Romaji
From Conservapedia
This entry makes use of Japanese characters and will require Japanese language support to be installed on your computer in order to avoid the characters being replaced by question marks, or blanked out.
Rômaji or the romanization of Japanese scripts refers to the process of transliterating Japanese into the Latin alphabet. Conventional Japanese is written using a mixture of ideograms (Kanji) and syllabic scripts (Hiragana and Katakana).
Rômaji is used where Japanese text is targeted at those unfamilar with the language such as street names or passports, and in dictionaries and textbooks for foreign learners of the language, to assist with pronunciation. In everyday written Japanese, rômaji can be used to write numbers and abbreviations.
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Origins of Rômaji
The Latin alphabet was first used in Japan in the late 16th and early 17th centuries A.D. by Portuguese Catholic missionaries, who devised a romanisation system based on Portuguese spelling. Jesuit missionaries used the system so they could preach to and teach converts without having to learn to read Japanese scripts. The first book studying Japanese pronunciation and attempts at romanization was the Nippo jisho, a Japanese-Portuguese dictionary compiled in 1603.
Rômaji fell out of use, following the expulsion of Christians from Japan in the early 1600s, and it was not until Japan reopened as a consequence of the Meiji Restoration that it came back into general usage. It was during this time that the systems still in use today were developed.
Rômaji Systems
Hepburn System
The Hepburn system (ヘボン式 Hebon-shiki) was devised by James Curtis Hepburn (1815 - 1911), an American missionary from Philadelphia who arrived in Japan in 1859 and compiled the first modern Japanese-English dictionary about a decade later. The Hepburn system is now the most widely used romanisation system is use today, both in the English-speaking world and in Japan amongst foreign students and academics.
Nihon System
The Nihon system (日本式 nihonshiki "Japanese system")
The Nihon system was developed by Tanakadate Aikitsu and was first used in 1881. It was invented as a method for Japanese to write their own language. It follows Japanese phonology and the syllabary order strictly, making it the only rômaji system that allows lossless mapping to and from kana. Despite this, it is the least used of the three systems.
It is identical to the Kunrei system except for the sounds da, di, du, de, do, dya, dyu, dyo, which are written da, zi, zu, de, do, zya, zyu, zyo in the Kunrei system and da, ji, zu, de, do, ja, ju, jo in the Hepburn system.
Kunrei System
The Kunrei system (訓令式 kunreishiki "Cabinet Ordinance system") was promulgated by the Japanese government during the 1930s. A revised version was issued in 1954. Kunrei is a modified version of Nihon-shiki, designed to eliminate the differences between the kana syllabary and modern pronunciation.
As the Hepburn system is the most common system in use, the Hepburn pronunciation has been applied to the tables of Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji.
Example
- Japanese
すべての人間は威厳および権利で生まれる自由そして等しい 彼らは理由および良心に恵まれ 精神の互いの方にの機能するべきである同業組合
- Hepburn rômaji
Subete no ningen wa, umare nagara ni shite jiyû de ari, katsu, songen to kenri to ni tsuite byôdô de aru. Ningen wa, risei to ryôshin o sazukerareteari, tagai ni dôhô no seishin o motte kôdô shinakereba naranai.
- English
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. (Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
External Links
- [1] Kanji, Kana, Rômaji converter
