Ojousama vs Ozeusama

I have come across many pictures where Sakuya refers to Remilia as おぜうさま instead of the usual おじょうさま.

My normal practice is to translate it as if it were the latter, assuming that the ぜ is simply a pronunciation gag. I've been wondering, though, if there is not a better translation for it. Even if it is a pronunciation fad, I'm hard pressed to think of a way to put it into English that doesn't look like a typo. And since we like consistency here at Danbooru, it might be a good idea to standardize our translation of the term (but then again, it might not).

A quick google on the term brought up this definition which seems to claim (among other things) that ジョウ was commonly written as ぜう in colloquial text in the Edo period. *shrug*

It does sound like a headache. Personally, I say just stick to translating it normally. It's not like a pun, where the meaning would be changed -- and let's face it, puns are hard enough to work with anyway -- so there isn't really much lost in the way of meaning. Nuance, sure; but certainly nobody would stop you from straining your brain for a potential equivalent that won't sound weird.

As for that Google query... as much as it's nice to know language developments from Classical Japanese, it's not really that relevant here (on DB), as far as I am concerned. Most people wouldn't be particularly worried about what word(s) is(/are) used now in Modern Japanese because of this and that in Classical... When you boil it down, all they really need is what some text on that image means.

Well, I do think it is at least somewhat relevant here. I've even come across it being spelled as おぜふさま, and I have no idea if it was a typo or what.

I'd say, yeah, go ahead and translate it the same as the normal お嬢様　spelling. Just try to work in a bit more classical/formal speech in when you see it, if you find a way to do so.

sgcdonmai said:
I've even come across it being spelled as おぜふさま, and I have no idea if it was a typo or what.

It's not a typo, just an old rendering. ふ used to be used to spell an extending う.

It sounds to me as if these posts are just using antiquated spelling, in which case I don't really think that there's much that English can do to convey the idea. I would just translate it as usual.