The various ways in which Japanese can be Romanized or transliterated into Roman letters or the English alphabet, and the uses this is put to.
3
votes
1answer
147 views
Legal characters for first names include: hiragana, katakana, jinmeiyo and joyo kanji. What about latin letters?
Is it legal for parents to give to their child a first name with latin letters (romaji, I guess), instead of using katakana, hiragana, or kanji?
For example, if Japanese parents want to give their ...
3
votes
2answers
185 views
Which romanization system should I use in my word game?
I have developed a word game quite similar to Scrabble, and I am currently considering adding a Japanese word list to it.
Please note that I have no real knowledge of the language, apart from knowing ...
3
votes
2answers
139 views
へうげもの - Hyouge Mono?
There's this manga that is called へうげもの. However, this name is romanized as Hyouge Mono. Although I know little Japanese, I think the kana there spell something like Heuge Mono.
Why does this ...
0
votes
1answer
180 views
What is the correct romanization of イー?
According to the rules of Hepburn, (http://www.halcat.com/roomazi/doc/hep3.html) しいたけ is correctly romanized as "shiitake". What is the correct romanization of イー as in シート? Should it be "shiito" or ...
3
votes
2answers
198 views
How is determined whether a sound should be romanized into an L versus an R?
I know there isn't a particularly distinct difference between L and R in native Japanese, but very often proper nouns and other non-translated Japanese names/words work their way into English ...
-1
votes
4answers
314 views
Using “ha” instead of “wa” with QWERTY keyboards [closed]
Why is it standard practice to type "ha" when you are translating は{wa} using a QWERTY keyboard? This has always confused me. これは... is pronounced "Kore wa" but when you type it out you type "Kore ...
8
votes
2answers
192 views
Are numbers part of romaji? (i.e. 1, 2, 3 vs 一二三)
Romaji is when you use the Roman alphabet to write out Japanese. I.e. you use "abc" instead of "あいうえお". Taking that one step further, what do you call it when you use "123" instead of "一二三"? My first ...
4
votes
2answers
165 views
How to form the “chi” sound, and others?
I was looking at a chart of hiragana and trying to find the characters to form the name of a song Inochi no Namae. I started with i, then no, but there's no chi. I then started wondering where chu and ...
12
votes
2answers
378 views
What is the more common pronunciation for the romaji letter 'Z' in Japanese?
I was on the phone with NTT the other day and things were going well (or as good as they could), until I had to spell some email address for the customer rep, and fell upon the letter 'Z'.
...
0
votes
1answer
2k views
How can I translate Romaji text to English? [closed]
I have a block of Japanese-language text that has been transliterated to Romaji that I would like to translate to English. They are lyrics to a song.
I have very little experience with the Japanese ...
2
votes
1answer
119 views
The stylistic use of romaji for the particle “de”
Or other cases when a single word/particle is rendered in romaji within a sentence otherwise written in normal Japanese. This is something I first came across on cooking websites, for example:
...
12
votes
1answer
249 views
Why is English “ka” and “ca” sometimes rendered as キャ (kya) instead of カ (ka)?
I sometimes see that English ka and ca are rendered キャ (kya) instead of カ (ka). Why is this?
Do English ka and ca really sound more like kya than ka, at least to Japanese listeners? (I know it ...
2
votes
3answers
509 views
Why is the Hepburn system of romanization generally used over the Nihon-shiki system?
Generally when you see romanization of Japanese it is in the Hepburn system; however, I recently came across the Nihon-shiki system which seems to be preferable. Why is it that the Hepburn system ...
5
votes
2answers
227 views
How does one transcribe the romaji “ō”?
I use The Kodansha Kanji Learner's Dictionary, which describes pronunciation in romaji instead of kana. I never learned romaji in a classroom, and generally only use it when reading this dictionary.
...
6
votes
2answers
283 views
What romanization scheme is used by programmers?
I noticed that in this book on bioinformatics with Ruby (the programming language!) (Rubyではじめるバイオインフォマティクス―生物系のためのプログラミング入門), the authors sometimes used romanized Japanese in code examples. For ...
8
votes
1answer
356 views
Are foreign personal names usually written in katakana rather than Romaji?
Are foreign personal names usually written in katakana, or is this dependent on the type or writing, and the target audience? For example, this Japanese Wikipedia entry on Steven Bradbury uses ...
10
votes
4answers
1k views
What is the difference between tori vs. dori?
In Aikido, different dojos seem to latch on to using either dori or tori when describing grabbing attacks. For instance one dojo might say:
Katate Dori
Another would say:
Katate Tori
Each dojo ...
7
votes
3answers
683 views
What are the differences/characteristics between katakana, kanji and hiragana?
I already know that romaji is the conversion from those to the roman alphabet, so which are the differences or characteristics between those?
Are they used on a different context? Is one of them more ...
7
votes
7answers
699 views
What are the advantages/disadvantages of writing in romaji instead of kanji, hiragana, and so on?
Romaji is somewhat of a conversion from kanji, hiragana, and so on to the Roman alphabet.
What are the disadvantages of learning only or mostly romaji aside from being unable to read/write in kanji? ...
