[Decimus]

Originally Posted by princessmarisa

Also is ther any reason you wouldn't use な in place of の for the above, I guess it is like tiger of mystery right?

「謎」, 「自生」, and 「野生」 are considered to be nouns, and not な-adjectives (形容動詞). Japanese nouns, however, can act as adjectives. When used as adjectives, 「謎」, 「自生」, and 「野生」 must use the particle 「の」 instead of 「な」.

Japanese words for colours are also a prominent example; examples include 「紫（の）」 ("Murasaki no", "Purple") and　「緑（の）」("Midori no", Verdant Green") That said, some colours also have an い-adjective construction, like 「赤い」 (red). 「赤の」 is still possible, but (slightly) less common.

「自生」 and 「野生」 can be changed into な-adjectives by appending 「-的」 as a suffix. 「自生的」 and 「野生的」 would use な　instead of の, forming 「自生的な」 and 「野生的な」, respectively. I think 「謎的な」 is also possible, but it looks weird to me though.

The 「-的な」 constructions were not suggested because they sound less pleasing, aesthetically.

Originally Posted by princessmarisa

Hey just a couple of questions, how common would it be to use rou for wolf when in a compound such as suiroi, and am I right in thinking that ookami isn't used half as much as the fans who spam the word seem to think and that katakana ウルフ is much more commonly accepted now?

I am not a native Japanese speaker, but from what I understand...

Wolves are (generally considered to be) extinct in Japan. As such, usage of the word "wolf" (in Japanese) is uncommon outside of fiction, academia, or religion.

The word 「狼」, however, is almost always pronounced 「おおかみ」 when it occurs in isolation. (not as part of a phrase.) 「おおかみ」 is the kun'yomi reading. Most Japanese, I believe, would also refer to a "wolf" as 「おおかみ」.　

Wolves were also formerly 'worshipped' in parts of Japan. (Or at least, treated as subjects of reverence.) This may have cemented the use of the kun'yomi 「おおかみ」 pronunciation, as kun'yomi' pronunciations tend to have a 'native feel' to them. 「おおかみ」　is also homophonic with　「大神」 and　「大上], and hence the usage of 「おおかみ」 may also retain some degree of reverence.

「狼」 can also be pronounced 「ロウ」. this is the on'yomi pronunciation. (Katakana, when used as furigana [pronunciation guide] unambiguously refer to the on'yomi pronunciations of kanji.) On'yomi pronunciations are rarer for words that occur in isolation (single kanji, for example), but are more common for compound words. On'yomi is also (even) more common for compound words of technical and academic origin.

As far as I know, 「狼」 is almost never pronounced 「ロウ」 when it occurs in isolation. It is, however, more common for compound words such as 「人狼（ジンロウ)」, werewolf. The kun'yomi pronunciation is still common though, and werewolves are more commonly called 「狼男(おおかみおとこ）」, "wolf-men"

「ウルフ」, the katakana transcription for the English "Wolf", is used when transcribing names (like the last name "Wolf" and "Woolf"), and is also possible in translations of foreign fiction. Some brand names, (especially band labels), may also use 「ウルフ」 to sound "modern" and "trendy". Outside of these, the use of 「ウルフ」 is rather uncommon, or at least discouraged. Young people, when referring to an actual wolf, may have a higher tendency to use 「ウルフ」 instead of 「狼」, but this is not exactly something that you would want to write down in an essay.

Wolves can also be referred to as 「山犬（やまいぬ）」. This means "mountain dog" literally, or "jackal". 山犬 can also refer to wild dogs though, and lacks reverence.

Finally, 「狼」 is often written as オオカミ， in katakana. (even if it's not a foreign loan word.) This is true for most plant and animal names in general, especially for the ones with kanji that are less often used. That said, literary works tend to use kanji more, since they are considered to be more aesthetically pleasing.