What's the official name of de Saint Exupery's "Little Prince" in Japanese?

We just discussed a text in class that contained the word "taishi" meaning prince, and I wondered if the Japanese name of Exupery's "Little Prince" also contained "taishi".

I then did some googling around, and it apparently does not. Moreover, "taishi" doesn't seem to be the only Japanese word for prince.

Does anyone know the official Japanese name of the hero of everyone's sappy and oh-so-philosophical story about how important friends are?

I found the titles of a "Little Prince" anime or two, but I'm not sure if the book has the same title. Does anyone know? Thanks in advance.

It's 星の王子さま (Hoshi no ouji-sama):

星の王子さま―オリジナル版 | サン=テグジュペリ, Saint‐Exup´ery, Antoine de, 濯, 内藤 |本 | 通販 | Amazon

I see, thanks. On one site it said "hoshi no oji-sama" and I thought "well, that can't be right".

fixelbrumpf said:

I see, thanks. On one site it said "hoshi no oji-sama" and I thought "well, that can't be right".

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Good question, and quick answer!
Thanks, you guys for the free ride!
Now let me prctice, hosino ojisama, hoshino ojisama......

lexico said:

Now let me prctice, hosino ojisama, hoshino ojisama......

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Just to make sure you have it right:
Oujisama（おうじさま）: Prince
Ojisama（おじさま）: Uncle or "man who is much older than you, addressed with respect"

Words Are Not Enough, But...

epigene said:

Just to make sure you have it right:
Oujisama（おうじさま）: Prince
Ojisama（おじさま）: Uncle or "man who is much older than you, addressed with respect"

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Hi, epigene-sama!
I really don't know what to say
You really care about people learning it right, don't you.

You are great!
(with Great Respect!)

HOSINO OUJISAMA, HOSINO OUJISAMA, HOSINO OUJISAMA...

Hey, my old account! How've ya been, old bean?

By the way, lexico, if I were you, I'd start out pronouncing し "shi", not "si", it'll make things a bit less confusing.

And yes, "oujisama" (long o) means prince, while "ojisama" (shortish o sound) means uncle, that's why I was poking fun at a site that spelled it "hoshi no ojisama".

Thanks for correcting me, John, again!

John Lemon said:

Hey, my old account! How've ya been, old bean?

By the way, lexico, if I were you, I'd start out pronouncing し "shi", not "si", it'll make things a bit less confusing.

And yes, "oujisama" (long o) means prince, while "ojisama" (shortish o sound) means uncle, that's why I was poking fun at a site that spelled it "hoshi no ojisama".

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LOL I am embarrassed... But thanks, really!
Actually, I was wondering what the standard romanizing practices were;
I've noticed the "long o" is sometimes written: ō, oo, or ou, right?
Which is the standard? Which is used more often? Are they interchangeable in any situation? Or are there different romanizing schemes? Will people frown at you if you use a certain form? Will native speakers sometimes write the long o with a simple o because any native speaker will be able to read it correctly from the context?

I say it's best just to learn them all. You'll run across all of them eventually, and it's better to be prepared.

lexico said:

Will native speakers sometimes write the long o with a simple o because any native speaker will be able to read it correctly from the context?

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Yes, I think so. Japanese are not very fussy about romanized spelling. I've never really cared for spelling romaji correctly until I starting posting on the Japanese language.

That's why you have to start with kana right away. Don't linger with romaji too long!!

lexico said:

I've noticed the "long o" is sometimes written: ō, oo, or ou, right?
Which is the standard? Which is used more often? Are they interchangeable in any situation? Or are there different romanizing schemes? Will people frown at you if you use a certain form? Will native speakers sometimes write the long o with a simple o because any native speaker will be able to read it correctly from the context? ☺

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The "long o" in Japanese can be quite a troublemaker, and yes, there are different romanization schemes. In the textbook we use in class, ō is used, which was suggested by Hepburn's romanization method, as far as I know.

I've also seen people use "oo" (more below) and "oh" in some cases, I'm not sure where those came from. As usual in Japanese, names cause even more problems. I remember Elizabeth mentioning she was taught always to use the "plain o" when romanizing names. 太郎 becomes Taro, 北海道 becomes Hokkaido, and so forth.

Personally, I prefer the "write it in Romaji exactly like you'd write it iin kana approach". Why? As you may already have noticed, there are two ways of writing the long o sound in kana, namely "おう" and "おお". There is no difference in pronounciation between the two, and yet they're not really interchangeable. I was taught that you usually use "おう" when writing Sino-Japanese words and readings in kana (example: 王, ou), whereas "おお" is used for Japanese words such as verbs and adjectives like 遠い (tooi) and 多い (ooi.) Makes sense to me.

I bought the German version of a Narutaru manga once that mixed it all up. The author's (pen) name was romanized as "Mohiro Kitoh", a girl that appeared in it was named Shouko, whereas her brother's name was written "Kjōji", that kind of stuff.

John Lemon said:

Personally, I prefer the "write it in Romaji exactly like you'd write it iin kana approach". Why? As you may already have noticed, there are two ways of writing the long o sound in kana, namely "おう" and "おお". There is no difference in pronounciation between the two, and yet they're not really interchangeable. I was taught that you usually use "おう" when writing Sino-Japanese words and readings in kana (example: 王, ou), whereas "おお" is used for Japanese words such as verbs and adjectives like 遠い (tooi) and 多い (ooi.) Makes sense to me.

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Just out of curiosity, what do you do with verbs like kuu (食う) and tou (問う)? Do you stick with the above method, or do you use apostrophes (i.e. ku'u and to'u)?