Today we will study together the different writings in rōmaji. After having studied everything there was to know, katakana, hiragana and finally kanji, it is high time to look at the different writings in rōmaji.
Of course, I hope you remember what I told you before that a language is learned in its writing system. So Japanese, as you know by now, is written in hiragana, katakana and kanji. Besides, once this course is over, when we go on to the next part and when we tackle the Japanese numeral system, then grammar from the second season, then conjugation in the third season…, all the courses will be done fully in Japanese. The explanations will, of course, be in English, but all the example sentences, vocabulary, etc. will be written in Japanese. This is why you need to know your kana and all the kanji we’ve seen so far to enter the second season calmly.
So, why did I write this lesson about rōmaji ? Because rōmaji can be useful to you for several reasons. For example, if you want to proudly show your family or your boyfriend or girlfriend your knowledge of Japanese, you can use rōmaji to explain a little to them how a kana or a kanji is pronounced. You also have the Kanji To Kana, the essential book for all lovers of the Japanese language, who uses rōmaji.
We have already seen the rōmaji in the course on Japanese syllables where I had used them to indicate the pronunciations of the different kana and I had also done a presentation course on the subject. But here we will see the rōmaji in more detail.
You should already know, that in Japanese, we use 22 rōmaji. Of the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, we only use 22 to transcribe the sounds specific to the Japanese language. For example :
– We don’t use L, Q, or X.
– The sounds か (ka), き (ki), く (ku), け (ke), こ (ko) are made with the letter K so we don’t need the C or the Q.
– On the other hand, the letter C will be used to transcribe the sounds ちゃ (cha), ち (chi), ちゅ (chu), ちぇ (che), ちょ (cho). Remember, these sounds sound like we have a « t » in front of them.
– « L » sounds do not exist in Japanese and « X » sounds do not exist either.
The letter V also does not exist in Japanese, however we saw in the course on the new combinations of kana that the Japanese had managed to create the sounds in « V » to transcribe a good number of foreign words. As a reminder : ヴァ, ヴィ, ヴ, ヴェ, ヴォ.
Thus, we can consider that we use a total of 23 rōmaji including 22 which are used for 99% of the foreign words to be transcribed.
We also have two diacritics that we will be able to transcribe in rōmaji.
As a reminder, a diacritic is a sign accompanying a letter or a grapheme to modify its corresponding sound or to distinguish the word which includes it from another homonymous word. To make it easier, it’s all about accents. For example, in French we have the letter « e » which is pronounced [ø]; if we put an acute accent on it, it becomes an « é » which is pronounced [e], if we put a grave accent on it, it becomes an « è » which is pronounced [ε]. In today’s course, the two diacritics in question are the little dash that we can find on certain letters. For example, in the word rōmaji, you have a small dash above the « ō », here is the first diacritic. As for the second, it is the circumflex accent. We will see in more detail what it is all about.
Until now, all the words we have written in rōmaji are based on a system called the Hepburn system, named after an American Japanologist, by his full name James Curtis Hepburn. He created in the mid-19th century the very first dictionary to transcribe the Japanese language according to the Latin alphabet. This dictionary uses English consonants (b, d, f, g, h, j, k, m, n, p, r, s, t, (v), w, y, z) and the Italian vowels (a, i, u, e, o), knowing the letter « u » in Italian is pronounced like the French « ou » and the letter « e » is pronounced like the French « é ». James Curtis Hepburn has thus created a system that is easy to read for everyone and which therefore makes it possible to decipher Japanese writing for neophytes.
In Japanese, its dictionary is called Hebon shiki rōmaji, « Hebon » being the katakanized name « Hepburn ».
Now, we’ll see that there is another writing system that may seem a little odd to you, a system much closer to Japanese called the kunrei system ; and that the Japanese themselves call kunrei shiki rōmaji.
This system is closer to the phonetics of the Japanese language and it is also much more logical than the Hepburn system. However, it is less easy to grasp and is therefore not the most used although it is the most practical when it comes to using the Japanese keyboard.
With that, it’s time to take a closer look at the similarities and differences between the Hepburn system and the kunrei system.
We are going to make a small table based on three lines with, from top to bottom, the kana, the Hepburn system and the kunrei system. Let’s already see how some of the simplest kana are transcribed :
Kana : かきぐまもに
Hepburn : kakigumamoni
Kunrei : kakigumamoni
Above, we can see that all the kana of the line of か, the line of が and the line of ま are transcribed in exactly the same way as well in Hepburn system as in Kunrei system.
Thus, the kana か, き, く, け, こ and the kana が, ぎ, ぐ, げ, ご and the kana ま, み, む, め, も, among many others, will be transcribed equally in the system Hepburn than in Kunrei system.
Now let’s see how other kana are transcribed :
Kana : しちつふじぢづ
Hepburn : shichitsufujijizu
Kunrei : sitituhuzidizu
From there, we can observe notable differences. The sounds in « shi » in the Hepburn system become sounds in « si » in the kunrei system, the sounds in « chi » and « tsu » in the Hepburn system become sounds in « ti » and « tu », the sounds in « fu » become « hu » and the sounds in « ji » become « zi ».
That said, we know that when some kana take a dakuten, their pronunciation changes. So, the kana し (« shi » in Hepburn system) become じ (« ji » in Hepburn system). In the kunrei system, if we take the previous example, we have the sound « si » that becomes « zi ».
Now let’s see the sound « ji » but which is written like this in Japanese : ぢ. In the kunrei system, this gives us the sound « di ». The sound « zu » which is written like this in Japanese : づ. In the kunrei system, this gives us the sound « du ».
To better understand the kunrei system, I put below a small table. In fact, the kunrei system works along the lines of the table.
To give you a more concrete example with a typically Japanese word, here the word ふじ which means « wisteria ». Let’s see how we would write it in kana, in Hepburn, in kunrei :
Kana : ふじ
Hepburn : fuji
Kunrei : huzi
If you show a Japanese the word huzi in kunrei, he will understand. Although the Hepburn system is much easier for us westerners.
Another example with the word ふじんざっし which means « women’s magazine », here is how we would write it in kana, in Hepburn, in kunrei :
Kana : ふじんざっし
Hepburn : fujinzasshi
Kunrei : huzinzassi
Now that all this has been understood, we can go up a notch and see how the new combinations are transcribed :
Kana : きゃしゃしゅしょちゃちゅちょじゃじゅじょ
Hepburn : kyashashushochachuchojajujo
Kunrei : kyasyasyusyotyatyutyozyazyuzyo
You will notice that, once again, the kunrei system follows the table that I indicated to you above.
To give you a more concrete example with a typical Japanese word, here the word じょうしゃけん which means « the transport ticket ». Let’ see how we would write it in kana, Hepburn and kunrei :
Kana : じょうしゃけん
Hepburn : jōshaken
Kunrei : zyousyaken
It is possible to find dictionaries in purely Japanese with the kunrei system where you have words like じょうしゃけん qui sont écrit zyousyaken, and where you do not have the Hepburn system so you must be familiar with the kunrei system to fully understand this rōmaji writing system. However, as I told you above, the kunrei system is not the most widespread in the West, but if you are really interested in mastering both of the rōmaji writing systems, you can always try to find on a site like Amazon, Fnac or Decitre. With a little luck, you will find your happiness there.
So, to sum up, the Hepburn system is much more used because it is much easier to understand, especially in terms of phonetics, while the kunrei system is much more faithful to Japanese syllabaries for transcribing them into rōmaji.
That said, understand that there are no rules saying that it is better to use one writing system in rōmaji rather than another. Japanese people, when they need to romanize a word or a name, they don’t always know how to do it themselves. I remind you that rōmaji is primarily for western tourists to give them an idea of how to pronounce a particular word in Japanese. So, when Japanese people use Latin letters themselves, they sometimes find themselves writing the same word or name with several different spellings depending on the sounds they are trying to transcribe into Latin letters.
Well, all of these explanations can be a bit of a headache, but at least we’re done with this part.
It is high time to now see rules for specific writing, especially on the Hepburn system. This is the system that we will focus on because it is the one that most of you will most likely use. By the way, this is the only system I use when I search for a Japanese word in the dictionary or on Wiktionary for example.
Let’s take a look at all of this.
1st Particularity
In the second season, when we study grammatical particles, we will see that there are certain particles which are pronounced differently from what their writing, in hiragana, suggests. We will see in particular three that I put you below with their pronunciation and the way in which we will write them in rōmaji :
Kana : はをへ
Pronunciation : [wa][o][e]
Rōmaji : waoe
So, for the writing in rōmaji, we base ourselves on phonetics. You can already remember these three. We will find these particles in season two on grammar. When the time comes, I will remind you how to pronounce these particles.
2nd Particularity
In Japanese, we have certain words that contain the sound « n » which is represented by this : ん. Most of the time, the romanization of Japanese words containing a ん is not a problem… except in three cases : んや, んよ, んゆ.
I give you an example in hiragana with its version in rōmaji :
Kana : こんやく
Traduction : compromise
Rōmaji : kon’yaku
The rōmaji version is therefore « konyaku » but I do not know if it is んや or にゃ. In rōmaji, to make the distinction, we will use a small apostrophe after the « n » to indicate that it is んや like this : kon’yaku.
3rd Particularity
Finally, know that the ん can be written « m » instead of « n ». For example :
Kana : ぜんやく
Traduction : full translation
Rōmaji : zen’yaku / zem’yaku
But, frankly, this way of writing in rōmaji is very rare. You may even never come across this case. Personally, I never write the ん with a « m ».
4th Particularity
Remember when we studied the pause in Japanese, we saw that we have to write a little っ to represent the pause. In rōmaji therefore, we will represent the pause by doubling the consonant. To refresh your memory, I give you some examples below :
厄介 . やっかい . yakkai. Boredom, embarrassment, worry
切符 . きっぷ . kippu. Ticket
喫茶 . キッサ . kissa. Tea Room
雑誌 . ザッシ . zasshi. Magazine
Well, all these examples, you know them, we have already seen them in the course on the pause in Japanese. And if you really don’t remember, I invite you to revise this course.
Now, if we have a sound like っちゃ, っち, っちゅ, っちょ, how are we going to transcribe it all into rōmaji ? Well, in the Japanese language, words with these sounds immediately following a pause are quite rare but there are still a few. For example :
発注 . ハッチュウ . hatchuu / hacchuu. Order
We can actually write it in rōmaji in two different ways. We can write it either « hatchuu » with a « t », or « hacchuu » by doubling the « c ». You have the choice, there is no particular rule, everyone does as they wish. In the dictionaries, you will see either one or the other.
5th Particularity
When we have a lengthening, we either put a line or we put a circumflex accent. The two are equal.
As you already know, when we write a word containing a lengthening in hiragana, representing us the lengthening by phonetically doubling the vowel of a given kana. Thus, hiragana like と, ど, こ, ご… will lengthen with う as in the word がっこう. And this word, in rōmaji, we can write it either gakkō, either gakkô, either gakkou or even gakkoh. This last spelling seems very popular among the English speakers but does not seem to be the most common way of writing. For my part, I often use the hyphen or the circumflex accent.
6th Particularity
In Japanese, to represent onomatopoeias, we are going to have a hiragana followed by a small っ to represent the pause. In rōmaji, the pause will not be represented by the duplication of the consonant that follows... since we have nothing after. This particularity is especially seen in the spoken word or in the manga, when you have a character who speaks and who is suddenly interrupted in his sentence.
That said, the use of Western punctuation marks is still quite common these days. So, if we have for example あっ, in rōmaji, we will write it a’ (with an apostrophe).
For translation, depending on the context, we could translate by « ah ! » or « a… ».
Kana : あっおっ
Traduction : ah!oh!
Rōmaji : a’o’
7th Particularity
When we have Japanese proper names to romanize, we put a capital letter to show that it is a proper name. Obviously, capital letters are a few things specific to Western languages and this does not exist in Japanese but in rōmaji, it can be done. For example, the name of the Japanese capital, Tokyo, is written 東京 in kanji, and in rōmaji, we will write Tōkyō by representing well the lengthening on the two « ō » with a dash.
8th Particularity
From time to time, we will have small hiragana that will be placed between the words, which are small, mostly oral abbreviations. For example :
いるんだ
In principle, this is いるのだ. The ん is the contraction of hiragana の.
In rōmaji, we would write it « irunda », all stuck, but it can be quite difficult to know if it is a complete word or if it is several words well separated with a small abbreviation. We could very well write it in rōmaji like this, « iru n da », to be sure that it is about several elements well separated from each other. But, again, everyone does what they want. If you find it more convenient to write « irunda », there is no problem.
Just remember that in Japanese, we sometimes have little ambiguities like this. It happens.
9th Particularity
The Japanese language has many honorary suffixes which are most often placed after proper names. If you’ve ever read manga or watched anime, you probably know a few.
Let’s take a random name with an honorary suffix : あかねちゃん. The suffix ちゃん reflects the affection one has for someone, usually a child or, in any case, a person younger than oneself. But how can we transcribe all this into rōmaji ? It’s very simple, we add a hyphen to separate the name from the honorary suffix like this : Akane-chan (without forgetting the capital letter since it is a proper name).
10th Particularity
When we have very long words in Japanese, words written with four to eight kanji, sometimes more ; in rōmaji, we will separate the different words to understand what each romanized word corresponds to. See the example below :
共和国大統領 . きょうわこくだいとうりょう . The president of the Republic
If we decompose this word, we have :
– 共和国 . きょうわこく which means « Republic ».
– and 大統領 . だいとうりょう which means « President ».
In rōmaji, this gives us : Kyōwakoku Daitouryō.
Note that I capitalize each word since we can (possibly) consider the words « President » and « Republic » as proper names.
We can take the example a little further. If now we want to say « the president of the French Republic », this gives us :
フランス共和国大統領 . フランスきょうわこくだいとうりょう . The president of the French Republic
If we decompose this word, we have :
– フランス which means « the France » (here, we will translate by the adjective « French » speaking of the Republic).
– and 共和国 . きょうわこく which means « the Republic ».
– and 大統領 . だいとうりょう which means « the President ».
We can also simply translate this word by « the French President » (implying « the President of the French Republic »).
In rōmaji, this gives us : Furansu Kyōwakoku Daitouryō.
Again, note that I put capital letters.
Another example :
中華人民共和国 . ちゅうかじんみんきょうわこく . The People’s Republic of China
If we decompose this word, we have :
– 中華 . ちゅうか which means « China ».
– and 人民 . じんみん which means « People’s ».
– and 共和国 . きょうわこく which means « the Republic ».
In rōmaji, this gives us : Chuuka Jinmin Daitouryō.
Again, note that I put capital letters.
Note : the term 中華 . ちゅうか means « China » in the sense of « the middle flower; the brilliance of the Middle ». Remember, however, that in the course called « Let’s create our first words in kanji », we have seen that the official term is 中国 . チュウゴク.
Another example :
中華料理店 . ちゅうかりょうりてん . Chinese restaurant
If we decompose this word, we have :
– 中華 . ちゅうか which means « China ».
– and 料理 . りょうり which means « cookery ».
– and 店 . てん which means « the store, the shop or the stall » (according to the context). With 料理 . りょうり, we will translate it by « restaurant » : 料理店 . りょうりてん.
In rōmaji, this gives us : chuuka ryōriten.
This time, I don’t put capital letters because it’s not a proper name.
A final example :
料理店主 . りょうりてんしゅ . The restaurateur
If we decompose this word, we have :
– 料理 . りょうり which means « cookery ».
– and 店 . てん which means « the store, the shop or the stall » (according to the context). With 料理 . りょうり, we will translate it by « restaurant » : 料理店 .りょうりてん.
– and 主 . しゅ which means « the boss, the owner ».
To say « the owner of a Chinese restaurant », we will say :
中華料理店主 . ちゅうかりょうりてんしゅ . The owner of a Chinese restaurant
In rōmaji, this gives us : chuuka ryōriten shu.
Again, I don’t put capital letters because it’s not a proper name.
Okay, I’m not going to decompose this last example, I think you have now, you understand how it all works.
11th Particularity
Finally, when we have katakanized words and these words, we write them in rōmaji, we will write them katakanized. For example, the word « orange » in written オレンジ in katakana, and in rōmaji, we will write it « orenji ». Clearly, we write the word according to its Japanese pronunciation. Likewise, we do the same for other foreign words like « calendar » which is written カレンダー in katakana, and in rōmaji, we’ll write it « karendâ ».
Also, I would like to take this opportunity to discuss with you a very last point. We also have Japanese words that have entered the English language. But how are we going to write these words ? Again, it’s a bit special, but there is nothing difficult. Besides, Japanese words that have passed into the English language, you certainly know a lot : judo, karate, sushi, tsunami, manga, anime to name a few. And today, when you watch YouTube channels talking about manga, you hear words like « shonen », « shojo », « kodomo », « seinen », « nekketsu » to designate the kinds of manga. Even on manga publisher websites, you can sometimes find these words that are used to classify manga since publishers know that, when manga fans are looking for a particular series, they reason in Japanese terms.
All that said, how do you write Japanese words in English ? We saw how we would write them in rōmaji but in English ?
Let’s take for example the word 少年 . ショウネン. When we write it in hiragana, we can see that we have an elongation in う. In rōmaji, we would write it « shōnen » with the dash that marks the elongation. But in English, we will write it « shonen » quite simply, without dash or accent. And it will be the same with a word like 柔道 . ジュウドウ. When we write it in hiragana, we can see that we have two lengthenings in う. In rōmaji, we would write it « jūdō » with the dash that marks the lengthening. But in English, we will write it « judo » quite simply, without dash or accent either. And then the word 侍 . さむらい, we write it in english « samurai ».
A final example with the word 柔術 . ジュウジュツ which is written in rōmaji « jūjutsu », and yet in English, it has become « ju-jitsu ». Sometimes some English people write it « jiu-jitsu » or « jiu jitsu » without hyphen. So, you have, sometimes, some rather bizarre transcriptions of Japanese words that have been anglicized and whose pronunciation has been slightly changed, perhaps to facilitate the pronunciation of the word for English speakers, perhaps due to an error, and which ultimately trivialized. It happens sometimes. Another possible reason is that the word was adapted into Japanese by being romanized according to the kunrei system rather than the Hepburn system. It’s also a possibility. Besides the word 柔術 . ジュウジュツ, according to the kunrei system, would be written « zyuuzyutu ». And don’t forget that the kunrei system is closer, more respectful of Japanese pronunciation.
This time, here we are! We have seen in detail all the particularities of writing rōmaji. Everything we have seen in this course today may be a bit of a headache at first, but be aware that it is not essential for learning the Japanese language. It is much more important to memorize your kana and kanji. Besides, don’t hesitate to review the vocabulary I gave you in the example sentences. It’s always good to learn !
All that we have just seen will be mainly useful for you to use the Kanji To Kana, if you need to search for a word, for example. You do not know how this word is written in kanji but you know how it is pronounced. It can help you, so remember all these particularities.
I have nothing more to add, there was a lot to say on the subject but this time, we have indeed come to the end. It only remains for me to wish you all good revisions.
Introduction