant-'r' sound... I doubt that it was intentional, nut still kind of neat in retrospect.

[TonyTheTiger]

but hey, this name isn't Germanic, and "i" before "e" except in "Freeza".

Actually, I think the word "freeze" does have proto-Germanic origins. But, honestly, I agree that the point stands that using an i in his name is just pointless. You could easily write Piccolo as Pickolo or Trunks as Truncks, too. They'd be perfectly "legitimate" transliterations. But...that's stupid. I suppose if for whatever reason wonky misspellings were the norm (which I suppose in some instances of Dragon Ball they kind of are...) it would make sense but it just feels arbitrary to me when King Cold and Cooler both use the normal spelling of their respective root words. And like you said in one of your articles, all the i does is cause people to misspell the name.

[Herms]

it just feels arbitrary to me when King Cold and Cooler both use the normal spelling of their respective root words.

Both of their name spellings deviate from their root words in Japanese, for the record (コルド/Korudo instead of コールド/Koorudo and クウラ/Kuura instead of クーラー/kuuraa).

[Piccolo Daimaoh]

As has been said on this thread and a multitude of others, the "Frieza" spelling is by no means incorrect (it's pronounced the same way); it's just abnormal. To me, it feels like FUNimation put an i in there for the hell of it.

[TonyTheTiger]

it just feels arbitrary to me when King Cold and Cooler both use the normal spelling of their respective root words.

Both of their name spellings deviate from their root words in Japanese, for the record (コルド/Korudo instead of コールド/Koorudo and クウラ/Kuura instead of クーラー/kuuraa).

I was referring to the English spellings, specifically, but point taken.

[Fox666]

I don't like "Frieza" because there is no real basis for it. Sources such as the Daizenshuu simply uses "Freeza" translation. In other words, the japanese sources take "Freeza" as the official translation.

I don't know from where the translators took "Frieza". I am driven to say it partially (the part with "i") goes in the same line as "Hercules". They simply intentionally changed it based pureply on their own creativity.

[kaialone]

I spell it Freezer just for the heck of it

Not entirely accurate, though. An extended "aa" sound (like in "zaabon" and "taaburu" which we typically write out as "Zarbon" and "Tarble" [even though I internally debated with "Table" for a while]) would give you an "er" on the end, but that's not how the name is spelled -- there's just a short "a" at the end of "furiiza" (フリーザ = fu - rii - za).

If it were spelled as フリーザー then yes, you would probably adapt the name over as "Freezer". Incidentally, the original Japanese name for the Pokemon named "Articuno" in North America is indeed フリーザー ("Freezer").

That all being said, I'm fairly certain some dub somewhere called the DBZ character "Freezer". Doesn't mean we all should, though.

Lots of people confuse the romanization of イ and い with our Latin/Roman letter "i" with how we pronounce the letter "i" in our language (where it can sound like it does with the single-letter word "I" referring to oneself, or like it does right there in the word "it" with a short sound produced by a mouth that's not quite as open as the former). It's a quirk of romanization, and has nothing to do with how the sound is made in its language of origin. That's why when we adapt the name フリーザ "into English", we typically write the two "ee" in there, which is the most-often and logical choice for expressing that sound with our alphabet. kendamu has certainly pointed out examples to the contrary with the "ie" sound -- but hey, this name isn't Germanic, and "i" before "e" except in "Freeza".

Also, yeah. The blog post.

(I'm also not a linguist. I just play one on the Internet with cartoon names.)

I know all this hence "just for the heck of it" part of my comment.Its okay though it not like I spell it like that just to annoy people,I just always wrote it like that.In addition I am from germany and here whenever we say "Freezer" it does sound more like "Freeza" because of our accent,not only inenglish words but our own language ,too. For example the word "Lager" (means: camp) is pronounced like "lah-gah" by most people.

[TheGreatness25]

I don't see "Frieza" as being inaccurate, but it just looks weird. I have no bones about it though. I will say that there is a character name that puns the a similar word (freezer, freeze) that is spelled even nuttier, but is pronounced "freeze," that being the Victor Fries character in Batman, also known as Mr. Freeze. Don't know if that's where FUNimation got their idea from, but I'm assuming they did it to stray a little further from the pun and make it less obvious, even though it doesn't work.

I blame their old work with the Ocean dub for some of these things, since when FUNimation's in-house crew take over they were promoting the idea of being uncut, yet following the very cut and incorrect sometimes Ocean dub days.If they decided to name Piccolo, "Pickle Man" they would have continued it. Kind of like how Kai is all uncensored and whatnot, but not when it comes to breaking continuity of names and spelling from Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball GT, that's how they approached the rest of the Z series. Had they not tried to follow their previous work, I'm almost positive they would have named him "Freeza." Live and learn, what can I say? But it doesn't bother me. The name is not necessarily wrong at all, especially since his true name isn't even written in the same characters that we read it as, so they could have really spelled it any way, from "Friiza" to "Friezha," etc.

[MCDaveG]

So I suppose that you say Warszawa instead of Varsaw, Praha instead of Prague and Moskva instead of Moscow? I'd like to listen to that.
That's easier, people are used to know him under that name that in some way make it correct.

Heh, actually I'm saying it like that
But Freeza is the only one for me, pun from a ''freeze or freezer'' (Actualy in the dub I was watching back in the days, the French, it was Frezer)

[MetaMoss]

I kinda think FUNi put the "i" there because they thought it would be easier to copyright/trademark. Same opinion on "Buu" vs. "Boo".

[Adamant]

I kinda think FUNi put the "i" there because they thought it would be easier to copyright/trademark. Same opinion on "Buu" vs. "Boo".

I kinda doubt it. They didn't bork up Piccolo, Trunks or Cell's names (and even changed "Coola" to "Cooler"), all of which are actual words, unlike "Freeza".

[The Time Traveller]

but hey, this name isn't Germanic, and "i" before "e" except in "Freeza".

'"i" before "e" except after "c"' doesn't actually work at all as a rule with words like Neighbour and Glacier existing... I get what you're saying but I'm just saying...

... Is anyone else kinda turning pro-Frieza now? Because I just don't care either way, it's not like they're changing his name or calling him "Frie Za", it makes it look more Alien, everyone thinks of "Freezer" when they hear his name so it doesn't actually kill the pun, and there really is no big deal.

[Herms]

... Is anyone else kinda turning pro-Frieza now? Because I just don't care either way, it's not like they're changing his name or calling him "Frie Za", it makes it look more Alien, everyone thinks of "Freezer" when they hear his name so it doesn't actually kill the pun, and there really is no big deal.

I think it's kinda pointless to deviate from simply "Freeza" and that it's sort of an ugly-looking spelling, but yeah, I've never really understood Mike's extreme hatred for it. I mean, compared to the massive cluster-fuck of how Funi handled the names of all the gods from the God of Earth right up to the Dai-Kaioshin, their dumb but not actually incorrect spelling of 'Freeza' seems like small potatoes.

[VegettoEX]

Freeza was a relevant character when FUNimation's treatment of the show and merchandise was relevant to me.

Anything past him was not.

[CODii]

'"i" before "e" except after "c"' doesn't actually work at all as a rule with words like Neighbour and Glacier existing...

It does work as a rule, it just requires a few additional exceptions. It only really works when making a long 'e' sound. Additionally it is 'e' before 'i' when making a long 'A' sound.

[Levlik]

I always found that "I before E except after C" saying to be a bit weird. Doesn't many any sense considering the sheer amount of words that have "ei" in their spellings despite the complete lack of the letter C. Lord knows English is a messed up language and there isn't a so-called "rule" that isn't broken for absolutely no reason.

In any case, I never found "Frieza" too annoying, especially considering it doesn't mess up the pronunciation like, say, "Korin" does for "Karin".

And then there's just plain oddities like "Hirudegarn" for something that was commonly accepted as "Hildegarn" for years before movie 13 was ever dubbed. Same thing with "Gil" becoming "Giru" in their GT dub. You'd think with FUNi wanting to keep nouns as easy to pronounce as possible they'd jump at the opportunity to use "L" instead of "Ru". Just a dumb inconsistency that could have been used for a character that would've made sense from it, like Kuririn.

[Rukura]

It pretty much goes back to what fits the name pun best and inconsistencies in adaptations that were perhaps a little lacking. In all honesty though, Frieza and Cooler aren't all that bad in terms of getting the pun across when spoken (I personally clinch my fists at Vegito and Turles)

Feels like they wanted to somewhat stick with the japanese spelling (for some odd reason) and left that "i" but followed up with an "e" to bring out the pun as far as necessary.
With Coola..."Hum, do you think that after Freeza and King Cold they'll see what Coola is supposed to be?...Let's make it Cooler, just in case." lol

[Gozar]

I believe the general rule of thumb when choosing spellings is to simultaneously preserve the pronunciation and the pun. In this case Freeza is used because his name is a pun on the word "Freezer."

Exactly. That's why I use "Broli" instead of "Broly" and "Tullece" instead of "Taresu". It better preserves the name pun of the character who's pun is taking from an English word.

[Herms]

Freeza was a relevant character when FUNimation's treatment of the show and merchandise was relevant to me.

Anything past him was not.

I'd have thought Kaio was also a relevant character during that point too.