News Official romanisation rules to be revised for first time in 70 years

nice gaijin · 26 Aug 2025

dracuella said:
That's been my opinion, too, but a lot of the people I've spoken to don't think they need it. And to be completely honest they don't because once the initial infatuation has died down, most of them don't take it much further. It is sigh-inducing, however, to hear an entire community insisting that I am wrong simply because their peers say so - their peers who, incidentally, have never studied Japanese either. Watching anime for 5 years does help some things but it does not make you immune to mistakes. Ah, well..

ah, yeeeeah clearly they know best, since they rely on their waifus to proofread for them

When I come across a self-proclaimed expert, I remind myself that mountaineering is a solitary sport and our only chance of survival is to leave them on the summit of "mount stupid" and start the treacherous descent.

Buntaro · 26 Aug 2025

I know a Japanese-American lady in Hawaii, her last name is Honma, and she really pronounces it Honma!

Ukigumo · 26 Aug 2025

dracuella said:
I can't count how many times I've had arguments online with young people in particular who would consistently say 'sanpo' or similar for words they hadn't heard many times. I tried explaining the rules but "It doesn't say 'm' so why should I pronounce it that way?" Consistency is key, and I really think the 'm' helped me a lot when I was studying Japanese.

When I hear Japanese people using the honorific suffix, 'san' it sounds a bit like 'sang'.

nice gaijin · 26 Aug 2025

Ukigumo said:
When I hear Japanese people using the honorific suffix, 'san' it sounds a bit like 'sang'.

The pronunciation of the moraic nasal ん is determined by its context: it adopts the place of articulation of the following sound, but it is always a nasalized sound. There are like 6-7 different expressions of this single mora, which is one of the reasons romanization for phonetic accuracy is so challenging.

/ng/, or [ŋ] in IPA, is one of the many ways the ん character is expressed, when the following sound is velar (occurs in the soft palate), like in sangaku and sanka.

When the ん appears in a word or sentence-final position, with no following sound that modifies it, it's usually expressed as a uvular nasal [ɴ], which indeed sounds very much like [ŋ] (the location is just slightly further back).

There are others of course, which you could find in this wiki article: Japanese phonology - Moraic Nasal - Wikipedia

mdchachi · 26 Aug 2025

Buntaro said:
I know a Japanese-American lady in Hawaii, her last name is Honma, and she really pronounces it Honma!

That's the correct pronunciation, and spelling for ほんま. I used to work with a Honma-san too.

Ukigumo · 26 Aug 2025

mdchachi said:
That's the correct pronunciation, and spelling for ほんま. I used to work with a Honma-san too.

You mean Honma sang Or do you?

Lothor · 26 Aug 2025

Ukigumo said:
When I hear Japanese people using the honorific suffix, 'san' it sounds a bit like 'sang'.

I have a Japanese-English translator friend who is at the top of the profession, and she always calls me Jack-sang in her messages.

Ukigumo · 26 Aug 2025

Lothor said:
I have a Japanese-English translator friend who is at the top of the profession, and she always calls me Jack-sang in her messages.

Do you have a reasonable singing voice? I'm imagining you first album of rat pack jazz/swing classics being called, 'Jack Sang'!

Lothor · 26 Aug 2025

Ukigumo said:
Do you have a reasonable singing voice? I'm imagining you first album of rat pack jazz/swing classics being called, 'Jack Sang'!

No, my singing is bloody awful!

Ukigumo · 26 Aug 2025

Lothor said:
No, my singing is bloody awful!

That doesn't stop anyone, these days...

News Official romanisation rules to be revised for first time in 70 years

nice gaijin

Resident Realist

Buntaro

運動不足

Ukigumo

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nice gaijin

Resident Realist

mdchachi

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Ukigumo

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Lothor

Freelance proofreader

Ukigumo

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Lothor

Freelance proofreader

Ukigumo

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