History Main / JapaneseRanguage

*** The {{Kaiju}} {{parody}} [[KingMook giant Genome Soldier]] from the ''Integral/VR Missions'' expansion pack and UpdatedRerelease is called "Genola". This was probably supposed to be 'Genora', as '-ra' or '-rah' is used as a slightly cheesy [[LawOfAlienNames suffix]] for giant monster names in {{Tokusatsu}}.

* Christmas Eve speaks like this in ''Theatre/AvenueQ'', plus idiosyncratic grammar. Her pronunciation of "recyclables" as something along the lines of "lee-psych-er-a-burrs" is incomprehensible to anyone but her husband. One of her songs is "The More You Ruv Someone (The More You Wanna Kirrem)."

[[quoteright:344:[[ComicBook/TheFlash https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/japanese_ranguage.png]]]]

The above is a bit extreme, [[TruthInTelevision but there is some truth to this]]: Japanese has neither the English R nor the English L -- it has a sound that might be best described as a combination between an R and L,[[note]]physiologically this sound does exist in several dialects of English but for psychological reasons sounds quite different: it's the alveolar tap used to make the quick "t" or "d" sounds in words like "better" or "rider" in North American or Australian accents; one context where it is used to represent R in English is in certain Scottish accents. The way in which this sound is pronounced in Japanese can best be described as a "flicked R", as it requires one to rapidly flick the tongue off the roof of the mouth while pronouncing an "R" sound--think of trying to say "P'''r'''ince of P'''r'''ussia" but actually saying "P'''d'''ince of P'''d'''ussia"[[/note]] leaning a bit more towards "l", if not for the incredible variation it sees in various dialects of Japanese. So, a native Japanese speaker who's not fluent in English can have difficulty telling when to use an R or an L, or will simply use their native R/L sound (which quite often sounds like the wrong letter to an English native) or an L in all cases. The biggest hurdle for Japanese natives is often making the tongue movements necessary for a sound that simply doesn't exist in their native language (equivalent foreign phonemes that English speakers struggle with are things like French "r",[[note]]A ''uvular trill'' made with the back of the tongue against the roof of the mouth, somewhat like a rasped "g"[[/note]] or Welsh "ll" [[note]]A ''lateral fricative'' made by pressing the tongue against the palate and hissing air past the sides of it[[/note]]). The same is true of Korean -- it has Rs and Ls, but these are different allophones of the same phoneme, which is pronounced as an L when it's at the end of a syllable (which doesn't happen in Japanese).

* The {{Trope Namer|s}} is a [[UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks Silver Age]]-era Franchise/TheFlash comic (seen above) where Barry Allen goes to Japan and is greeted as "Barry Arren-san." The ClueFromEd said that the it came from "Difficurty of pronouncing "L's" in Japanese Ranguage"
* ''ComicBook/WonderWoman1942'': Used in an even more insane and racist and insanely racist way with Egg Fu and Dr Yes, the Oriental Eggheads who frequently try to capture Franchise/WonderWoman in their Diabolical Moustahce Trap.
* [[Music/{{Voltaire}} Voltaire's]] (not ''that'' Creator/{{Voltaire}}) comic ''Deady Big in Japan'' features this, for the most part in lieu of actually speaking Japanese. It even lampshades it, when they refer to a "Escuratuh Attendent" and the bottom says "Escalator Attendant, for those who don't speak Japanese". Of course, he's pretty good about getting the accent right, instead of just replacing Ls and Rs, still.
* ''ComicBook/AmericanBornChinese'' is a graphic novel by Gene Luen Yang that features Chin-Kee, a hollibel Chinese steleotype who tarks rike this. [[spoiler:This trope is actually being deliberately invoked in-universe, as Chin-Kee, who is in reality the legendary Monkey King (ItMakesSenseInContext), actually speaks perfect English, and is speaking in this manner for reasons that are never adequately explained.]]
* Every Asian in ''ComicBook/MortadeloYFilemon'' (And most stuff from Spain for that matter) speaks with the "L in place of R" variety, regardless of their country of origin. Then again, they look so [[EthnicScrappy racistically caricaturesque]] it's almost fitting.

* A oriental Martial Arts expert in a ''ComicBook/SpirouAndFantasio'' comic used "L"s instead of "R"s (in the original French version anyway).
* In ''Hotspur'', the Wolf of Kabul's Tibetan sidekick Chung was [[BatterUp armed with a cricket bat]] he called "clicky ba".

* There's a recurring mook in ''VideoGame/StreetsOfRage'' who's supposed to be named Garcia. Thanks to this trope, he's instead called Galsia in every game except the third one.

** Or "How you rike dat, you Gleek plick?"

* A recurring instance of this comes in many {{Mecha}} series, where the giant robots' heads-up displays will read "ROCK ON" instead of "LOCK ON". Banpresto included a tongue-in-cheek acknowledgment of this in the UsefulNotes/GameBoyAdvance ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' games, where [[Anime/MobileSuitGundamWing Wing Gundam Zero's]] targeting display says "ROCK" on the left side... and "[[RockNRoll N ROLL]]" on the right.

* ''Official UsefulNotes/PlayStation Magazine'' featured a fake Japanese game contest commentator who employed this trope. As a joke, he once denied being one of the writers in a "lacist" persona.

** Some sources call the fourth boss of ''Gradius IV'' "Belial", while the manual for the UsefulNotes/{{P|layStation2}}S2 CompilationRerelease calls it "Viral", and the Shadow Gear is called "Club" (Crab) in some Japanese material.

* ''VideoGame/{{Valis}}'', or Varis? This mistake sometimes occurs in the English dubs of ''Valis 2'' and ''III'' for the UsefulNotes/TurboGrafx16. The UsefulNotes/SegaGenesis version of the first game has the caption "GET FANTASM JUELY."

* The UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 Era ''VideoGame/AceCombat'' games suffered from this to some extent, none more than ''[[VideoGame/AceCombatZeroTheBelkanWar Zero]]''. Galm is supposed to be Garm, the German word "Luchs" is turned into "Ruchs", and it's not clear if it's supposed to be Operation Bloom or Operation Broom (one is seen in text, and the other heard in the voice over.

* The hilariously titled ''flypotato'' folder in the decompilation of the UsefulNotes/McDonalds [=eDCP=] training cartridge for the UsefulNotes/NintendoDS. [[DontExplainTheJoke It contained the textures and models for the french fries item]][[note]]If you haven't already guessed, they were probably aiming for ''fry potato''[[/note]]. Aside from that, there's also the equally hilariously named ''fishpotion''...

[[folder:Lear Rife]]
* The majority of examples above are "real life" in that they're not a result of someone deliberately attempting to invoke the trope, they're examples of the reason the trope exists in the first place.
** Since it's easier to learn an accent than a language, but you usually start learning a language with your own accent, a speaker with an otherwise good English accent might keep doing this out of habit even when they should know better.
* There are so many phonemes in all the human languages, you're are bound to mistake one sound for another.
** Arabic k and q are different sounds, but they're pronounced alike from speakers whose languages does not have them in their phoneme inventory. Arabic also has a whole series of "emphatic" consonants differentiated from "plain" ones by a secondary articulation (usually described as pharyngealized, but linguists like to debate this). The pairs are usually transliterated with a dot under them to differentiate from the "plain" consonants: s/ṣ, t/ṭ, d/ḍ, [[OddNameOut|dh/ẓ]], h/ḥ. Non-Arabic-speakers usually can't tell the difference between them--and it shows in many of the languages of the Muslim world, particularly Persian, Turkish, and Urdu, which borrowed words copiously from Arabic but pronounce these "emphatics" the same as they would pronounce the plain consonants.
** Korean differentiates between tense and not tense consonants, transliterated as k/kk, p/pp, t/tt, s/ss. They sound the same to those not trained in it.
** Spanish n and ñ sound very different, but English speakers pronounce both as /n/.
** Similarly, Portuguese has ã and õ, which are nasal vowels (i.e. a and o pronounced with a nasal sound), but non-native speakers tend to end up pronouncing it as regular a and o.
** German u and ü are two different vowels, a distinction not carried in loanwords from German, such as 'über'.
** Finnish distinguishes between long and short consonants, as does Japanese: ''tili'' = "account", ''tilli'' = "dill".
** Russian (and some other Slavic languages) has the whole palatalisation mess, which basically doubles most of its consonants, but is notoriously difficult for non-native speakers.
* In UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, this was also used as a [[TrustPassword shibboleth]]. If an American unit spotted someone claiming to be Filipino or Chinese, they would ask him to say "Lollapalooza"; if he responsed "roraparooza", they were shot.
** US Marines in the Pacific would use words with lots of Ls as their perimeter passwords. On Guadalcanal, for example, if a Marine heard somebody move in the dense jungle, he gave the challenge "Lollypop." Anybody who didn't want a faceful of .30-06, .30 Carbine, .45 ACP or buckshot had damn well better be able to pronounce the password, "Lillypad."
** This came up during the "Hallelujah Night", the first night of Guadalcanal landings, when the password given was ''Hallelujah'', resulting in most Marines on beaches shouting ''Hallelujah'' in response to a slightest provocation during the whole night.
* Japanese immigrants to Spanish-speaking countries often have trouble when talking about an Ear, Nose and Throat Specialist: they're known as "otorrinolaringólogos".
* Used frequently in stand-up acts, particularly that of John Pinette, when talking about a Japanese family wanting to see ''Film/FreeWilly''. [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfDSZkQvuXU Hilarity ensues.]]
* Used for humor in the title of [[http://ocremix.org/remix/OCR02070/ this track]] from Music/OverclockedRemix.
* When UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur was considering running for President, a sign erected by Japanese citizens in Tokyo read: "We pray for [=MacArthur=]'s [[ThatCameOutWrong erection]]."
* In Creator/BillBryson's BBC radio series about the English language "Journeys In English", one of his guests, a well-spoken Japanese university lecturer living in England, while speaking about the problems for any Japanese learning English still says "plonunciation" and "my Engrish sometimes causes some probrems".
* This is acknowledged by many Japanese citizens, particularly when they're attempting to learn English or similar... The word "Really" has proven to be a good test.
* Young children often pronounce Ls as Rs when acquiring their mother tongue. However, they are fully capable of telling the difference, evidenced in part by the fact it's never the other way around.
** However, it ''is'' the other way round in Russian, which is notoriously rhotic, and [[TrrrillingRrrs has its R as a full-on alveolar trill]], to the point that some Russian kids don't learn to say it well until the school.
* LUSH Cosmetics used to make a product called "Flosty Gritter", apparently named for a mistransliteration made by the Japanese LUSH product designer who invented it, Noriko Muira.
* Apparel company Lululemon was named as such because its EccentricMillionaire founder Chip Wilson simply thought it would be funny to see Japanese people try to say it (and he was right).
* The L/R confusion is actually not just a staple of East Asian languages. It happened in ''all'' Romance languages after the break-up of Latin. You can also find this sort of variation in some African languages and even European ones--consider, for example, the Spanish and Portuguese words for 'white', ''blanco'' and ''branco'' or 'beach', ''playa'' and ''praia''. Likewise, Algeria is ''Argelia'' in Spanish. In Romanian, intervocalic simple L always becomes R in words inherited from Latin, such as ''măr'' ('apple') from ''malum''. Even English and French have that effect, even though it seems to work in opposite directions: French has ''titre'' ('title'), derived from Latin ''titulus'', while English has ''purple'', from Latin ''purpura''. In general, some European languages and dialects have trouble with English Ls and Rs as well. Molisan, for example, has L and R sounds, but Ls and Rs are silent if preceded by certain vowel sounds. Attempts to render these in English are difficult even for experienced speakers, a common mistake is "Rey cherry" (really chilly).
* Indian English speakers often tend to have trouble pronouncing /v/ and /sk/, which get shifted to /w/ and /ks/, respectively. This is often why you'll see an OperatorFromIndia working on tech support (both in the case of legitimate businesses and tech support scams) pronouncing words like 'Virus' and 'Desktop' as 'Wirus' and 'Dexstop'. The latter word pronunciation is a case of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metathesis_(linguistics) metathesis]], as the /s/ and /k/ phonemes have switched places, turning 'sk' into 'ks'.
** In a couple of Americanized Romance dialects, particularly Brazilian Portuguese and a couple of Caribbean French Creoles, the "back r" sound most associated with French and German becomes a /h/ or /ɣ/ sound, especially at the beginning of the word or what was formally a double r; for example, the title of the 2010 Brazilian novelty hit "Surra de bunda" [[note]]Literally, "punishment by ass" (the song is about cocktail waitresses being annoyed by catcalls); its titular dance move involves a female dancer holding herself up on her hands and smashing a male partner's face into her buttocks with her legs. Audiences outside Brazil saw the move performed by dancer/comedian Sunita Mani in the DJ Snake & Music/LilJon video "Turn Down For What".[[/note]] is pronounced, approximately, /'suha dʒi 'bũndə/.
** Polish, too: the Polish language differentiates between the "conventional" L/l sound and its own unique consonant, written as a "L" with a stroke through the upright as Ł, Ƚ, or small-case ɬ. This denotes a rounding-out of the "l" into something more of a "w" sound, on its way to being a non-rhotic "r".
** The Linear B writing script of UsefulNotes/AncientGreece transcribed both /l/ and /r/ as R: for example, ''gʷasileus'' (chieftain, cf. Classical Greek "basileus"), ''gʷoukoloi'' (cowherders), and ''Tulisos'' were written as ''qa-si-re-u'', ''qo-u-ko-ro'', and ''Tu-ri-so'' respectively. In the related Cypriot script that was used until the 4th century BCE, /l/ and /r/ were written with two sets of syllables instead of one as in Linear B.
* Another consonant that frequently causes problem with East Asian languages is F, which often winds up being rendered as "H" or "P". Interesting too is that F/P divergence also took place in the evolution of European languages[[note]]Notably consistent for the Germanic languages[[/note]]: for example, English "fish" vs. Latin "pisces," English "father" vs. Latin "pater," etc. (The latter is called "Grimm's Law," which was a major scholarly contribution by Jakob Grimm, of Creator/TheBrothersGrimm fame, when the two were not working on [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids dark folklore]].)
* The Finnish "v" sound is very soft, often sounding more like an English W than a V. For this reason, Finnish people speaking English tend to pronounce "v" as "w", resulting in Finnish people asking if you have an "owen" (oven) in your kitchen.
* Invoked in French, where the mangled GratuitousFrench writings that can be encountered in Japan are sometimes refered as "Flançais" ("Flench").[[note]]Another common name for the phenomenon is "Franponais", a portemanteau of the French words for "French" and "Japanese".[[/note]]
* HardcoreTechno musician t+pazolite [[https://twitter.com/tpazolite/status/1073757830379794432 once tried to say "I'm ready", but ended up sounding like "I'm lady"]]. Memes ensued. Later became an AscendedMeme in ''VideoGame/CytusII'', a game that t+pazoilte contributes songs to, when an in-universe social media post [[https://imgur.com/a/ryJtwEg references the tweet]].
* Meriken Shinshi, a Japanese book of prints from 1855 depicting American history, [[https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/tokugawa/items/1.0216586#p12z-7r0f:meriken renders Washington (as in George Washington) as "Wasinkton" in alphabet]]. "Meriken" itself being the Japanese transliteration of "American".
* Yuzuru Hanyu fans had a scare when he was overheard saying "You have future. I don't have future," to another skater. What ''actually'' happened was: that skater, Boyang Jin, asked Hanyu for his ''[=WeChat=]'', a popular Chinese social media, which Hanyu did not have (being Japanese).
[[/folder]]

* In the film ''Film/UnderTheRainbow,'' Billy Barty's spy character is supposed to meet a Japanese spy using the code phrase, "The pearl is in the river." When a Japanese visitor tries to help an old lady whose necklace broke and her pearls fell into her dinner plate, the businessman tells her, "The pearl is in the river (liver)." Naturally, the spy mistakes him for the contact.
** Interestingly, the real Japanese spy pronounces the phrase correctly, confusing the spy.

Japan’s unique set of pronouns (which vary not just on who they refer to, but in terms of the formality of a given situation) also often face issues in translation - while equivalents to ‘I’, ‘you’ and ‘they/them’ exist, gendered pronouns are generally used very little, if at all, with referring to someone by their name in lieu of their pronoun being much more widespread. The issue arises when machine translation attempts to translate a passage into English, with its rigid set of gendered pronouns, often resulting in the text switching wildly between the personal pronoun and a slew of gendered ones. In the malformed translation, a person or even an object may change gender several times!

* ''Franchise/{{Metroid}}'': The "Varia" Suit was pretty obviously supposed to have been "Barrier" instead, due to its overall improved defensive ability and (eventual) resistance to extreme temperatures. Strangely, the manual for ''VideoGame/MetroidIIReturnOfSamus'' even refers to the suit itself as the "Barrier Suit", and refers to the in-game "Varia" item as an upgrade to create it. Of course, the Varia Suit would eventually become a default to which other upgrades are applied. The original ''VideoGame/{{Metroid|1}}'' calls the planet later known as Zebes "Zebeth".
* Falco Lombardi in ''VideoGame/StarFox'' was actually intended to be named Falco '''Rambaldi''' after Carlo Rambaldi, an Italian special effects artist who worked on the films ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'' and ''Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial''. The instruction manual for [[VideoGame/StarFox1 the first game]] spelled his name "Lambardi", which was then changed to "Lombardi".

* Indian English speakers often tend to have trouble pronouncing /v/ and /sk/, which get shifted to /w/ and /x/, respectively. This is often why you'll see an OperatorFromIndia working on tech support (both in the case of legitimate businesses and tech support scams) pronouncing words like 'Virus' and 'Desktop' as 'Wirus' and 'Dexstop'. The latter word pronunciation is a case of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metathesis_(linguistics) metathesis]], as the /s/ and /k/ phonemes have switched places, turning 'sk' into 'ks'.

* A good example here could be ''Manga/{{Beck}}'', where the interplay of plot and music is very frequent (since the protagonists are a rock band). Very notable when it's Koyuki's turn to sing; all of his songs are in English... A language he, let's just say, doesn't master very well. "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S297bQROMSk Moon on the Water]]" is a very good example, in which the word "gently" can easily be misheard as "gentry".

* Creatively used by Chinese Uncle Benny in ''Film/LethalWeapon4'' to insult Riggs back after being taunted with it: "Flied lice!? It's called f''R''ied ''R''ice, you p''L''ick!"

* Creatively used by Chinese Uncle Benny in ''Film/LethalWeapon4'' to insult Riggs back after being taunted with it: "Flied lice!? It's called ''fRied Rice,'' you ''pLick!''"

* Invoked intentionally by the Chinese Uncle Benny in ''Film/LethalWeapon4'': "Flied lice!? It's called ''fried rice,'' you plick!"