ローマ字綴り法 - romanization
A
Japanese romanization
is a method of writing down Japanese in a Latin-derived alphabet system.
It is commonly referred to by its slang name
ローマ字 (
Rōmaji), sometimes even on government-owned webpages that end in
go.jp.
Rōmaji is technically the
Latin alphabet plus w and j by formal definition.
The earliest romanizations by
Dutch and
Portuguese missionaries later helped linguists re-create Japanese pronunciation of the past
Edo era.
Here is a brief introduction of the major Japanese romanization methods:
-
ヘボン式ローマ字 (Hebon-shiki romaji) - Hepburn-style Romanization,
a.k.a. 標準式ローマ字 (Hyojun-shiki romaji) - Standard-style Romanization
A romanization system based on the English representation of sounds. This romanization method is used for peoples' names in Japanese passports, and for signs on Japanese streets, according to international agreements. This system offers the least amount of confusion to people comfortable with the English writing system.
The downside of this system is that English speakers benefit at the cost of confusion and inconvenience to speakers of all other languages.
Different Western countries would prefer different romanizations. For example, when the Japanese fruit kaki was imported to Italy, they were written as "cachi" since they had a different way of transcribing sounds than the English speakers. Not only that, as apparent in the English-based romanization "sa" and "shi," sounds that are considered the same to the native speaker of Japanese are confusingly represented differently because the speaker of a Western language hears them as different consonants.
- 訓令式ローマ字 (kunrei-siki rômazi) - Kunrei-style Romanization
a.k.a. ISO 3602
An official standard adopted by the Japanese government on December 9, 1954 for use in education, businesses, and pretty much anything else except where Hepburn is used. It replaced an older Kunrei Romanization which was adopted on September 21, 1937.
The kunrei-siki is taught in schools, and often found in Japanese URLs.
A detriment of using this system is the loss of one-to-one correspondance with the kana system.
The letters じ, ず, ぢ, and づ are written as zi, zu, zi, zu respectively, as it is pronounced in standard Japanese dialect. However, historically and in some regional dialects, the four letters have sounds distinct from each other. As the chart below shows, the Japan-style romanization preserves this detail. Kunrei-siki can be seen as a compromise between Nihon-siki and Hebon-shiki.
- 日本式ローマ字 (Nihon-siki rōmazi)
- Japan-style Romanization
Introduced to the world in 1885 by a physicist named Dr. TANAKADATE Aikitsu (田中舘愛橘博士), later to become an international standard.
This is a very linguistically correct approach where phonemes are uniquely represented. The romanization scheme is based on the structure of the fifty sounds chart, making it easier for Japanese people to learn. It is the only system that unambiguously represents the original Japanese kana.
A romanization system by the people, and for the people of Japan.
Unfortunately, this romanization doesn't correspond well with the sound representation of any single Western language, making it difficult for all foreigners to get used to.
Note: 日本 can be pronounced as either "Nihon" or "Nippon."
Hiragana Hepburn Kunrei chart I Japan
(Seion)
あいうえお a i u e o a i u e o a i u e o
かきくけこ ka ki ku ke ko ka ki ku ke ko ka ki ku ke ko
さしすせそ sa shi su se so sa si su se so sa si su se so
たちつてと ta chi tsu te to ta ti tu te to ta ti tu te to
なにぬねの na ni nu ne no na ni nu ne no na ni nu ne no
はひふへほ ha hi fu he ho ha hi hu he ho ha hi hu he ho
まみむめも ma mi mu me mo ma mi mu me mo ma mi mu me mo
や ゆ よ ya yu yo ya yu yo ya yu yo
らりるれろ ra ri ru re ro ra ri ru re ro ra ri ru re ro
わゐ ゑを wa i e o wa i e o wa wi we wo
ん n n n
(Dakuon)
がぎぐげご ga gi gu ge go ga gi gu ge go ga gi gu ge go
さじずぜぞ za ji zu ze zo za zi zu ze zo za zi zu ze zo
だぢづでど da ji zu de do da zi zu de do da di du de do
ばびぶべぼ ba bi bu be bo ba bi bu be bo ba bi bu be bo
ぱぴぷぺぽ pa pi pu pe po pa pi pu pe po pa pi pu pe po
(Renji)
きゃきゅきょ kya kyu kyo kya kyu kyo kya kyu kyo
しゃしゅしょ sha shu sho sya syu syo sya syu syo
ちゃちゅちょ cha chu cho tya tyu tyo tya tyu tyo
にゃにゅにょ nya nyu nyo nya nyu nyo nya nyu nyo
ひゃひゅひょ hya hyu hyo hya hyu hyo hya hyu hyo
みゃみゅみょ mya myu myo mya myu myo mya myu myo
りゃりゅりょ rya ryu ryo rya ryu ryo rya ryu ryo
ぎゃぎゅぎょ gya gyu gyo gya gyu gyo gya gyu gyo
じゃじゅじょ ja ju jo zya zyu zyo zya zyu zyo
ぢゃぢゅぢょ ja ju jo zya zyu zyo dya dyu dyo
びゃびゅびょ bya byu byo bya byu byo bya byu byo
ぴゃぴゅぴょ pya pyu pyo pya pyu pyo pya pyu pyo
くゎ ka kwa
ぐゎ ga gwa
(Special sounds)
Kunrei chart II
sha shi shu sho
tsu
cha chi chu cho
fu
ja ji ju jo
di du
dya dyu dyo
kwa gwa
wo
Hepburn special sounds
ファ フィ フ フェ フォ fa fi fu fe fo
ヴァ ヴィ ヴ ヴェ ヴォ va vi vu ve vo
タ ティ テゥ テ ト ta ti tu te to
ダ ディ デゥ デ ド da di du de do
テュ デュ tyu dyu
*
Kunrei chart II (above) is used only for international reasons or other circumstances where using chart I is undesireable.
Various Romanization Schemes - Details
In the bulleted list below, the
separation section indicates a case where a
syllabic N in Japanese is proceeded by a vowel or a semivowel, which is different from having the two sounds coming from a single syllabary letter, both conceptually and phonetically. To indicate this separation, there may be a
hyphen or an
apostrophe inserted inbetween.
The
syllabic N section tells whether a syllabic N is always written as an
n, or as an
m when proceeded by a
b, m, or
p for the romanization.
The
long vowels section tells us how to represent a long vowel in the ordinary case. A long vowel may be a result of two vowels from different
morphemes being next to each other, in which case the pronounced long vowel is represented by two separate letters, e.g. the word for "yellow": きいろ →
kiiro.
The
geminate consonant section tells us how to represent a consonant that is pronounced over a longer-than-usual duration of time. At the end of each list below, source(s) and reference(s) are appended.
- Hepburn romanization for road signs
Underneath a Japanese place name on a road sign are Hepburn romanizations that are at one-half the height of Japanese kanji-kana writing. English words are used for common words like "street" and "bridge."
- separation: hyphen.
- syllabic N: n.
- long vowels: unmarked.
- geminate consonant: initial letter doubled, except for long ch which is tch.
- http://www.kictec.co.jp/inpaku/iken%20keikai/syasin/hebon/romaji.htm
Hepburn romanization for passports
Japanese passport names are required to be in Hepburn romanization, with two exceptions: (a.)
when a long o is in your name, it could be represented as oh (since April 1, 2000), or
(b.) when your name is of non-Japanese origin and a different romanization is more suitable, e.g. フランシス → "Francis" as opposed to "Furanshisu."
- separation: apostrophe, hyphen, or none.
- syllabic N: n / m.
- long vowels: unmarked, except long o can be either o or oh.
- geminate consonant: initial letter doubled, except for long ch which is tch.
- http://www.boston.us.emb-Japan.go.jp/passport.html
Japan-style romanization
- separation: apostrophe.
- syllabic N: n.
- long vowels: Macron is used, i.e. ā, ī, ū, ē, ō.
- geminate consonant: Initial consonant repeated.
- http://xembho.tripod.com/
New Kunrei romanization
- separation: apostrophe.
- syllabic N: n.
- long vowels: circumflex is used, i.e. â, î, û, ê, ô,
with an exception: if the long vowel is capitalized, then it may be represented with two letters, i.e.
Aa, Ii, Uu, Ee, Oo.
- geminate consonant: Initial consonant repeated.
- http://xembho.tripod.com/
Old Kunrei romanization
- separation: hyphen.
- syllabic N: n.
- long vowels: Macron is used, i.e. ā, ī, ū, ē, ō.
- geminate consonant: Initial consonant repeated.
- http://xembho.tripod.com/
JSL romanization
This romanization method comes from the textbook series Japanese: The Spoken Language by Eleanor H. Jorden (Yale University Press, 1987).
This method describes everything from the Japanese accent to the nga ngi ngu nge ngo sounds - a level of detail not expressible in basic kana writing systems.* It expresses consonants much like how Kunrei-siki does. Unusually, it represents long vowels with two letters as opposed to representing it as a letter and a diacritical mark. Usage of diacritical marks are reserved for describing accents.
The downside of this romanization is that it's not popular, not intuitive, and you might as well learn Japanese kana instead.
*
Japanese linguists have developed kana-based ways to write as much phonetic detail as JSL does, but it isn't supported in Unicode.
Character Entitties
Here's a bunch of
HTML character entities for
romaji use in writeups.
Note that the characters with circumflex ( ˆ ) can be directly copy-and-pasted into a writeup without using the entity form because they are
Latin-1 characters.
The characters with macrons ( ¯ ) should be in entity form so it is more likely to be displayed correctly in other people's browsers.
See also
E2 Japanese conventions for the appropriate romanization of Japanese node titles.
Circumflex
 =  â = â
Î = Î î = î
Û = Û û = û
Ê = Ê ê = ê
Ô = Ô ô = ô
Macron
Ā = Ā ā = ā
Ī = Ī ī = ī
Ū = Ū ū = ū
Ē = Ē ē = ē
Ō = Ō ō = ō