Ok, so in my story idea that I'm working the kinks out of I have a race of people that are similar to the Japanese spirits called Youkai. However I'm writing in english and usually when we use that word we skip the u, calling it Yokai instead. The reason I'm calling them Youkai/Yokai is because the majority of them don't have a particular alignment (similar to many Japanese Fae/Spirit folk) and while a few are out and out evil (one is even one of the big baddies) most of them aren't really evil or monsterous enough to call them Demons. Even the Succubi (who are considered demons in many mythologies) aren't really evil, they're more tricksters looking to have a good time. Even if that good time involves tricking humans, the results of their trickery are often harmless at best and temporary at worst.
From what I’ve seen “yokai” is much mor common. When romanizing non-western languages there really isn’t a correct spelling imo as long as you use something that’s a) reasonably phonetic or b) commonly used. In this case you’re talking about the Japanese pronunciation of a Chinese term which is usually written out in Chinese characters, so just go with what sounds right.
I asked on Reddit as well and I'm seeing some good points for both Yokai and Youkai, I'll likely go with Yokai even though spell checker recognizes Youkai as the 'correct' one. I could be lazy and just call them demons but like I said, that would imply that most of them were evil which isn't the case. As a Christian I wouldn't want to write a story where the Christian 'demon' has a society/culture etc with many of them being more neutral than evil or good. Design wise they more closely resemble the Japanese use for those types creatures, even if Youkai is the Japanese phrase for a Chinese term. The reason I even asked the question to begin with is cause I'm curious which one other writers would use.
In both Chinese and Japanese 妖怪 denotes a vast array of creatures. Some are common to both cultures, like the fox spirits, while others are unique to one or the other. But the basic concept is pretty similar.
Is there supposed to be a question implied in that post? I don't understand what you're trying to ask.
I mean the question is in the title of the thread, I probably should have put the question in the opening post though. (in my defense it was like 1 AM when I made the topic) I was asking which spelling would be more 'correct' for the story. I'm writing in english (Yokai) but it's inspired by Japanese media (specifically a series of JRPG) which uses the extra U in the word for Youkai (which is what the actual word is for both chineese and japanese)
It's kind of like arigatou (thank you). Writing it in romaji, the correct spelling is either arigatou or arigatō. It's somewhat colloquial to just write arigato. It's not correct, but it's perfectly acceptable. Nobody's going to complain. Well, don't write it on a grammar test. It's okay for normal use though. Yours would be youkai or yōkai, but yokai is okay for the same reasons. You can even argue that it's better because your audience expects the shorthand. They're familiar with it.
There is a well-defined way of romanising Japanese words. Each kana corresponds directly to an English letter or letters, so "youkai" is the correct spelling, since it is ようかい in Japanese. For some words, it's important. ningyou - doll ningyo - mermaid The correct spelling of Tokyo is Toukyou, but it's never written that way in English, however.
Youkai, though romanizing long "o" sounds with "ou" is unattractive as get-out. "Yōkai" is preferable. がんばって。
