4 ms·

I just want to chime in and say that the author knows what he is talking about when it comes to Japanese and NLP. Like many other commenters, I am also not sur

I just want to chime in and say that the author knows what he is talking about when it comes to Japanese and NLP. Like many other commenters, I am also not sure why you’d want “katsu” transliterated to “cutlet”, but the author didn’t choose to have a tool to do this out of ignorance of the Japanese language.

ihadfun 6y ago
Because katsu means cutlet, a thin slice of meat. Tonkatsu for example is pork cutlet.
- wodenokoto 6y ago
  Transliteration is not translation.
  - sheepdestroyer 6y ago
    From Wikipedia, that's technically and etymologicaly correct : "The cutlet was introduced to Japan during the Meiji period, in a Western cuisine restaurant in the fashionable Ginza district of Tokyo. The Japanese pronunciation of cutlet is katsuretsu. In Japanese cuisine, katsuretsu or shorter katsu is actually the name for a Japanese version of the Wiener schnitzel, a breaded cutlet. Dishes with katsu include tonkatsu and katsudon."
    - wodenokoto 6y ago
      TIL, but in my defense, an abbreviation of a transliteration, which has come to mean something slightly different should probably be considered a new word and not be transliterated back into its etymological ancestor.
polm23 6y ago
Author here, thanks for the vote of confidence! Regarding the name, it's true that the word "cutlet" isn't typically an example of where you'd want to use the foreign spelling functionality. However it had several other nice points: 1. It follows the tradition of naming Japanese language tools after food the author likes, like MeCab, Sudachi, my own fugashi, etc. 2. It has a concrete image that's easy to convey, which is useful mnemonically 3. It's a very clear demonstration of the foreign spelling feature (even if not a useful one) 4. The word "katsu" is a good example for showing the difference between Hepburn and other romanization systems (katsu/katu)

ihadfun 6y ago

Because katsu means cutlet, a thin slice of meat. Tonkatsu for example is pork cutlet.

wodenokoto 6y ago
Transliteration is not translation.
- sheepdestroyer 6y ago
  From Wikipedia, that's technically and etymologicaly correct : "The cutlet was introduced to Japan during the Meiji period, in a Western cuisine restaurant in the fashionable Ginza district of Tokyo. The Japanese pronunciation of cutlet is katsuretsu. In Japanese cuisine, katsuretsu or shorter katsu is actually the name for a Japanese version of the Wiener schnitzel, a breaded cutlet. Dishes with katsu include tonkatsu and katsudon."
  - wodenokoto 6y ago
    TIL, but in my defense, an abbreviation of a transliteration, which has come to mean something slightly different should probably be considered a new word and not be transliterated back into its etymological ancestor.

polm23 6y ago

Author here, thanks for the vote of confidence! Regarding the name, it's true that the word "cutlet" isn't typically an example of where you'd want to use the foreign spelling functionality. However it had several other nice points: 1. It follows the tradition of naming Japanese language tools after food the author likes, like MeCab, Sudachi, my own fugashi, etc. 2. It has a concrete image that's easy to convey, which is useful mnemonically 3. It's a very clear demonstration of the foreign spelling feature (even if not a useful one) 4. The word "katsu" is a good example for showing the difference between Hepburn and other romanization systems (katsu/katu)