Ookami or Okami?

which is the correct spelling to mean wolf iv been trying to search and some people say one O and others say it is Oo

any help would be much appreciated :)

I have no help, just some ramblings.

Perhaps the "correct" spelling depends on who you talk to. Like English words such as favorite vs. favourite. Both are "correct." One's just a bit more British.

I can tell you that the video game only uses one "O" though :) Okami

http://www.wadoku.de/entry/view/1573766

Wadoku says Okami but for some reason the Hiragana writes oogami... i asume both works.

Edit: one think maybe: the japanese language sometimes puts an additional O in front of a word with the intend to be more polite, but i'm not sure i that works with something like wolf (i've only started to learn the language so my knowledge is very limited)

Edit 2:
Maybe i add the writting for it:
おおかみ
お = O
か = Ka
み = Mi

as you see 2 Os but the word in Arabic letters has an ō instead of OO.

Ookami or Ôkami ( long o ) :
http://jisho.org/search/ookami

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Originally Posted by Tam_Hawkins

http://www.wadoku.de/entry/view/1573766

Wadoku says Okami but for some reason the Hiragana writes oogami... i asume both works.

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It's written ōkami so it's a long o.

okii thanks for your help i think im going to go Ookami :) again tyvm for the help

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Originally Posted by Cold_Raven

I can tell you that the video game only uses one "O" though :) Okami

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That - above the O is what matters, though, signifying that it's a long O, not a normal one. Ookami is more correct I'd say.

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Originally Posted by lololink

Ookami or Ôkami ( long o ) :
http://jisho.org/search/ookami


It's written ōkami so it's a long o.

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Got me between the edits^^
Dont know the ō because it dosn't exist in my language but that would explain it^^

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Originally Posted by Bertie91

which is the correct spelling to mean wolf iv been trying to search and some people say one O and others say it is Oo

any help would be much appreciated :)

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"Correct" spelling in these cases is a matter of taste, since these words are not normally spelled with the Latin alphabet. The first syllable is a long "o", so Ookami might be regarded as more correct. Or you could put a macron over the o, if your text entry allows it.

Tbh it really doesn't matter. The Japanese way of romanticizing their alphabet (which is called nihonshiki romaji) doesn't distinguish between short, long O (ou), or double O (oo) sounds. In Hepburn romaji (which is what you're taught in English > Japanese classes for learning purposes) it is spelled Ookami, but in nihonshiki it's just Okami. Which leads to all sorts of puns about dogs and gods like a certain video game.

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Originally Posted by Bertie91

okii thanks for your help i think im going to go Ookami :) again tyvm for the help

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But it's only "ookami" if you use the kanji on its own. Otherwise (with another kanji, like in a Doman name) it's "rou."

Haven't taken Japanese classes in a very long time, so I don't remember much nor do I know much about it. But I kinda remember double letters are to denote a pause in the pronunciation. So ookami would be pronounced o kami instead of okami. If I remember correctly.

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Originally Posted by Alipoprocks

Haven't taken Japanese classes in a very long time, so I don't remember much nor do I know much about it. But I kinda remember double letters are to denote a pause in the pronunciation. So ookami would be pronounced o kami instead of okami. If I remember correctly.

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The double letter you are referring to is used when there is a small "tsu" つ , like in my character name 熱心な or ねっしんな (ne-shin na) in hiragana. The small tsu is "used for indicating a voiced consonant in the middle of a compound word".

The issue with 狼 is that English and Japanese don't have a good way to indicate long/short vowels. You could even write it Ohkami if you wanted to make the English pronunciation obvious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IC9KfOMwQU

Pronunciation at :04

who cares? cute wolverine is cute.

http://www.juegos.es/blog/wp-content...7/okamiden.jpg

It's written out as オオカミ (ookami). Okami without the extra o is an entirely different word that means hostess or landlady.

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Originally Posted by Cold_Raven

I have no help, just some ramblings.

Perhaps the "correct" spelling depends on who you talk to. Like English words such as favorite vs. favourite. Both are "correct." One's just a bit more British.

I can tell you that the video game only uses one "O" though :) Okami

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that's not exactly how transliteration of languages work.. favorite vs. favourite are regional differences..

Ookami vs. Okami is not, it's the same name in Japanese, it's two different ways of writing the same word but considering its origin, I find it hard to accept that there are multiple correct ways to write another people's language. Not that they haven't tried with my own language..
Just a personal rant, it gets to be really annoying when people start spelling words in your native language 5 different ways and ask me which way is the correct way to spell it.. I always tell them, the correct way would be to not write it in English first..

Another way is to spell it "Ohkami". Similar to people who spell their last name o-o-ma-e as Ohmae. "Omae" could mean "you", but "Ohmae" doesn't mean "you". So, it's clearer to spell "Ohmae".
Ookami, Okami, and Ohkami are all correct. It's more to do with how you can prevent people from mistakenly take it as a different word. Like CannedGreek mentioned "Okami" means landlady.

Other examples:
To-u-kyo-u is spelled as Tokyo. It could have been spelled as Toukyoh.
O-o-sa-ka is spelled as Osaka. It could have been spelled as Ohsaka.

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Originally Posted by Bertie91

okii thanks for your help i think im going to go Ookami :) again tyvm for the help

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Late to the discussion, but as a Japanese speaker I wanted to chime in that I think you made the right choice. ^^

There are several ways to write Japanese with the roman alphabet, and all 3 are acceptable: Okami, Ookami, Ohkami

"Ookami" is the clearest and avoids confusion.

"Okami" hints at a short "o" and as others have noted, actually has a few different meanings other than "wolf".

"Ohkami" probably gives the right pronunciation hint, but my impression is that you will usually see this style used for names on things like business cards when the intended recipient is non-Japanese and wouldn't otherwise know how to pronounce the name correctly.

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Originally Posted by Mikita

"Ohkami" probably gives the right pronunciation hint, but my impression is that you will usually see this style used for names on things like business cards when the intended recipient is non-Japanese and wouldn't otherwise know how to pronounce the name correctly.

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"ohkami" implies it's "おうかみ” though :)
when it's おおかみ

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanization_of_Japanese is quite accurate if anyone is interested.

I, too, prefer "ookami" and think the OP made the right choice.

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Originally Posted by kyuven

"ohkami" implies it's "おうかみ” though :)
when it's おおかみ

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Not always.
I believe "Oh" can represent either "おお" or "おう" since it is more of a phonetic representation, versus a romanization based on the written characters.

For example, names like the ones below could all be written with the "Oh" even though they are "おお"
(I actually know people with these names who write them with "Oh" on their 名刺)

大柳 - おおやぎ
大野 - おおの
大家 - おおや

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Mikita

Not always.
I believe "Oh" can represent either "おお" or "おう" since it is more of a phonetic representation, versus a romanization based on the written characters.

For example, names like the ones below could all be written with the "Oh" even though they are "おお"
(I actually know people with these names who write them with "Oh" on their 名刺)

大柳 - おおやぎ
大野 - おおの
大家 - おおや

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Yeah and it kinda annoy me when they do it >_>
Japanese transliteration is annoying as hell. I actually did a report on it.

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Originally Posted by kyuven

Yeah and it kinda annoy me when they do it >_>
Japanese transliteration is annoying as hell. I actually did a report on it.

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Honestly, I don't care for it either. ^^;

Ookami = correct
Ōkami = correct
Ohkami = correct

Okami = semi-incorrect

if you ask me, Ōkami is the best way to write it.

*Howl* There you go.

If i recall correctly ōkami (or ookami) can mean wolf but when used as part of a name aka Izanagi-no-okami this means god

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Originally Posted by DracotheDragon

If i recall correctly ōkami (or ookami) can mean wolf but when used as part of a name aka Izanagi-no-okami this means god

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Completely different Kanji.

The wolf "okami" is 狼, one word.

The "okami" in Izanagi-no-okami is 大神 which means "great" (o) and "god" (kami).

The video game "Ōkami" actually plays on the similarity in that "Ōkami" can refer to both Amaterasu's appearance as a wolf (okami 狼) and her status as a great god (okami 大神). Both can be used by themselves or grouped with other words, what differs is the context and how it's written using Kanji.