sigesige00 Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 (edited) Japan is a strange country. I say so because the Department of Foreign Affairs openly defy the cabinet's decree. As for the Romanisation of Japanese, the Japanese cabinet declared that the Kunrei-system should be used, and the Hepburn system (English-biased one) can only be used for exceptional cases. However, the Department of Foreign Affairs, responsible for issuing passports for the Japanese citizens, uses the Hepburn system (in fact, the worsened version of the Hepburn system, because there is no long-vowels mark). Japanese is a language which distinguishes short and long vowels. Japanese language had 10 vowels -- a i u e o â î û ê ô. But, in the Japanese passports, there are no long vowels. Therefore, Mr. Ôtani is written Otani. Mr. Ôtani and Mr. Otani are indistinguishable. This is quite funny because Ôtani means a big valley and Otani means a small valley. I am suggesting a new way of Romanisation of Japanese. In my opinion, long sound can be expressed by ~. â î û ê ô are difficult to type on computers but people can easily type a~ i~ u~ e~ o~. This method is useful for eesti keel (Estonian), which has "double long" vowels. If the Estonians use ~ as long vowels mark, they can easily distinguish ~ and ~~. And ん in Japanese should be written ŋ. It is surprising that there is no ŋ in the computer keyboards. English needs ŋ to correctly spell the phonemes. For example, "England" is not iŋland but iŋgland. And, Chinese and Korean also have ŋ. Japanese also needs ŋ. And Japanese has "sokuoŋ (っ)", which is now written by double consonants, for example Nippon. However, this method is not perfect because "sokuoŋ (っ)" cannot be written when it is in the last of a word. "sokuoŋ (っ)" should be written "q". By this method, "Nippon" is "Niqpoŋ". In my method: a i u e o ka ki ku ke ko sa si su se so ta ti tu te to na ni nu ne no ha hi hu he ho ma mi mu me mo ga gi gu ge go za zi zu ze zo da (di) (du) de do ba bi bu be bo pa pi pu pe po ja ju jo wa kja kju kjo sja sju sjo tja tju tjo nja nju njo hja hju hjo mja mju mjo gja gju gjo zja zju zjo (dja) (dju) (djo) bja bju bjo pja pju pjo kwa gwa ~ q ŋ Edited March 22, 2011 by sigesige00 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hamiltonjag Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 Fascinating Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
honved Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 Japan is a strange country. I say so because the Department of Foreign Affairs openly defy the cabinet's decree. As for the Romanisation of Japanese, the Japanese cabinet declared that the Kunrei-system should be used, and the Hepburn system (English-biased one) can only be used for exceptional cases. However, the Department of Foreign Affairs, responsible for issuing passports for the Japanese citizens, uses the Hepburn system (in fact, the worsened version of the Hepburn system, because there is no long-vowels mark). Japanese is a language which distinguishes short and long vowels. Japanese language had 10 vowels -- a i u e o â î û ê ô. But, in the Japanese passports, there are no long vowels. Therefore, Mr. Ôtani is written Otani. Mr. Ôtani and Mr. Otani are indistinguishable. This is quite funny because Ôtani means a big valley and Otani means a small valley. I am suggesting a new way of Romanisation of Japanese. In my opinion, long sound can be expressed by ~. â î û ê ô are difficult to type on computers but people can easily type a~ i~ u~ e~ o~. This method is useful for eesti keel (Estonian), which has "double long" vowels. If the Estonians use ~ as long vowels mark, they can easily distinguish ~ and ~~. And ん in Japanese should be written ŋ. It is surprising that there is no ŋ in the computer keyboards. English needs ŋ to correctly spell the phonemes. For example, "England" is not iŋland but iŋgland. And, Chinese and Korean also have ŋ. Japanese also needs ŋ. And Japanese has "sokuoŋ (っ)", which is now written by double consonants, for example Nippon. However, this method is not perfect because "sokuoŋ (っ)" cannot be written when it is in the last of a word. "sokuoŋ (っ)" should be written "q". By this method, "Nippon" is "Niqpoŋ". In my method: a i u e o ka ki ku ke ko sa si su se so ta ti tu te to na ni nu ne no ha hi hu he ho ma mi mu me mo ga gi gu ge go za zi zu ze zo da (di) (du) de do ba bi bu be bo pa pi pu pe po ja ju jo wa kja kju kjo sja sju sjo tja tju tjo nja nju njo hja hju hjo mja mju mjo gja gju gjo zja zju zjo (dja) (dju) (djo) bja bju bjo pja pju pjo kwa gwa ~ q ŋ Looking forward to seeing Norwegian Wood at the cinema and I will look out for these vowel sounds. I only know very few Japanese words, those for hello, goodbye and thank you and have no idea how to spell them in Roman letters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAWB Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 I'm just bored now, he's not even funny. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gianlucatoni Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 In my method: a i u e o ka ki ku ke ko sa si su se so ta ti tu te to na ni nu ne no ha hi hu he ho ma mi mu me mo ga gi gu ge go za zi zu ze zo da (di) (du) de do ba bi bu be bo pa pi pu pe po ja ju jo wa kja kju kjo sja sju sjo tja tju tjo nja nju njo hja hju hjo mja mju mjo gja gju gjo zja zju zjo (dja) (dju) (djo) bja bju bjo pja pju pjo kwa gwa ~ q ŋ Here's one for you sigsig: De Doo Doo Doo De Daa Daa Daa Most reminiscent of a Police song from the 80's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
graham Posted March 24, 2011 Report Share Posted March 24, 2011 Looking forward to seeing Norwegian Wood at the cinema I suggest you lower your expectations! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Collins Out! Posted March 26, 2011 Report Share Posted March 26, 2011 Japan is a strange country. I say so because the Department of Foreign Affairs openly defy the cabinet's decree. As for the Romanisation of Japanese, the Japanese cabinet declared that the Kunrei-system should be used, and the Hepburn system (English-biased one) can only be used for exceptional cases. However, the Department of Foreign Affairs, responsible for issuing passports for the Japanese citizens, uses the Hepburn system (in fact, the worsened version of the Hepburn system, because there is no long-vowels mark). Japanese is a language which distinguishes short and long vowels. Japanese language had 10 vowels -- a i u e o â î û ê ô. But, in the Japanese passports, there are no long vowels. Therefore, Mr. Ôtani is written Otani. Mr. Ôtani and Mr. Otani are indistinguishable. This is quite funny because Ôtani means a big valley and Otani means a small valley. I am suggesting a new way of Romanisation of Japanese. In my opinion, long sound can be expressed by ~. â î û ê ô are difficult to type on computers but people can easily type a~ i~ u~ e~ o~. This method is useful for eesti keel (Estonian), which has "double long" vowels. If the Estonians use ~ as long vowels mark, they can easily distinguish ~ and ~~. And ん in Japanese should be written ŋ. It is surprising that there is no ŋ in the computer keyboards. English needs ŋ to correctly spell the phonemes. For example, "England" is not iŋland but iŋgland. And, Chinese and Korean also have ŋ. Japanese also needs ŋ. And Japanese has "sokuoŋ (っ)", which is now written by double consonants, for example Nippon. However, this method is not perfect because "sokuoŋ (っ)" cannot be written when it is in the last of a word. "sokuoŋ (っ)" should be written "q". By this method, "Nippon" is "Niqpoŋ". In my method: a i u e o ka ki ku ke ko sa si su se so ta ti tu te to na ni nu ne no ha hi hu he ho ma mi mu me mo ga gi gu ge go za zi zu ze zo da (di) (du) de do ba bi bu be bo pa pi pu pe po ja ju jo wa kja kju kjo sja sju sjo tja tju tjo nja nju njo hja hju hjo mja mju mjo gja gju gjo zja zju zjo (dja) (dju) (djo) bja bju bjo pja pju pjo kwa gwa ~ q ŋ Shouldn't that be ha he fu he ho? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sigesige00 Posted March 27, 2011 Author Report Share Posted March 27, 2011 Shouldn't that be ha he fu he ho? In the Hepburn system, these sounds are written ha hi fu he ho. However, this is wrong because this system ignores the phoneme h. Yes, ふ is heard fu, for English speakers. However, in the phonemic system of Japanese, this is a h-sound, so must be spelled hu. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KAWB Posted March 28, 2011 Report Share Posted March 28, 2011 In the Hepburn system, these sounds are written ha hi fu he ho. However, this is wrong because this system ignores the phoneme h. Yes, ふ is heard fu, for English speakers. However, in the phonemic system of Japanese, this is a h-sound, so must be spelled hu. Your English is amazing. Its come on leaps and bounds since you first started pretending you were foreign on here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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