鳩山首相 not 鳩山総理?

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Reply #1 - 2009 October 20, 6:47 pm
bodhisamaya Guest

I watch http://www.fnn-news.com every morning and it always seems strange to me that the new Prime Minister Hatoyama (はとやまそうり) is given the kanji 鳩山首相 rather than 鳩山総理. 
首相 is pronounced しゅしょう ordinarily.  Though this practice is not unique with just the current prime minister, it lately got me wondering as my reading ability has improved.  Other changes happen often with borrowed words like オリンピック that are pronounced as such but given the kanji version 五輪(ごりん) in subtitles.

Reply #2 - 2009 October 20, 7:13 pm
ocircle Member
Registered: 2009-08-19 Posts: 333 Website

Could it be because he's got a super wacky wife that they do that?

Kind of like how the news called President Bush "Mr.Bush" after a while?

Reply #3 - 2009 October 20, 11:13 pm
bodhisamaya Guest

I am wanting to add it to a list of sentences on smart.fm but not feeling confident with はとやまそうり as the best transliteration to use:
鳩山首相、子ども手当の財源について「本来、国が頑張らなければいけない話」

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Reply #4 - 2009 October 21, 1:33 am
woelpad Member
From: Chiba Registered: 2006-11-07 Posts: 425

Don't punish yourself. If what you hear is そうり, by all means put 総理 in your SRS/sentence pack, unless you have a way to add furigana. 総理 is short for 総理大臣, perhaps a reason why in writing they prefer the shorter 首相. Not that I ever noticed this before.

Last edited by woelpad (2009 October 21, 1:35 am)

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