It's not funny anymore.
:(

*snicker* Yes it is.

Side question, what language is this?

keroko said:
*snicker* Yes it is.

Side question, what language is this?

Finnish

Potential new addition to the Yakumo household detected.

I'm charmed by Cirno's expression in the first panel - it's so simple, but cute. How do you pronounce Sirkku, out of curiosity?

(Also: "Ranilla" sounds vaguely like some sort of B-grade stripper name.)

Chen should have asked Mr. Owl.

"illa" in "Ranilla", is not part of the name, it's an inflection. So Ran's name is unchanged.

Poliwag said:
I'm charmed by Cirno's expression in the first panel - it's so simple, but cute. How do you pronounce Sirkku, out of curiosity?

(Also: "Ranilla" sounds vaguely like some sort of B-grade stripper name.)

Sry for doublepost...
I think the pronunciation is something like "SÍRCKU". I really have no idea how to phonetically spell stuff, so anyone, feel free to correct me.

keroko said:
*snicker* Yes it is.

It never was.

Finnish pronunciation is rather straightforward...if you know how to pronounce Spanish, just follow the same rules as far as "Sirkku" goes. Only difference is that Finnish "r" is somewhat stronger than in Spanish.

As for Ranilla, it actually means "Ran has [something]". Finnish does not really use prepositions like English does, instead it's all about playing around with prefixes and suffixes. -lla/-llä adds a possessive meaning to the subject (Ran). However, you can't add it straight after a consonate, so -i is added in between. So you can break the word down into three components: The "core" word, harmonic vowel, and the possessive suffix. Ran|i|lla.

Just out of curiousity, how did that nickname come to be?

Probably because Cirno is somewhat confusing word for Finns. Finnish language doesn't normally use the letter C at all, it's mainly reserved for foreign and loan words. As such it can be pronounced in different ways depending on the context - either as S or K. However, Sirno and Kirno would sound damn silly. The Japanese pronunciation Chiruno isn't helping because Finnish has no equivalent to the Ch-sound - it'd end up as either Kh or Sh.
So people started calling her Sirkku, which is a relatively common female name in Finnish. Additionally, in Finnish fans like to have Cirno speak in some Finnish dialect (usually Savonian) to highlight her comical nature. Finnish dialects nearly always use a shortened version of the proper Finnish word for "I" ("minä", it's often shortened to "mä", "mää" or "mie"), so it also plays well with Cirno's use of "atai" in Japanese dialogue.

Very educational. Thank you, good sir. :)

I'd like to give my thanks as well. I too, wondered about it.

While I generally agree with Njinx (and appreciate his/her knowledge of the Finnish Touhou fandom, which I cannot boast with), I would offer slightly different etymological details.

First, Cirno > /'sirno/, just as Njinx presented it. Then Sirno > Sirkku by using a slang suffix to form a nickname. The fact that sirkku happens to be an existing bird name also used as a female given name makes adopting it even easier.

Parallel: In the Finnish translation of "The Lord of the Rings", Saruman the wizard's nickname in the Shire is Sarkku (cf. Orcish sharkû 'old man' and English Sharkie).

***

Oh, and I am compelled to add:

Ranilla on, Ranilla on, Ranilla on
Kengät isonneet![/quote]

njinx said:
Probably because Cirno is somewhat confusing word for Finns. Finnish language doesn't normally use the letter C at all, it's mainly reserved for foreign and loan words. As such it can be pronounced in different ways depending on the context - either as S or K. However, Sirno and Kirno would sound damn silly. The Japanese pronunciation Chiruno isn't helping because Finnish has no equivalent to the Ch-sound - it'd end up as either Kh or Sh.
So people started calling her Sirkku, which is a relatively common female name in Finnish. Additionally, in Finnish fans like to have Cirno speak in some Finnish dialect (usually Savonian) to highlight her comical nature. Finnish dialects nearly always use a shortened version of the proper Finnish word for "I" ("minä", it's often shortened to "mä", "mää" or "mie"), so it also plays well with Cirno's use of "atai" in Japanese dialogue.

I will have to complain about this as a Finnish kid. Cirno is not hard to spell, it's mostly pronounced as "Sirno" But with a little toughened S like there's an almost fading "t" in front of the "S". "C" is not impossible to pronounce.

Someonethingy, that may greatly depend on which part of the country you come from (not to mention what generation you belong to and how schooled you are).

Many varieties of Helsinki slang use [tš] on a regular basis (I guess youngsters write it, as much as slang is written, with ts or ch depending on the word and the context). The further from Helsinki and other major cities you get, the more likely you are to get a [ts] or even a plain .And... Give people a new name with a c without any context (say, Gradec), I bet they will be confused. When I was a bit younger, I would definitely have had a hard time deciding between [kirno], [tširno] and [sirno].

No artist or source, where exactly did you find these, njinx?

See his comments on post #670810.

Oh I see

Well, this is an unexpectedly educational list of comments.

My question is, did Chen honestly not know how many tails Ran had, or was she trying to play a trick on Cirno?

njinx said:
So people started calling her Sirkku, which is a relatively common female name in Finnish.

That's a pretty name. Ranilla is also sweet.

colBoh said:

My question is, did Chen honestly not know how many tails Ran had, or was she trying to play a trick on Cirno?

Yes.