# No Name



## Ninja Gay-den

That was Katakana, Written on it was. "Knonam - Length of the Blade."
How would any of you spell that in Katakana?  I want to know if it was spelled correctly.  I tryed to figure it out but.. 
would'nt "Blade be translated as "Pocketto?" Pocket knife?


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## Aoyama

Welcome to you Ninja Gay-den !
 I don't quite understand the question.
 Knonam does not mean anything in Japanese (that I know of).
 As for Length of the Blade, it would be : *ha no nagasa* 　ハノナガサ　but better 刃の長さ。


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## Ninja Gay-den

Thanks . "Knonam" means No Name. Its just spelled funny.
So how would you spell that? Because its a name but its not..


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## Aoyama

> So how would you spell that? Because its a name but its not..


Well, if you wanted to say in Japanese *no name* (if that is the question) you could say (or write) :
-　*ノーネーム*　(no name written in katakana)
-　無名　(mu mei same meaning, in kanjis, Chinese reading)
- 名前　無し (namae nashi , ..... , Japanese reading)


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## Anatoli

Aoyama said:


> ...
> -　無名　(mu mei same meaning, in kanjis, *Chinese reading*)
> ...


Just in case I'd like to clarify that "mumei" is the *Japanese* _On-reading or On'yomi_, the *Chinese* Mandarin reading of 無名 (or 无名 in simplified) is [wúmíng]. Both "mumei" and "namae-nashi" could be used in a *Japanese* context.


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## Ninja Gay-den

thanks. I'm still learning.


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## Aoyama

Anatoli is absolutely right (as very often).
What I meant (as an ellipse) by Chinese reading was _the Chinese reading in Japanese _of 無名, which is exactly 





> _On-reading or On'yomi_,


. As  Ninja Gay-den is 





> still learning


, I had though to simplify things a wee little bit ... Did I ?


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## SpiceMan

I'd like to mention 名無し nanasi, literally "no name", but mainly used as "anonymous" over the internet.

Or as "John/Jane Doe" for people without a known name.


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## Ninja Gay-den

So would that be written going down, or across?
I see magazines with both..
Now i'm getting a little confused but still helped/.


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## Brave Heart

Ninja Gay-den said:


> So would that be written going down, or across?
> I see magazines with both..
> Now i'm getting a little confused but still helped/.



Japanese can be written both ways, but considering it would be written on T-shirt, writing across would be better.



Ninja Gay-den said:


> That was Katakana, Written on it was. "Knonam - Length of the Blade."
> How would any of you spell that in Katakana?  I want to know if it was spelled correctly.  I tryed to figure it out but..
> would'nt "Blade be translated as "Pocketto?" Pocket knife?



By the way, I'm not sure if we have correctly understood your first question regarding "Knonam - Length of the Blade". In order to give you exactly what you want, I think it will not be waste of time to go back and clarify what you were asking about in the first place.

You wrote: That was Katakana, Written on it was. "Knonam - Length of the Blade."  
--- Since it was katakana, someone must have translated it for you into English, right?  Are you sure the translation is correct? I'm asking this because "Knonam - Length of the Blade" doesn't seem to make sense in itself in Japanese (or if translated into Japanese).

You wrote: How would any of you spell that in Katakana?  I want to know if it was spelled correctly. 
--- What do you mean by " I want to know if it was spelled correctly." ?  Do you have a katakana version at hand and you want to check if it is spelled correctly?


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## Ninja Gay-den

Well , if you've heard of people giving the wrong translation on purpose, example: Tattoo "I would like the symbol that means Wisdom." Then the Japanese symbol really means "Penis" and the Guy never knows that he has the word penis tattooed on his neck, but the artist and everybody in JAPAN knows. Then you will understand why I asked if it is the right translation.  Thank you. And no I dont have a penis tattooed on my neck, it was just an example..


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## Brave Heart

Ok. So, you want to make sure if the Japanese phrase printed on a T-shirt in katakana really means "Knonam - Length of the Blade", right?

In that case, is it possible for you to give us the said Japanese phrase so that we can translate it by ourselves? 

It would be very difficult to figure out if the translation is correct or not without knowing the original Japanese phrase because Japanese can be translated into English in a variety of ways and vice versa (i.e., English can be translated into Japanese in a variety of ways as well).

For example, "length of blade" alone can be translated into Japanese as "hawatari （ハワタリ or 刃渡り）", "hanonagasa （ハノナガサ or 刃の長さ）", "toushinnonagasa （トウシンノナガサ or 刀身の長さ）", "naifunonagasa（ナイフノナガサ or ナイフの長さ）", etc.


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