Okay guys, first of all, I'm not trying to pick fights with the translators, I'm just confused. 勇者イサギの魔王譚 How do you read this? I read it as Hero Isagi no Maou Tan. So how did it become Maou Hanashi? Is this kanji pronounced differently? And then the translated titles are even more suspect: "The Devil Story of the Brave Isagi" and "The Tales of Brave Isagi the Demon Lord" From looking at the Japanese title, I figured it means "Hero Isagi's Demon Lord-tan". But seeing that there may be a typo and that the 譚 should actually be pronounced as 譚歌 'tan ka' which loosely means ballad, I thought maybe they're justified in calling it a 'tale' since it can be translated as "Hero Isagi's Demon Lord Ballad". But I still don't understand where the 'hanashi' came from. I'm assuming it's from here 話 but that's not the same kanji (it shares a few strokes, yes) and it means 'conversation', isn't it? Can somebody more knowledgeable in Japanese than me explain? Sorry if I sound noobish. I wasn't raised with Japanese. I only learned bits and pieces from my grandpa. Now, before I get smashed (people seem to think everything I complain about is offensive), please understand I'm trying to learn. I haven't read this story and I don't know if I will. It's just the title caught my eye.
Yes, I did mention Hero Isagi's Demon Lord Ballad in the second paragraph. But where does hanashi come from?
http://jisho.org/search/#kanji 譚 譚 Kun: はなし On: タン 実用日本語表現辞典 譚 読み方：たん はなし、物語。奇妙なはなしを奇譚という。神話や伝承の類型では「英雄譚」「変身譚」「貴種流離譚」「異類婚姻譚」などの分類名がある。 http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/jn/139561/meaning/m0u/ たん【×譚】 の意味 ［音］タン（漢） 物語を語る。また、物語。「譚詩／奇譚」 Perhaps the confusion came since 譚 always exist in the form of X譚, or 譚X.
I see, native japanese pronunciation, is it? Thanks a lot, guys. Guess the mystery's solved. I've been reading it in onyomi, didn't think it was in kunyomi.
Another question, though. Looking at the title, it's pronounced as Yuusha Isagi no Maou Hanashi , but why is the 勇者 pronounced in onyomi and 譚 pronounced in kunyomi? I think this is what threw me off in the first place. I've always thought if you pronounce one thing in onyomi, you always pronounce it in onyomi until the end of the sentence. Is it wrong to think this way?
Well.... Since they use 譚 and not the plain 話 or 物語 or ストーリー (笑), perhaps the Hero Isagi's Demonlord Legend? Or we went the flowery: The Legend of the King of the Demon Race, according to the experiences of the Great Hero, Isagi. LoL...
That would certainly make Japanese a lot easier to read, but it's not a rule. Just look at how many compounds have 受付 (うけつけ) somewhere in the middle. Like 登録受付所 (とうろくうけつけじょ). That’s an on-yomi word followed by a kun-yomi word with an on-yomi suffix. Kun-yomi and on-yomi are decided on a word-by-word basis. The surrounding words have no real effect on any given word. Even prefixes and suffixes (譚 is a suffix) don’t necessarily have to match up with the style of the word they’re attached to. There is also such thing as yutou-yomi (湯桶読み) and juubako-yomi (重箱読み) where the two readings are mixed in one word. You probably do notice a lot of on-yomi words being grouped together, but that happens for the same reason that Latin- and Greek-derived words (as opposed to Germanic ones) tend to show up together in English. There’s no rule about using them together, but they’re used at higher frequencies for academic, political and technical speech. So the more academic, political and technical you get, the more they get stuck together. The trouble with kanji, especially prefixes and suffixes, is that Japanese writers can use kanji based on their meaning without caring how they sound. Or they can use a kanji for its meaning and give it a non-standard reading. Webnovel and light novel authors are particularly prone to both of these. In this case, I can’t find any official indication of how 譚 is meant to be pronounced. はなし could come from something official saying it’s meant to be read that way. Or it could just be some readers’ guess in the absence of any indication. But since はなし usually becomes ばなし when it’s a direct suffix and only stays はなし if it comes after の, this is likely some non-Japanese person’s guess on how to read it. In which case, you could be right that it’s actually meant to be たん.