Choice of romanization (was: A Katakana transliteration l...)
pls
> [...] I would
> like to ask Honyakkers for advice on which particular romanization/
> transliteration system they believe is best or most appropriate.
> Hepburn? Modified Hepburn? Kunrei? JSL?
Hi...
it depends on the intended reader of my transliteration. :-)
Handwritten notes for my own are usually a mix: from Nihonshiki i take the
particles "ha", "he", "wo" and the preservation of the distinction between
du/zu etc., from Hepburn i take "shi", "chi", "tsu" and sha, shu, sho, cha,
chu, cho, and sometimes i also use macrons on long "o", "u", although
usually i use Waapuro style to write them out. Typewritten notes in
romanized Japanese for my own use, as well as romanized e-mail (at times
when i have to use a computer that can't do kana/kanji), end up entirely in
Waapuro - i neither use macrons nor circumflexes in typed notes.
If i romanize with the intended readers of a translation in mind, then my
output will usually be typed, and with that i use Nihonshiki for a
linguistically trained audience, Hepburn for NES laypeople, and Waapuro for
Japanese readers. When i translate for NGS (native speakers of German),
except for official documents where i stick with Hepburn, i use a different
romanization that fits German pronunciation (i have no name for that
system), and when i translate text involving one of the Ryukyu languages
and include romanized expressions in it, i expand whichever transliteration
system i use with the needed character combinations.
I don't use modified Hepburn unless a client insists on it (in which case i
add a translator's note explaining the problems when trying to derive
Japanese sounds from the romanization).
> For my own purposes, I am most interested in the romanization of
> Japanese words (not imported words) particularly in a legal context.
If the intended audience are NES, i would suggest Hepburn or modified
Hepburn.
> It seems that the "Hepburn system" is most common and popular. Do
> people subscribe to a particular system? If so, what is it and why?
It depends on what information i want to transmit to whom...
> I personally like the simplicity and "losslessness" (?) of the
> waapuro style myself [...] The downside is that it can get pretty ugly
> particularly for imported words - like "word processor" itself, which
> probably becomes "waado purosessaa".
Doesn't look any uglier than the katakana original, if you ask me. ;-)
HTH & regards: Hendrik
.
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