What is the official name for Liore?

Question

I'm currently watching the FMA live action movie, which has Reole on its maps/subtitles. It seems as though this might also be true in the manga, at least according to this Wikia. However, Liore or Lior is the standard transliteration that I've seen for it, and I'm pretty sure that's what was used in the anime.

Both are technically (more or less) correct transliterations of リオール, but also somewhat unusual, given rs and ls are the same, and so it would usually either be Rior(u) or Liol(u). Reading from English, they also (at least to me) imply somewhat different stressing of syllables, Ree-ohl vs Lee-or.

Is there an official Hiromu Arakawa-approved way of writing it in English?

https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/answerman/2017-12-29/.125479 — Kai, Jul 02 '18 at 13:02
I'm having the same issue currently. I'm writing a comedic review of the live-action film, and I make an offhand joke about having watched the dub and that "WE CALL IT LEORE IN AMERICA", but if Arakawa intended for it to be pronounced Reole and I'm just an asshole, I'm going to take out the joke. — Dravin Gibson, Jul 02 '18 at 06:51
I'm still hoping to answer this soon; I don't feel confident basing any answer off someone else's (possibly altered) scans, so I'm holding off until I can regain access to my own (physical) printings of the original untranslated manga. — Allison C, Aug 27 '19 at 15:00
There is no semblance of consistency even in the manga or anime subtitles or LN translations, for an example, in the Viz manga they refer to what fans know as 'Xerxes' as 'Cselkcess', and Lan Fan's grandfather, who the fans refer to as 'Fu' ('Foo' in the Viz manga) is 'Who' in the official perfect guide for the manga (鋼の錬金術師パーフェクトガイドブック, a three volume set), while the Chinese character is pronounced 'Hu' are among some inconsistencies. The only notable official spellings can be seen in the Brotherhood eyecatches: http://deetersthebrotherhoodfangirl.blogspot.com/2010/04/eyecatches-ep-1-10.html — кяαzєя, Aug 28 '19 at 01:52
I wouldn't trust the Viz translations any farther than I could throw a piano. — Allison C, Sep 27 '19 at 14:45

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 26 '19 at 02:57

It's Reole.

Amestris is, canonically, an English-speaking country, and as such, all the locations are given "English" names (or, at least, names spelled out in the Latin alphabet used in English). This can be seen by looking at the original (untranslated) manga, which features a large number of character and place names written out in Latin script, rather than the katakana used for those names in dialogue. This includes the maps shown at various times in the manga.

Volume 17, page 70 offers one such example, featuring a clearly legible close-up of Liore/Reole on a map:

Additional context demonstrating that the image above is from the original Japanese language version of the manga:

Regardless of how the different parties involved may have translated it, it's quite clear that Arakawa's intended name for the city is Reole.

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 02 '18 at 08:49

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Unfortunately what you are seeking doesn't exist. Reason is the concept of "X approved way of writing" doesn't exist. Think about your name. Yes there might be different versions of it(Joseph/Jose) however the version you are using has only one pronunciation.

So why are we having this issue at all? Simple. The syllabus "L" doesn't exist in Japanese. A simple example: In Death Note many VAs call "Light" as "Righto" which is funny imo because of his obsessive righteousness. Anyways lets look at what we have.

Reole has "-le" at the end however "Re" at the start. So we can assume "re" at the start should stay as it is. However we have to change "-le" to "-ri" to gave similar sound to it.

So in conclusion the correct way of writing is "Reori"(assuming our base Reole is the right version) if we go with sound which is usually the case. You can check here for different experiments.

As for リオール (riooru) as you can guess "Rioru" is the right way to say it since a place with that name does not exist. If it had we could say since they cant pronounce "l" they changed it to "r".

I know this is not exactly what you are looking for but I hope it helps.

answered Jul 02 '18 at 08:49

JustPlain

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I'm asking for a canon-official English/romanji name, if one exists, not possible pronunciations. (And Reori is not a correct transliteration of リオール, and so either way wouldn't be a canon name for it.) – kuwaly Jul 02 '18 at 08:56
That is why I put two different cases. First one is taking Reole as canon second takes リオール as canon. Since in Japanese the way you write is the same as you read going with pronunciation is fine. However let me another case. A place called Loire exists in France so maybe we can go with this. Maybe Arakawa takes inspiration from there. If that is the case Ri-o-o-re would be the right translation. Since you are looking for English name Liore would be the answer. – JustPlain Jul 02 '18 at 09:06
The canon way of writing it in Japanese is the way that it was written in the manga by Hiromu Arakawa (which, as far as I know, is リオール, though if I'm wrong someone correct me). It's not "taking it as canon", it's just the canon name. What I'm wondering about is the official Hiromu Arakawa-approved way of writing it in English (if one exists), because both Reole and Liore have appeared in what I would have thought was official English-language translations. – kuwaly Jul 02 '18 at 14:58
Why would Arakawa give a toot about how we translate names? – DJ Pirtu Jul 02 '18 at 20:36
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Arakawa used Latin script frequently in the original manga art (even "Fullmetal Alchemist" comes directly from her, not the literal translation of "Alchemist of Steel"). What the OP is seeking does exist, and while I am not confident crafting an "official" answer without access to physical media, scans I'm finding online are showing the Latin labeling on the city in question as "Reole." – Allison C Aug 01 '18 at 13:07

What is the official name for Liore?

2 Answers2

It's Reole.