Chigiii!!!

[nymaas.livejournal.com]

Hardly known Hetalia fact:
Romano's "Chigiii!!!" should actually be pronounced like "kichi" ['kidʒi] and was a Roman princely family. As well there's the official residence of the Prime Minister of the Italian Republic called 'Palazzo Chigi'. And there's also a Chigi Chapel at the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo... and so many more stuff that refers to the Chigi family... (hell, my head still says chigiiii not kichi xD).

But I just wanted to share this nice fact (for a while now) and the little pleasure I feel when recognizing such nice details Himaruya's left to characters or quotations ... even if they've the wrong pronounciation aka. 'are hidden'.





R: "B**ch please..."

Comments

[kiramaru7.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing this! It's nice learning new things. :D

*is now wondering why Romano feels the need to use someone's family Name like a swear word* XD

[saku-p.livejournal.com]

He seems to actually sometimes use it when he's agitated in some way, not as a swear but it's a easy mistake to make. Also there was a pope who's family name was Chigi, I think it was Alexander VII

[kiramaru7.livejournal.com]

Okay. XD Maybe he's calling for the old Pope's blessing...?

[nymaas.livejournal.com]

Not quite sure since there're a lot of references to Chigi family. But I remember Romano's screaming "chigiii~" when he gets tormented / ashamed... or as saku already mentioned kind of agitated.

[kiramaru7.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know he usually does it when upset & I just thought it was a nonsense word. XD

[monkeychin.livejournal.com]

As far as I know nobody uses "Chigi" as a swear word or even to express disbelief/anxiety/distress or whatever. I suppose Hima picked it up randomly, because I can assure you it doesn't make much sense to suddenly shout "Chigi" as a reaction to something. He could have used a more common word like "Diamine" (damn) or "Cavolo/i" (cabbage/s, which is a replacement for a more harsh world like "cazzo") just to name a few.

[nymaas.livejournal.com]

Well aware of that. I haven't meant to say that this would be any accurate swear word an Italian would say.
Just to note that "chigi" isn't some made-up word but a reference to historical Italians and buildings.

[monkeychin.livejournal.com]

I didn't mean to contest the actual meaning behind the term for you have clearly researched the historical aspect of the word itself, I'm only saying that despite the likely reference Himaruya might have made to this old aristocratic family, it seems a bit forced in my opinion.

However, like I said, Himaruya is the type to get information from the most disparate sources and use them for his works, so it's very much probable.

[kiramaru7.livejournal.com]

Like I said, I always thought it was just a nonsense word Romano says whenever he's upset. It seems it's a reference to Italian history (people & buildings to quote you), which I never knew. The question now is why he would make such a reference. I'm sure Papa Hima has his reasons for doing so & it would be nice if he explained the reference.

[pink-cass.livejournal.com]

It's a nice headcanon, but I'm afraid that's all it is.
For one, Japanese doesn't work the same way English does in regards to written language. It's true that, when reading only the romanized version of the word, it can be pronounced different ways. However, this is not true for the original hiragana. I know Hima's handwriting is not always the easiest to read, but even his "ki" and "chi" look different enough from each other that it's clear which is which. Since Japanese writes the pronounciation of foreign words and not their spelling, it would be written "ki-chi" if that were what he intended. It's not. It clearly says chigi, and is pronounced like chee-gee.
That said, I don't know if there is a meaning for it or not, but personally I always just interpreted it as an onomatopoeia for a suppressed frustrated/angry sound Romano makes. Of course, that too could be inaccurate. Only Hima knows.

[nymaas.livejournal.com]

Oh no, please don't kill my believes in the profoundness of Himaruya ; ^ ;

[pink-cass.livejournal.com]

Sorry, it's just that I hate it when people jump on ideas like this too quickly and start spreading it all over tumblr (or even worse, wikis and other sites that should be kept factual), claiming it to be canon. And I was afraid that might happen with this, so I wanted to clarify.
As I said, it's still a nice headcanon, and can work if you ignore the original Japanese.
I mean heck, there are fans who don't even know there's a manga, let alone a webcomic, and think the English dub of the anime is canon. You could probably establish your theory in that universe (the dubverse).

[monkeychin.livejournal.com]

This is really interesting. Though, just to clarify (I'm not a language student therefore I'm basing all this from an empirical viewpoint) in Italian the sound "gi" [dʒ] is very clear and different from the sound "ci" [tʃi]. So I suppose "kichi" isn't exactly correct, it should be something akin to "ki-ji" where the sound "ji" is pronounced like in "jinx".

[pink-cass.livejournal.com]

Either way, what he actually says is chigi. First syllable is chi (pronounced like English "chee"), second syllable is gi (prononced with a hard g, so like ghee... should probably have been clearer on that one). Whether that is supposed to be Italian, Japanese, complete gibberish, or Quenya, we can only guess - the pronounciation is what we can tell for sure. So it can't be a word that is pronounced differently.

[jammerlea]

This is pretty much where I stand. I've came across the Chigi family stuff on my own a while back, and you're right, the phonetics just don't match. Also Romano's "chigi" is usually written in hiragana, whereas katakana is usually used for foreign words (as Italy's "ve" is).

I also considered that he may have come across the family name in an English book and didn't know the Italian pronunciation (the wiki articles on Chigi don't seem to have Japanese counterparts). But that still wouldn't explain the use of hiragana...

It's an interesting headcanon though, but yeah, it's only something Himaruya knows for sure.