Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-6192846-20130929130231/@comment-146.113.67.93-20150104184210

Just my two cents, even though the discussion seems to have moved on a bit:

Considering the general trend of how Japanese loanwords work, it's very likely that the extended "a" vowel in Kaachesu is meant to denote an "r" being present. Especially considering it's at the beginning of the name. Extended "a" vowels don't usually get used otherwise unless it's to denote a particular "a" sound (like the one in plateau), as Japanese "a"s are exclusively pronounced as "ah".

So to my thinking, either Kachess is supposed to be pronounced with the "a" in plateau (basically pronounced "catch-ess" instead of "kah-chess"), or there's an "er/ar" sound in it.

...Is anyone up for Catchess/Katchess as a name?

I'm not an expert, and it's not an exact science, but that's my experience.

For the record, I've seen at least 3 different spellings of "Curtis" in Jisho, none of which were カーチェス, although some did come close. (キュルティス、クルティス、カーティス、カーチス)