What's the correct word in Portuguese to talk about Japanese animations (anime). I was googling for it and found some mismatched answers.
I'm asking about writing, but also about the pronunciation of the word.
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2Apparently it's animé in European Portuguese. this is news to me.– Git GudAug 13, 2015 at 9:13
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3@GitGud Não me interesso muito pelo assunto, mas tenho colegas que gostam e sempre ouço eles falarem (em pt_br) anime, com tônica na sílaba ni– gmauchAug 13, 2015 at 11:49
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Animé is new to me. I'm used to see anime, but it seems to be something hard to define.– JamesAug 13, 2015 at 12:01
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@gmauch Eu ouço o mesmo em Portugal– someonewithpcAug 13, 2015 at 21:56
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2@gmauch lá por toda a gente dizer anime não quer dizer nada, o Git tem razão é animé em Português de Portugal.– Jorge B. ♦Aug 14, 2015 at 8:24
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4 Answers
[English] (português mais abaixo)
This answer regards Brazilian Portuguese only.
Between "anime" and "animê" in the context of Portuguese, the closest writing to the original transliteration is "anime", but the closest writing to the original pronunciation is "animê".
Pronunciation
The word "anime" is the abbreviation of "アニメーション" (Animēshon (click here to hear), from English "animation"). This "メー" (mē) is a long "メ" (IPA /me/), i.e. in Japanese the pronunciation of "メー" is something like "/meee/" (animeeeshon), stressing the e.
Therefore, based on that, the correct pronunciation would be "animê" ¹.
Despite this, many people don't care about it and say "aníme" (including me, lol), treating "anime" as if it is a whole word, turning it paroxytone (the penultimate syllable stressed, in case, ni), but as said, this isn't correct, if taking in consideration the original pronunciation.
Writing
The writing is a bit more complicated to say. Both writings are used, though "anime" is much more common and globally used.
In modified Hepburn transliteration, the macron ( ¯ ) is used as a diacritic on long vowels, in case on e in "animēshon".
According to Wikipedia,
Since this diacritical sign [the macron] is usually missing on typewriter and computer keyboards, the circumflex ( ˆ ) is often used in its place
Though, at least I, very rarely see this substitution. But anyway, the abbreviation in Japanese is "アニメ" (a-ni-me), and not "アニメー" (a-ni-mē), so it's noticeable that the circumflex wouldn't have anything to do with Hepburn romanization.
Now this leads us to Portuguese.
The Brazilian Academy of Letters (I don't know in case of Portugal's academy) doesn't recognizes "animê", but only "anime", but referring to the word in Portuguese, that means a type of resin ². From the dictionaries I verified, the only that recognizes anime as the Japanese animations are the Priberam Dictionary and the Aulete Dictionary, in which both are accented, and on Priberam, "anime" points to "animê".
Another word that comes from the Japanese pop culture is "mangá" ¹, that also isn't officially recognized, but only, again, Priberam and Aulete have it. Even tough, in Brazil, "mangá" is accepted as an accented oxytone by practically every Portuguese speaker and no one have any doubt about it.
As it was concluded above, the correct pronunciation is "animê", oxytone. Therefore, if "mangá" which is equally foreign and oxytone, is accented, then also "animê".
Furthermore, oxytones ending with a(s), e(s), o(s), and em/ens are accented.
However, it's not incorrect to write "anime", because it's nothing but the romanization (rōmaji) from the original Japanese, instead of the Portuguese adaptation (accented). But according to Portuguese norms, the correct writing is accented. So in formal documents it should be written accented. But although it can also be written as "anime", the pronounce still is "animê".
Notes:
1. In Portugal, animê is accented with an acute (animé), and mangá does not have accent.
2. The word "anime" in Portuguese (the resin) is very very rare (I didn't even knew that there's a resin with this name).
[Português]
Esta resposta refere-se apenas ao português brasileiro.
Entre "anime" e "animê", a forma mais próxima da transliteração é "anime", mas a mais próxima da pronúncia original é "animê".
Pronúncia
A palavra "anime" é a forma abreviada de "アニメーション" (animēshon, que vem do inglês "animation"). Esse "メー" (mē) é a forma alongada de "メ" (me, pronunciado mê), ou seja, em japonês a pronúncia de "メー" seria "mêêê" (animêêêshon), dando ênfase no e.
Portanto, baseando-se nisso, a pronúncia correta seria "animê" ¹.
Mas apesar disso, muita gente não se importa com isso e fala "aníme" mesmo (inclusive eu, rsrs), tratando "anime" como se fosse uma palavra inteira, tornando-a paroxítona (a penúltima sílaba como tônica, no caso ni), mas como disse, não é o correto, se levando em consideração a pronúncia original.
Grafia
Já a grafia, é um tanto mais complicado dizer. As duas formas são utilizadas, apesar de "anime" ser muito mais comum e utilizado globalmente.
Na transliteração Hepburn modificada, o mácron ( ¯ ) é utilizado como diacrítico em vogais alongadas, no caso o e em "animēshon".
Segundo a Wikipédia,
Uma vez que esse sinal diacrítico [o mácron] geralmente está ausente em máquinas de escrever e teclados de computador, o circunflexo (^) é comumente utilizado no lugar.
Apesar de que eu muito raramente vejo essa substituição. Mas de qualquer forma, a abreviação em japonês é "アニメ" (a-ni-me), e não "アニメー" (a-ni-mē), então percebe-se que o circunflexo não teria relação com romanização Hepburn.
Agora isso nos leva ao português.
A Academia Brasileira de Letras (não sei no caso da de Portugal) não reconhece "animê", apenas "anime", mas se referindo à palavra do português, que significa um tipo de resina ². Dos dicionários que verifiquei, os únicos dicionários que reconhecem anime se referindo às animações japonesas é o Dicionário Priberam e o Dicionário Aulete, em que em ambos está acentuado, e no Priberam "anime" aponta para "animê".
Uma outra palavra vinda da cultura pop japonesa é "mangá" ¹, que também não é reconhecida oficialmente, mas apenas pelo Priberam e Aulete. Apesar disso, no Brasil, esta é aceita como oxítona acentuada por praticamente ou até mesmo todo falante do português e ninguém tem dúvida quanto a isso.
Como foi concluído acima, a pronúncia correta é "animê", oxítona. Portanto, se "mangá" que é igualmente estrangeira e oxítona, recebe acento, logo "animê" também.
Além disso, oxítonas terminadas em a(s), e(s), o(s) e em/ens são acentuadas.
Porém, não é incorreto escrever "anime", pois é nada mais do que a romanização (rōmaji) do original japonês, ao invés da adaptação para o português (acentuado). Mas pelas normas do português, o correto é com acento, inclusive em documentos formais deve-se escrever a forma acentuada. Mas apesar de também poder ser escrito como "anime", a pronúncia continua sendo "animê".
Notas:
1. Em Portugal, animê é com acento agudo (animé), e mangá não tem acento.
2. A palavra anime (quando se referindo à resina) é muito muito rara (eu na verdade nem sabia que existe uma resina com esse nome).
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Quando falta o macron, pode-se simplesmente usar a outra notação e prolongar a vogal com outra vogal:
animeeshon,ooki,toukyou, etc. Como no alemão, em que quando falta a trema pode-se simplesmente acrescentar um e (que é o que significa a trema). É escusado inventar (usando acentos circunflexos)...– ANevesAug 14, 2015 at 9:43 -
1in Japanese the pronunciation of "メー" is something like "/meee/" (animeeeshon), stressing the e. - This is not correct. Japanese does not in fact have stressed syllables. It has long vowels, but this is not the same. It also has pitch accent (as in Earthling's comment), which is the closest thing it has to something like the concept of stressed syllables in other languages, but this is even more different. Japanese does often convert the vowel in the stressed syllable of a loanword from English into a long vowel, but there is not a 1:1 correspondence between the two. Sep 15, 2015 at 11:25
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1@hippietrail By "stressing" I meant that the "e" has emphasis. And when I said "the closest" this should be understood as "between the anime and animê pronounce, the animê is the closest". I'm not saying that the pronounce in Japanese is exactly this, but in the context of Portuguese, it is pronounced that way.– YuuzaSep 15, 2015 at 17:41
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1Everything else you said looked correct to me. I just wanted to try to clear up any misunderstanding. The "e" in "anime" in Japanese has no emphasis whatsoever. When Japanese words are borrowed into other languages such as English and Portuguese as you have noted a final "e" like this does seem to acquire some kind of emphasis to maintain a pronunciation more like the Japanese original that would otherwise be lost. The accent in English "saké" from Japanese being a well-known example to stop people pronouncing it the same as "sake". Sep 15, 2015 at 18:53
My Brazilian Portuguese dictionary (Aurélio, 5ª edição) does have an entry for anime
anime
[Japonês]
Substantivo masculino.
- Animação (6) japonesa, feita a partir do mangá (q. v.).
Both the English word as well as all well-known romanization systems of the original Japanese アニメ would be anime, so it's possible that the word was adopted in Portuguese as-is. But since the word doesn't have any accents, it is prone to be pronounced with a stress on the penultimate syllable [aˈnimɨ].
That said, I also often see animê, maybe to parallel mangá. For example, the NewPOP Editora writes in their new line of Osamu Tezuka classics
Osamu Tezuka é o "divisor de águas" da história do mangá e do animê. ...
As I commented above, the original Japanese pronunciation is [aꜜnime], with a drop in pitch after "a", so I think the best approximation would in fact be ánime. (The original Japanese for "manga" is 漫画【まんが】 [maŋga], with a flat (low) pitch, so I guess it was convenient to choose mangá, because manga already means something else.)
My impression is that (Brazilian) Portuguese speakers (mistakenly) think that for Japanese words the stress is often on the last syllable and a stressed final syllable is somewhat of a trademark for Japanese words. In the original Japanese that's not always the case, but many imported Japanese words have a natural Portuguese stress on the final syllable, i.e. when they end in I, like sushi (could be súshi), caqui (could be cáqui), hashi (should be háshi).
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Both the English word as well as all well-known romanization systems of the original Japanese アニメ would be anime- but the japanesemesounds like "mé", accented and not otherwise. (Try listening to the sound by clicking the speaker icon under the text-area for input. Try both "animeeshon" and "anime".) IMO the transliteration is not a solid argument, because it would never use accents.– ANevesAug 31, 2015 at 17:22 -
@ANeves (1) The problem is that one can't produce an [me] sound at the end without also stressing the last syllable. I'm saying, the stress should be on the first syllable
a, but as you note, this will inevitably cause themeto render as [mɨ] and not [me]. (2) I don't know what "argument" you are referring to. I agree that traditional transliteration never uses accents. And my point was that sometimes Japanese words are transliterated (without accents) and pronounced as they are, e.g. anime → [aˈnimɨ].– EarthliŋSep 8, 2015 at 9:40 -
@Earthliŋ - one can't produce an [me] sound at the end without also stressing the last syllable. This is not true for all variants of Portuguese. In many parts of Rio Grande do Sul it would be perfectly natural to end words with an unstressed [e]. (And, of course, it is often done everywhere for emphasys, for instance in vocatives). Dec 6, 2016 at 8:51
In Brazil, I've encountered many times both ways of pronouncing "Anime": either emphasizing the "ni" (ní) or the "me" (mê). The same occurs with several words with Japanese origin, such as "sushi", "niguiri", "hashi" etc.
Regardless the way it is pronounced, it isn't usual to write Japanese words with accents. We usually adopt the romaji writing.
In Japanese the words are monotonic, you pronounce it as if you are dividing syllables. and the romanization methods that are common in Brazil usually don´t have accents (Hepburn), because they were created by English speakers. Hence the confusion.
If you want to speak like in Japanese, we Brazilians have to write ANIMÊ. Although the Japanese, when romanizing it, write ANIME.
