1.3.4. What are the systems of romanization of Japanese?
Japanese has several systems of romanization. There are three main
ones. The "official" system is kunrei (訓令) romanization.
The most popular, and the one used in this FAQ, is "Hepburn" (in
Japanese, hebon (ヘボン)) romanization, invented by the
"Romaji-kai" more than 100 years ago and popularized by a dictionary
of J.C. Hepburn, after which it has been named. This is less regular
than the kunrei romanization, but corresponds more closely to the
usual English spelling of the sounds. The Hepburn romanization system
is also called the hyoujun or "standard" system, even though it
is not a standard system: the Japanese government wants everyone to
use the kunrei system.
The third main system is Nippon-shiki (日本式) romanization.
This has the advantage of a one-to-one correspondance between
kana and rōmaji, whereas the kunrei and Hepburn systems
sometimes have the same romanization for two different
kana.
For example, the Nippon-shiki and the Kunrei systems
romanize as ta ti tu te to what the Hepburn system romanizes
as ta chi tsu te to: the Hepburn system is less regular but
is closer to the usual English spelling of the sounds.
Nippon-shiki romanization was presented by physicist
Aikitsu Tanakadate in 1885. See 1.3.4.1. What is Nippon-shiki romanization? for full details.
See 1.3.4.3. A table of romanizations for a full table of romanization differences.
Other variations in romanization systems
- Sometimes "dzu" is used to romanize a tsu with a nigori
or dakuten mark. This is used, for example, in the English name
"adzuki" beans. In fact, though, the Japanese pronunciation of the
word is identical to azuki
- "n" before b or p sounds is sometimes written as "m" because of
the change in pronunciation. (See also 7.1. What are the differences between kana writing and pronunciation?). For
example, shinbun, newspaper, is often written as
shimbun in roomaji.
- "ei" is usually written as "ee" and "ou" is usually written as
"oo" because in fact they are pronounced in this way, that is there is
no tongue movement between the two vowels. (See 7.1. What are the differences between kana writing and pronunciation?).
The version which is often used on newsgroups of prefering `ei' and
`ou' to `ee' and `oo' is known as waapuro (wordprocessor)
roomaji because although it is not phonetically accurate it is more
suitable for entry into a word processor.
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OH SHI MIZU
A vending machine uses
"OH" for the long vowel
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- Sometimes the double vowel "oo" is written as "oh". This is quite
common in Japanese people's names. (See 9.3. How do Japanese names work?
for more about how Japanese people's names are formed.)
- "wo", "ha" and "he" when they are used as particles are sometimes
written "o", "wa" and "e", because this represents their pronunciation
better. "He" used as a particle is sometimes also written with the
"e" kana in Japanese. (See 7.1. What are the differences between kana writing and pronunciation?)
- In romanizing Japanese, it is common to drop Japanese double
vowels. For example Tookyoo becomes "Tokyo", Kenkyuusha
becomes "Kenkyusha".
- When romanizing Japanese, an "n" followed by a vowel, such as
"n'o" should be distinguished from "no" by an apostrophe.
- The ye in "yen" is an artifact. See 1.1.2. Is there a kana symbol for ye or yi? and
5.2. Where does the word yen come from? for more details.
Sub-pages
sci.lang.japan FAQ
/ 1. Writing
/ 1.3. Other questions on writing
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