JapanProbe Friends - Featured Members


Japanese error on the Wikipedia logo?

July 31st, 2006 by James
http://www.japanprobe.com/july06/wikipedia/600px-Wikipedia-logo.png

I saw the following post on digg today, which claimed that there was an error in the Japanese puzzle piece of the Wikipedia logo:

Examine the Japanese symbol above the “W” in the logo of Wikipedia. This is not the actual symbol used in Japanese to approximate the “Wi” sound in Wikipedia’s name. While the logo uses use ku, or plausibly wa, followed by the small i symbol, in actuality, the “wi” sound is approximated by putting a u symbol next to a small i symbol.

It does look like a “wa” with a small “i” next to it, which I doubt would be pronounced as a “Wi” in “Wiki”. In fact, the Japanese Wikipedia site uses ウィキペディア as its official spelling, not ワィキペディア. Did wikipedia’s artist screw up on the Japanese portion of the logo?



Related Posts:
 

G8 Summit Logo Unveiled

NTT DoCoMo’s New Logo

Google Japan celebrates Tanabata

JAL’s Tsurumaru logo makes its last flight

Restroom or Restrooms?


RSS feed | Trackback URI

4 Comments »

Comment by foo
2006-07-31 21:37:10

You should use “ヰ(wi)” if you spell “Wi” of “Wikipedia” as possible precisely.

 
Comment by James (admin)
2006-07-31 22:47:28

ヰ would be more correct than ウィ, but since it is rarely used these days, ウィ is being used instead.

 
Comment by junosora
2006-08-01 13:05:48

“ヰ”?!

man, you’re just making stuff up now!

j/k. i realize that this particular kana exists, but i’ve never seen it in print.

but, yeah, those fools at wiki did make an error there.

 
Comment by Joel
2006-08-02 16:17:07

ヰ(wi) is arachaic. No matter what you may wish, katakana is here to stay. Live with it.

 
Name (required)
E-mail (required - never shown publicly)
URI
Your Comment (smaller size | larger size)
You may use <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong> in your comment. (Please close your HTML tags.)

If your comment isn't showing up, it's probably stuck in the spam filter or in moderation. Instead of typing the same comment over and over and sending it, contact us. Most comments are visible within a few minutes of their posting.
This site is not an open forum: we have rules. Read our discussion policy for more details.

Trackback responses to this post