The Hepburn romanization In linguistics, romanization or latinization, alternately spelt as latinisation or romanisation , is the representation of a written word or spoken speech with the Roman (Latin) alphabet, or a system for doing so, where the original word or language uses a different writing system (or none). Methods of romanization include transliteration, for system (ヘボン式ローマ字, Hebon-shiki Rōmaji?) is named after James Curtis Hepburn James Curtis Hepburn, M.D., LL.D. was a physician who became a Christian missionary. He is known for the Hepburn romanization system for transliteration of the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet, which he popularized in his Japanese–English dictionary, who used it to transcribe the sounds of the Japanese language Japanese (日本語, Nihongo?, [nihoŋɡo] ) is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic (or Japanese-Ryukyuan) language family. There are a number of proposed relationships with other languages, but none of them has gained unanimous acceptance. Japanese is an into the Latin alphabet The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world today. It evolved from the western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was borrowed and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome, whose alphabet was then adapted and further modified by the ancient in the third edition of his Japanese–English dictionary A dictionary, also referred to as a lexicon, wordbook, or vocabulary, is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically, with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information; or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a, published in 1887 1887 was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar (or a common year starting on Thursday of the 12-day slower Julian calendar). The system was originally proposed by the Society for the Romanization of the Japanese Alphabet [1] (羅馬字会 Rōmajikai) in 1885. The Hepburn system was subsequently revised and called Shūsei Hebon-shiki Rōmaji (修正ヘボン式ローマ字). This revised version was referred to as Hyōjun-shiki Rōmaji (標準式ローマ字) (standard style) before.
The original and revised variants of Hepburn remain the most widely used methods of transcription of Japanese. As Hepburn is based on English phonology, an English speaker unfamiliar with Japanese will generally pronounce a word romanized in Hepburn more accurately than a word romanized in the competing Kunrei-shiki Rōmaji (Cabinet-ordered system).[citation needed]
Japanese writing To a lesser extent, modern written Japanese also uses the Latin alphabet—examples include abbreviations such as "CD" and "DVD"—and occasionally hentaigana- Hiragana Hiragana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet (rōmaji). Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora. Each kana is either a vowel such as "a" (あ); a consonant followed by a vowel such as "ka" (か);
- Katakana Katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet (rōmaji). The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji
- Hentaigana Hentaigana are historical variants of modern standard hiragana. They are a legacy of man'yōgana, where many different kanji could be used to represent the same sound value. As the man'yōgana became simplified into cursive forms, multiple hiragana, including the hentaigana, was the result. Many derive from differing man'yōgana characters, but
- Man'yōgana Man'yōgana is an ancient writing system that employs Chinese characters to represent the Japanese language. The date of the earliest usage of this type of kana is not clear, but it was in use since at least the mid seventh century. The name "man'yōgana" is from the Man'yōshū, a Japanese poetry anthology from the Nara period written
Uses
- Furigana Furigana is a Japanese reading aid, consisting of smaller kana, or syllabic characters, printed next to a kanji (ideographic character) or other character to indicate its pronunciation. In horizontal text, yokogaki, they are placed above the line of text, while in vertical text, tategaki, they are placed to the right of the line of text, as
- Okurigana Okurigana are kana suffixes following kanji stems in Japanese written words. They serve two purposes: to inflect adjectives and verbs, and to disambiguate kanji with multiple readings
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Legal status
Hepburn is based on English phonology, not Japanese, and as such has faced some opposition in Japan. In particular, a September 21, 1937 cabinet ordinance The modernization of the Law of Japan was based on the European legal system. At the beginning of Meiji era, the system of Europe—especially the civil law of Germany and France—was the model of the Japanese court system and legal system. However, after the Second World War, the Japanese legal system underwent major legal reform. Constitutional proclaimed an alternative system now commonly known as Kunrei to be Japan's official romanization for all purposes, but this was overturned by the Supreme Commander Allied Powers Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers was the title held by General Douglas MacArthur during the Occupation of Japan following World War II. Although subsequently there were, and continue to exist, other Supreme Allied Commanders, the SCAP title per se has only ever been given to MacArthur (SCAP) during the Occupation of Japan At the end of World War II, Japan was occupied by the Allied Powers, led by the United States with contributions also from Australia, India, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. This foreign presence marked the first time in its history that the island nation had been occupied by a foreign power. The San Francisco Peace Treaty, signed on September 8. The (slightly revised) ordinance was reissued in 1954 1954 was a common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1954 Gregorian calendar).
In 1972, a revised version of Hepburn was codified as ANSI The American National Standards Institute or ANSI [citation needed] is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organization also coordinates U.S. standards with international standards so that American standard Z39.11-1972. It was proposed in 1989 as a draft for ISO 3602, but rejected in favor of Kunrei. The Z39.11-1972 standard was consequently deprecated on October 6, 1994.
Although Hepburn is not a government standard, some government agencies mandate it. For example, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requires the use of Hepburn on passports, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport requires the use of Hepburn on transport signs, including road signs and railway station signs.
In many other areas where it lacks de jure De jure is an expression that means "concerning law", as contrasted with de facto, which means "concerning fact" status, Hepburn remains the de facto De facto is a Latin expression that means "by [the] fact". In law, it is meant to mean "in practice but not necessarily ordained by law" or "in practice or actuality, but without being officially established". It is commonly used in contrast to de jure when referring to matters of law, governance, or technique (such standard. Signs and notices in city offices and police stations, at shrines, temples and attractions also use it. English-language newspapers A newspaper is a regularly scheduled publication containing news, information, and advertising. By 2007 there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a day (55 million in the U.S). The worldwide recession of 2008, combined with the rapid growth of web-based alternatives, caused a serious decline in advertising and and media Mass media denotes a section of the media specifically designed to reach a large audience. The term was coined in the 1920s with the advent of nationwide radio networks, mass-circulation newspapers and magazines. However, some forms of mass media such as books and manuscripts had already been in use for centuries use the simplified form of Hepburn. Cities and prefectures The prefectures of Japan are the country's 47 subnational jurisdictions: one "metropolis" , Tokyo; one "circuit" (道 dō), Hokkaidō; two urban prefectures (府 fu), Osaka and Kyoto; and 43 other prefectures (県 ken). In Japanese, they are commonly referred to as todōfuken (都道府県?). Prefectures are governmental bodies use it in information for English-speaking residents and visitors, and English-language publications by the Japanese Foreign Ministry use simplified Hepburn too. Official tourism information put out by the government uses it, as do guidebooks, local and foreign, on Japan.
Many students of Japanese as a foreign language learn Hepburn.
Variants of Hepburn romanization
There are three standard variants of Hepburn romanization.
- The first is traditional Hepburn, which renders long vowels In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in many other languages, for instance in Arabic, and syllabic n in a variety of ways. This corresponds to the third edition (1886) of Hepburn's dictionary[1], although changes in kana usage must be accounted for.
- The second is revised Hepburn, a revised version of traditional Hepburn, in which the rendering of syllabic n as m before certain consonants is no longer used. This is used by the Library of Congress The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books. The head of the. (Revised Hepburn may be referred to as modified Hepburn.)
- The third is modified Hepburn, which builds on revised Hepburn to further modify traditional Hepburn. This version is consistent in its treatment of long vowels (always doubling the vowel) and syllabic n (always n-bar). It has been adopted by some major dictionaries (e.g. the Pocket Kenkyusha Japanese Dictionary published by Oxford University Press Oxford University Press is the largest university press in the world. It is a department of the University of Oxford and is governed by a group of 15 academics appointed by the Vice-Chancellor known as the Delegates of the Press. They are headed by the Secretary to the Delegates, who serves as OUP's chief executive and as its major representative), but is still mainly the preserve of linguists. (The term modified Hepburn may also be used to refer to revised Hepburn.)
In Japan itself, there are three variants officially mandated for various uses:
- Railway Standard (鉄道掲示基準規程) [2], in which the rendering of syllabic n as m before b, m, p is used. All JR railways and other major railways use this type for station names.
- Ministry of Foreign Affairs standard (外務省旅券規定) [3], which explicitly allows the use of "non-Hepburn romaji" (非ヘボン式ローマ字, hi-hebon-shiki rōmaji?) in personal names, notably for passports. In particular, rendering the syllabic n as m before b, m, p, and romanizing long o as any of oh, oo or ou (e.g. any of Satoh, Satoo or Satou for 佐藤) is permitted.
- Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport standard [4] in which the rendering of syllabic n as m before certain consonants is not used. This is used for road signs.
Details of these variants can be found below.
Obsolete variants
The romanizations set out in the first and second versions of Hepburn's dictionary are primarily of historical interest. Notable differences from the third and later versions include:
Second version
- エ, ヱ are written as ye (e.g. Yedo)
- ズ is written as dzu (e.g. kudzu Kudzu is a plant in the genus Pueraria in the pea family Fabaceae, subfamily Faboideae. It is a climbing, coiling, and trailing vine native to southern Japan and southeast China. Its name comes from the Japanese name for the plant, Kuzu (クズ or 葛?))
- キャ,キョ,キュ are written as kiya, kiyo and kiu
- クワ,クワイ are written as kwa, kwai (e.g. Kwannon)
First version
The following differences are in addition to those in the second version:
- ス is written as sz
- ツ is written as tsz
- ズ,ヅ is written as dz
- クワ,クワイ are written as kuwa, kuwai
Features of Hepburn romanization
The main feature of Hepburn is that its spelling The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur or Serbian, there can be more than one orthography. Orthography is distinct from typography is based on English phonology Phonology is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use. Just as a language has syntax and vocabulary, it also has a phonology in the sense of a sound system. When describing the formal area of study, the term typically describes linguistic analysis either beneath the. More technically, where syllables constructed systematically according to the Japanese syllabary contain the "unstable" consonant for the modern spoken language, the orthography is changed to something that, as an English speaker would pronounce it, better matches the real sound, for example し is written shi not * si.
Some linguists object to Hepburn, as the pronunciation-based spellings can obscure the systematic origins of Japanese phonetic structures, inflections, and conjugations. Supporters argue that Hepburn is not intended as a linguistic tool.
Particles
- When he へ is used as a particle it is written e.
- When ha は is used as a particle it is written wa.
- When wo を is used as a particle it is written o.
Long vowels
In traditional and revised Hepburn:
- The long vowels o and u are indicated by a macron A macron, from the Greek μακρόv , meaning "long", is a diacritic placed above a vowel (and, more rarely, under or above a consonant). It was originally used to mark a long or heavy syllable in Græco-Roman metrics, but now marks a long vowel. In the International Phonetic Alphabet the macron is used to indicate mid tone; the sign—e.g., long o is written ō.
- In words of Japanese or Chinese origin, the long vowel e is written ei.
- In words of Japanese or Chinese origin, the long vowel i is written ii.
- In words of foreign origin, all long vowels are indicated by macrons.
In modified Hepburn:
- All long vowels are indicated by doubling the vowel, e.g. long o is written oo.
- The combination ei is reserved for cases where the two vowels are pronounced as distinct sounds, e.g. in the word Supein (スペイン), meaning "Spain".
Syllabic n
In traditional Hepburn:
- Syllabic n (ん) is written as n before consonants, but as n' (with an apostrophe) before vowels and y. It is written as m before other labial consonants Labial consonants are consonants in which one or both lips are the active articulator. This precludes linguolabials, in which the tip of the tongue reaches for the posterior side of the upper lip and which are considered coronals. The two by far most common labials are bilabials, articulated using both lips, and labiodentals, articulated with the, i.e. b, m, and p.
- Examples: annai 案内, kin'en 禁煙, gumma 群馬
In revised Hepburn:
- The rendering m before labial consonants is not used, being replaced with n. It is still written n' (with an apostrophe) before vowels and y.
- Examples: annai 案内, kin'en 禁煙, gunma 群馬
In modified Hepburn:
- Syllabic n is always written as n with a macron (n̄), such as is used to indicate long vowels in traditional Hepburn. (This can be achieved on word processors through the use of various specialized fonts, e.g. Times Gandhari.) This renders the use of apostrophes unnecessary.
- Examples: an̄nai 案内, kin̄en̄ 禁煙, gun̄ma 群馬
Double consonants
- Double (or "geminate In phonetics, gemination happens when a spoken consonant is pronounced for an audibly longer period of time than a short consonant") consonants are marked by doubling the consonant following the sokuon, っ, except for sh→ssh, ch→tch, ts→tts.
Variations
Variations of the Hepburn system indicate the long vowels ō and ū as follows:
- Tōkyō: indicated with macrons A macron, from the Greek μακρόv , meaning "long", is a diacritic placed above a vowel (and, more rarely, under or above a consonant). It was originally used to mark a long or heavy syllable in Græco-Roman metrics, but now marks a long vowel. In the International Phonetic Alphabet the macron is used to indicate mid tone; the sign. This follows the rules of the traditional and revised Hepburn systems, and is considered to be standard.
- Tokyo: not indicated at all. This is common for Japanese words that have been adopted into English. This is also the convention used in the de facto Hepburn used in signs and other English-language information around Japan, mentioned in the paragraph on legal status.
- Tôkyô: indicated with circumflexes The circumflex is a diacritic mark used in the written forms of many languages, and is also commonly used in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from Latin circumflexus (bent around)—a translation of the Greek περισπωμένη (perispōménē). Circumflexes are how long vowels are indicated by the alternative Nihon-shiki Nihon-shiki or Nippon-shiki Rōmaji is a romanization system for transliterating the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet. In discussion about romaji, it is abbreviated as Nihon-shiki or Nippon-shiki. Among the major romanization systems for Japanese, Nippon-shiki is the most regular, and has a one-to-one relation to the kana writing systems and Kunrei-shiki Kunrei-shiki rōmaji is a romanization system, i.e. a system for transcribing the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet. It is abbreviated as Kunrei-shiki. Its name is rendered Kunreisiki using Kunrei-shiki itself romanizations. Circumflexes are often used when a word processor does not allow macrons. With the spread of Unicode, this is becoming rare.
- Tohkyoh: indicated with an "h". This is sometimes known as "passport Hepburn", as the Japanese Foreign Ministry has authorized (but not required) this usage in passports. [2]
- Toukyou: written using kana Kana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji. There are three kana scripts: modern cursive hiragana (ひらがな), modern angular katakana (カタカナ), and the old syllabic use of kanji known as man’yōgana that was ancestral to both spelling: ō as ou or oo (depending on the kana) and ū as uu. This is sometimes called wāpuro style, as this is how text is entered into a Japanese word processor (wādo purosessā) using a keyboard with Roman characters. This method most accurately represents the way that vowels are written in kana, differentiating between おう (as in とうきょう (東京), written Toukyou in this system) and おお (as in とおい (遠い), written tooi in this system).
- Tookyoo: written by doubling the long vowels. This follows the rules of the modified Hepburn system, but is also common when writing words of foreign origin without reference to any particular system, i.e. paatii for パーティー ("party") instead of pātī. This is also used in the JSL form of romanization.
Hepburn romanization charts
