Romaji

O Romaji (Rōmaji, ローマ字, lit. letra romana) é um sistema de transcrição fonética da língua japonesa para o alfabeto latino.

A romanização é a transliteração de caracteres de língua estrangeira para o alfabeto romano. A língua japonesa é expressada graficamente através de três tipos de grafia. Os ideogramas de origem chinesa, conhecidos como kanji, e os fonogramas que podem ser hiragana e katakana. A romanização é importante para que as placas de rua sejam legíveis para os visitantes estrangeiros, transcrição de nomes e para dicionários e livros didáticos para os estudantes da língua.

Existem diferentes sistemas de romanização, sendo que as principais são três: o sistema Hepburn, o Kunrei-shiki (ISO 3602) e o Nihon-shiki (ISO 3602 estrito). Sistemas variantes do Hepburn são as que estão em maior uso.

Todos os japoneses que estudaram na escola fundamental depois da Segunda Grande Guerra foram ensinados a ler e a escrever em rōmaji, o japonês romanizado. A romanização é o método mais comum de se inserir palavras japonesas no computador e em processadores de texto.

História

The earliest Japanese romanization system was based on the orthography of Portuguese. It was developed around 1548 by a Japanese Catholic named Yajiro. Jesuit presses used the system in a series of printed Catholic books so that missionaries could preach and teach their converts without learning to read Japanese. The most useful of these books for the study of early modern Japanese pronunciation and early attempts at romanization was the Nippo jisho, a Japanese-Portuguese dictionary written in 1603. In general, the early Portuguese system was similar to Nihon-shiki in its treatment of vowels. Some consonants were transliterated differently: for instance, the /k/ consonant was rendered as "c", and the /ɸ/ consonant (now pronounced /h/) as "f", so Nihon no kotoba ("The language of Japan") was spelled "Nifon no cotoba". The Jesuits also printed some secular books in romanized Japanese, including the first printed edition of the Japanese classic The Tale of the Heike, romanized as Feiqe no monogatari, and a collection of Aesop's Fables (romanized as Esopo no fabvlas). The latter continued to be printed and read after the suppression of Christianity (Chibbett, 1977).

Following the expulsion of Christians from Japan in the early 1600s, rōmaji fell out of use, and were only used sporadically in foreign texts until the mid-1800s, when Japan opened up again. The systems used today all developed in the latter half of the 19th century.

The first system to be developed was the Hepburn system, developed for the author's dictionary of Japanese words and intended for foreigners to use.

In the Meiji era, some Japanese scholars advocated abolishing the Japanese writing system entirely and using rōmaji in its stead. The Nihon shiki romanization was an outgrowth of this movement. Several Japanese texts were published entirely in rōmaji during this period, but it failed to catch on, perhaps because of the large number of homophones in Japanese, which are pronounced similarly but written in different characters. Later, in the early 20th century, some scholars devised syllabary systems with characters derived from Latin; these were even less popular, because they were not based on any historical use of the Latin alphabet.

Sistemas Modernos

Hepburn

The Revised Hepburn system of romanization uses a macron to indicate some long vowels, and an apostrophe to note the separation of easily confused phonemes. For example, the name じゅんいちろう, written with the kana characters ju-n-i-chi-ro-u, and romanized as Jun'ichirō in Revised Hepburn. This system is widely used in Japan and among foreign students and academics.

Hepburn romanization generally follows English phonology with Romance vowels, and is an intuitive method of showing Anglophones the pronunciation of a word in Japanese. It was standardized in the USA as American National Standard System for the Romanization of Japanese (Modified Hepburn), but this status was abolished on October 6, 1994. Hepburn is the most common romanization system in use today, especially in the English-speaking world. The Hepburn system has been criticized because its distortion of the Japanese phonology can make it harder to teach Japanese to non-natives.

Nihon-shiki

Nihon-shiki is probably the least used of the three main systems. It was originally invented as a method for the Japanese to write their own language. It follows Japanese phonology and the syllabary order very strictly and is hence the only major system of romanization that allows lossless mapping to and from kana. It has also been standardized as ISO 3602 strict form.

Kunrei-shiki

Kunrei-shiki is a slightly modified version of Nihon-shiki which eliminates differences between the kana syllabary and modern pronunciation. For example, when the words kana かな and tsukai つかい are combined, the result is written in kana as かなづかい with a dakuten (voicing sign) ゛on the つ (tsu) kana to indicate that the tsu つ is now voiced. The づ kana is pronounced in the same way as a different kana, す (su), with dakuten, ず. Kunrei-shiki and Hepburn ignore the difference in kana and represent the sound in the same way, as kanazukai, using the same letters "zu" as are used to romanize ず. Nihon-shiki retains the difference, and romanizes the word as kanadukai, differentiating the づ and ず kana, which is romanized as zu, even though they are pronounced identically. Similarly for the pair じ and ぢ, which are both zi in Kunrei-shiki and both ji in Hepburn romanization, but are zi and di respectively in Nihon-shiki. See the table below for full details.

Kunrei-shiki has been standardized by the Japanese Government and ISO (ISO 3602). Kunrei-shiki is taught to Japanese elementary school students in their fourth year.

Outras variantes

It is possible to elaborate these romanizations to enable non-native speakers to pronounce Japanese words more correctly. Typical additions include tone marks to note the Japanese pitch accent and diacritic marks to distinguish phonological changes, such as the assimilation of the moraic nasal /n/ (see Japanese phonology).

JSL

JSL is a romanization system based on Japanese phonology, designed using the lingustic principles used by linguists in designing writing systems for languages that do not have any. It is a purely phonemic system, using exactly one symbol for each phoneme, and marking pitch accent using diacritics. It was created for Eleanor Harz Jorden's system of Japanese language teaching. Its principle is that such a system enables students to better internalize the phonology of Japanese. Since it does not have any of the advantages for non-native speakers that the other romaji systems have, and the Japanese already have a writing system for their language, JSL is not widely used outside the educational environment.

Romanizações foras do padrão

In addition to the standardized systems above, there are many variations in romanization, used either for simplification, in error or confusion between different systems, or for deliberate stylistic reasons.

Notably, the various mappings that Japanese input methods use to convert keystrokes on a Roman keyboard to kana often combine features of all of the systems; when used as plain text rather than being converted, these are usually known as wāpuro rōmaji. (Wāpuro is a contraction of wādo purosessā processor.) Unlike the standard systems, wāpuro rōmaji requires no characters from outside the ASCII character set.

While there may be arguments in favour of some of these variant romanizations in specific contexts, their use, especially if mixed, leads to confusion when romanized Japanese words are indexed.

The following variant romanizations are common:

Japanese words and names that have established English spellings, such as kudzu and jiu jitsu, or loanwords such as kyatto for "cat", are sometimes written as they are in English, without regard for the rules of romanization.
Jya for じゃ, which is ja in Hepburn and zya in Nihon-shiki and Kunrei-shiki, and similarly jyu for じゅ and jyo for じょ. The extraneous y seems to be the result of confusion between the romanization systems.
Cchi for っち (Hepburn tchi) and so on. This is wāpuro rōmaji, but is often used for stylistic reasons when rendering nicknames (for example, あきこ Akiko becoming あっちゃん Acchan rather than Atchan).
La for ら (Hepburn ra) and so on. The Japanese consonant /r/ has a sound (IPA ) that is near, but not identical, to both of English "r" and "l". "R" and "l" are both transcribed into Japanese using the Japanese /r/. Examples of "l" in romanized Japanese include Japanese children's doll リカ, romanized as Licca.
Na for んあ (Hepburn n'a) and so on. This form of romanized Japanese is used in public information such as road and railway signs in Japan.
Nn for ん (Hepburn n). This is also an example of wāpuro rōmaji (although many Japanese input methods also accept the Hepburn n'). This leads to ambiguity with the more widespread Hepburn system. For example, the cluster nna, which is んな in Hepburn, represents んあ in this system. The double n is sometimes seen in names, for example in the name of the well-known Usenet poster Junn Ohta.

Vogais longas

The most common variant romanization is to omit the macrons or circumflexes used to indicate a long vowel. This is extremely common in the romanized version of Japanese words used in English. For example the capital city of Japan, correctly written Tōkyō in romanized Japanese, is universally written as Tokyo. In Japan, since romanized Japanese is seen mostly as a convenience for foreigners to be able to read signs easily, macrons and circumflexes are usually omitted for simplification.

Many typewriters, word processors, and computerized systems cannot easily deal with the macron used in Hepburn romanization. Nihon-shiki and Kunrei-shiki use a circumflex accent (thus, Tôkyô). This may allow for easier input, since all of â, î, û, ê, and ô are in the ISO-8859-1 character set, and may be easily input on a variety of systems.

The following methods of representing long vowels also commonly occur:

Oh for おお or おう (Hepburn ō). This is sometimes known as "passport Hepburn", as the Japanese Foreign Ministry has authorized (but not required) this usage in passports ^*
Ou for おう (also Hepburn ō). This is also an example of wāpuro rōmaji.
Ô for おお or おう (Hepburn ō). This is valid Nihon-shiki and Kunrei-shiki, but occasionally occurs in otherwise Hepburn-romanized words (as described above).

Variantes Antigas

Main article: Historical kana usage

In older texts, other variant romanizations which are now no longer used are sometimes seen. Some of them have survived to the present day, although few of them are still actively used. Examples include:

The vowel i plus o was sometimes used to represent the Japanese yōon sound: hence Tokyo becomes "Tokio" and Kyoto becomes "Kioto". This romanization can still be seen in the species name "mioga" of the Japanese vegetable myōga.
The kana ゑ was rendered as ye. The actual pronunciation of this kana was once we, but the w had already been lost by the time that (e.g.) ゑど "Wedo" was first romanized as Yedo.
The kana づ (Nihon-shiki du) was romanized as dzu, as seen in the plant names adzuki and kudzu. This enjoys some currency even today as Hepburn-like wāpuro rōmaji.

Romanização de nomes japoneses

Names can be subject to even more variation, with spellings depending on the individual's preference. For example, the manga artist Yasuhiro Nightow's family name would be more conventionally written in Hepburn romanization as Naitō.

Other variations seen in names include the substitution of K with C, as in the name of television celebrity Ricaco or the snack food Jagarico, or the removal of unvoiced vowels, as in the name of film director Macoto Tezka (the son of manga artist Osamu Tezuka). Note the removal of the u vowel.

Exemplos de palavras escritas emcada sistema de romanização

Português	Japonês	Leitura em Kana	Romanização
Português	Japonês	Leitura em Kana	Hepburn Revisado	Kunrei-shiki	Nihon-shiki
Caracteres romanos	ローマ字	ローマじ	rōmaji	rômazi	rômazi
Monte Fuji	富士山	ふじさん	Fujisan	Huzisan	Huzisan
chá	お茶	おちゃ	ocha	otya	otya
governador	知事	ちじ	chiji	tizi	tizi
encolher	縮む	ちぢむ	chijimu	tizimu	tidimu
continuar	続く	つづく	tsuzuku	tuzuku	tuduku

Tabela de romanização

This chart shows the significant differences between the major romanization systems.

Kana	Revised Hepburn	Kunrei-shiki	Nihon-shiki
うう	ū	û	û
おう, おお	ō	ô	ô
し	shi	si	si
しゃ	sha	sya	sya
しゅ	shu	syu	syu
しょ	sho	syo	syo
じ	ji	zi	zi
じゃ	ja	zya	zya
じゅ	ju	zyu	zyu
じょ	jo	zyo	zyo
ち	chi	ti	ti
つ	tsu	tu	tu
ちゃ	cha	tya	tya
ちゅ	chu	tyu	tyu
ちょ	cho	tyo	tyo
ぢ	ji	zi	di
づ	zu	zu	du
ぢゃ	ja	zya	dya
ぢゅ	ju	zyu	dyu
ぢょ	jo	zyo	dyo
ふ	fu	hu	hu

Nomes Japoneses escritos com letras romanas

The list below shows how to spell Latin character words or acronyms in Japanese. For example, NHK is spelled エヌエイチケイ enueichikei ^*.

A エー ē (or エイ ei)
B ビー bī
C シー shī
D ディー dī
E イー ī
F エフ efu
G ジー jī
H エイチ eichi (or エッチ etchi)
I アイ ai
J ジェー jē (or ジェイ jei)
K ケー kē (or ケイ kei)
L エル eru
M エム emu
N エヌ enu
O オー ō
P ピー pī
Q キュー kyū
R アール āru
S エス esu
T ティー tī (or チー chī)
U ユー yū
V ヴイ vui; (or ブイ bui)
W ダブリュー daburyū
X エックス ekkusu
Y ワイ wai
Z ゼット zetto (or ゼッド zeddo)

Kana sem formas romanizadas

There is no generally accepted form of romanization for some forms of kana. In particular there is no form of romanization for full-sized kana combined with smaller versions of the vowel kana, 'ぁ', 'ぃ', 'ぅ', 'ぇ' and 'ぉ', the smaller versions of the y kana, 'ゃ', 'ゅ', and 'ょ', and the sokuon or small tsu kana 'っ'. Although these are usually regarded as merely phonetic marks or diacritics, they do appear on their own, for example at the end of sentences or in some names.

There is also no commonly accepted way of romanizing common combinations such as 'トゥ' of katakana to and small u, used to represent sounds as in the English word 'too'. Some people write this pair as tu, but this is likely to be confused with the tu Nihon-shiki and Kunrei-shiki romanizations of the kana ツ, romanized as tsu in Hepburn romanization.

On a computer or word processor, these smaller kana may be produced in various ways. For example, an 'x' or an 'l' preceding the romanization of the full-sized kana produces a small version on some systems, thus xtu gives 'っ' on a Microsoft computer. However this is not standardized, and these forms are restricted to use in input systems; they are not used to represent the smaller kana in romanized Japanese.

Links Externos

Convert Kanji to Romaji and Hiragana
Rōmaji sōdan shitsu (in Japanese) contains an extremely extensive and accurate collection of materials relating to romaji, including standards documents and even HTML versions of Hepburn's original dictionaries.
The romaji conundrum from Andrew Horvat's Total Quality Japanese contains a discussion of the problems caused by the variety of confusing romanization systems in use in Japan today.
All free Japanese romaji dictionaries
Romaji to Kana translator
Converts Romaji to Kana, Hepburn System
Converts Romaji to Kana, Hepburn System Same link with Frames disabled

Tabela do Sistema Kunrei

	あ	い	う	え	お	ん	（拗音 - sons contraídos）
あ	a	i	u	e	o
か	ka	ki	ku	ke	ko		kya	kyu	kyo
さ	sa	si	su	se	so		sya	syu	syo
た	ta	ti	tu	te	to		tya	tyu	tyo
な	na	ni	nu	ne	no		nya	nyu	nyo
は	ha	hi	hu	he	ho		hya	hyu	hyo
ま	ma	mi	mu	me	mo		mya	myu	myo
や	ya	(i)	yu	(e)	yo
ら	ra	ri	ru	re	ro		rya	ryu	ryo
わ	wa	i		e	o	n
が	ga	gi	gu	ge	go		gya	gyu	gyo
ざ	za	zi	zu	ze	zo		zya	zyu	zyo
だ	da	(zi)	(zu)	de	do		(zya)	(zyu)	(zyo)
ば	ba	bi	bu	be	bo		bya	byu	byo
ぱ	pa	pi	pu	pe	po		pya	pyu	pyo

Tabela do Sistema Hepburn

	あ	い	う	え	お	（拗音 - sons contraídos）
あ	a	i	u	e	o
か	ka	ki	ku	ke	ko	kya	kyu	kyo
さ	sa	shi	su	se	so	sha	shu	sho
た	ta	chi	tsu	te	to	cha	chu	cho
な	na	ni	nu	ne	no	nya	nyu	nyo
は	ha	hi	fu	he	ho	hya	hyu	hyo
ま	ma	mi	mu	me	mo	mya	myu	myo
や	ya	(i)	yu	(e)	yo
ら	ra	ri	ru	re	ro	rya	ryu	ryo
わ	wa	(wi)		(we)	o(wo)
ん	n
が	ga	gi	gu	ge	go	gya	gyu	gyo
ざ	za	ji	zu	ze	zo	ja	ju	jo
だ	da	(ji)	(zu)	de	do	(ja)	(ju)	(jo)
ば	ba	bi	bu	be	bo	bya	byu	byo
ぱ	pa	pi	pu	pe	po	pya	pyu	pyo

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