Sekkusu
'Sex' is a natural for being written in English as 'Sex'
rather than in katakana as セックス
sekkusu:
1. The English, at three letters, is shorter than katakana, which
writes it as four letters. It is easy to spell and has a bolder look.
2. The English has better standout against a Japanese text as background.
It also looks more sophisticated than katakana.
3. As a foreign word, an attempt is usually made to pronounce it as 'sex'.
Pronouncing it as 'sekkusu' sounds forced and
unsophisticated.
The following example from an advertisement for a monthly magazine is a good
illustration.
Sennyū: Ichiban atsui yoru no machi
Nishi Kawaguchi, Kabuki-chō, Roppongi, Nagoya, Oosaka
Fukuro-toji
Chō sekkusu supotto
Infiltration: Hottest streets of the night
Nishi-Kawaguchi, Kabuki-cho, Roppongi, Nagoya, Osaka
Sealed section
Super sex spots |
A Google search in August 2003 revealed the following distribution on the Internet:
Form |
No. of occurrences |
Sex |
413,000 |
セックス |
292,000 |
せっくす |
1,840 |
|