• rimjob_rainer@discuss.tchncs.de
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    2 months ago

    WiHi is already taken in Japanese for WiFi. They write WiFi but can’t pronounce WiFi (there is no Fi sillable), so they say WiHi. Source: I lived in Japan for a while.

    • sushibowl@feddit.nl
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      2 months ago

      Technically there is no Hi syllable in Japanese either. There is ひ, which phonologically is neither “Hi” nor “Fi”, but somewhere in between. The exact pronunciation varies depending on surrounding sounds, as well as the speaker’s regional accent.

      So I wouldn’t say they really use WiHi. They write WiFi and they say “ワイハイ” which is the closest you can get to WiFi using Japanese sounds. It will kinda sound like WiHi to an English speaker.

      • inconel@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        I don’t know where you get the information tho, it’s factually false.

        Japanese have have /h/, /ç/, /ɸ/ consonants in ハ行 (written as ha - hi - fu or hu -he - ho but pronounced differently). The consonant /ɸ/ is generally transcribed as f in alphabet.

        フ(f+u) is the only letter that pronaunce /ɸ/ in regular ハ行, but ファ行 (f + other vowels) indicates sounds with /ɸ/.

        Transcription of wifi in Japanese is ワイファイ, not ワイハイ.