3 ms·
Not a bad summary of a very complex topic, but one key takeaway is missing: for all practical purposes, despite not being a formally anointed standard, Hepburn
by howlgarnish 6y ago
Not a bad summary of a very complex topic, but one key takeaway is missing: for all practical purposes, despite not being a formally anointed standard, Hepburn "won" the romanization war. It's used in Japanese passports, road signs, railway signs, all major newspapers, JNTO (the tourism org), most textbooks, etc etc.
In second place, particularly in informal contexts, is wapuro (word processor/computer/mobile phone) romaji. "jya" for じゃ is neither Hepburn, Kunreishiki nor Nipponshiki, but it's probably how the average Japanese would write the romaji for that if asked to.
Legit Kunrei/Nipponshiki, despite its notional official status, is dead: nobody writes Japan's tallest mountain as "Huzi".
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- rangibaby 6y agoNippon shiki has lost utility with a media-influenced nationwide linguistic shift towards Tokyo Japanese. ジ and ぢ had seperate pronounciations at one point: see ビルヂング vs modern ビルディング
- howlgarnish 6y agoStill do, in some parts of the country: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yotsugana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yotsugana
- eloisant 6y agoThat's correct. But we do see some mix of the two occasionally. Also Kunreishiki looks really weird until you look at a hiragana table. The Hepburn is closer how the word would be pronunced if it was a European language (English/Spanish/French/etc) but Kunrei is more "logical" when coming from hiragana.