婦人

[eeky]

Hi, in the book I'm reading, 婦人 is consistently given the furigana レディ. What is the purpose or significance of doing that?

 

[FinancialWar]

Oh, well, what do you expect from a society that has three writing systems and allows it's citizen the right to change the reading of one of it's writing system without restriction, especially in names.
This is a case of self-created atetji?

 

[Majestic]

Maybe the word 婦人 is too generic for the author. The author might want to convey a sense of upbringing or refinement, elegance, or class, even, and so the author uses the word レディ as furigana to impress upon the reader that the woman in question has a certain status - something that wouldn't necessarily come across just by using the word 婦人 alone.

 

[Toritoribe]

Hi, in the book I'm reading, 婦人 is consistently given the furigana レディ. What is the purpose or significance of doing that?

Unlike 太った婦人, 太った婦人（レディ） sounds like a proper noun, similar to "the Fat Lady". Probably that's the effect the translator expected, I think.

Some may think these kind of ateji "messed-up", and some might feel this is a flexible and rich system of description.

 

[eeky]

Unlike 太った婦人, 太った婦人（レディ） sounds like a proper noun, similar to "the Fat Lady".

It may be that you have supplied the necessary context that I neglected. I can't remember now whether all instances are with 太った but certainly the recent one that triggered my question was. So, yeah, "the Fat Lady", as a proper noun, is actually how it is written in English. I guess you know this book well, then?

 

[Toritoribe]

I haven't read the book. I've just watched the cinema version. To tell the truth, I googled to check it.