Wapuro romaji
Encyclopedia
, or kana spelling, is a style of romanization of Japanese
originally devised for entering
Japanese
into word processor
s (wādo purosessā, often abbreviated
wāpuro) while using a Western QWERTY
keyboard.
In Japanese, the more formal name is , literally "Roman character kana conversion". One conversion method has been standardized as JIS X 4063:2000 (Keystroke to KANA Transfer Method Using Latin Letter Key for Japanese Input Method); however, the standard explicitly states that it is intended as a means of input, not as a method of romanization.
Wāpuro rōmaji is now frequently employed in general-purpose computer input as well as word processing, but the name lives on. Wāpuro-style romanizations are also frequently used by native speakers of Japanese in informal contexts, as well as many fans of anime
and other aspects of Japanese culture
. In these often online cases, the most common characteristic is the lack of hard-to-type circumflexes or macrons. Also, some ambiguities in these online spellings may exist, unlike wāpuro rōmaji, that would produce errors when actually typed into kana, for example differences between ず and づ, as well as particles which are sometimes spelled phonetically instead when direct display of the romaji is intended.
, Kunrei and Nihon-shiki
romanizations are accepted, so that both si (Kunrei/Nihon-shiki) and shi (Hepburn) resolve to し. Some conventions, however, differ from standard romanizations:
of the kana
. Wāpuro thus does not represent some distinctions observed in spoken Japanese, but not in writing, such as the difference between /oː/ (long vowel) and /oɯ/ (o+u). For example, in standard Japanese the kana おう can be pronounced in two different ways: as /oː/ meaning "king" (王), and as /oɯ/ meaning "to chase" (追う). Kunrei and Hepburn spell the two differently as ō and ou, as the former is a long vowel while the latter has a o which happens to be followed by a u; however, wāpuro style renders them both as ou. Likewise, the irregularly spelled particles wa (は), e (へ) and o (を) must be entered as written (ha, he and wo respectively), not as pronounced, unlike in Kunrei and Hepburn.
Romanization of Japanese
The romanization of Japanese is the application of the Latin alphabet to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is known as , less strictly romaji, literally "Roman letters", sometimes incorrectly transliterated as romanji or rōmanji. There are several different romanization systems...
originally devised for entering
Japanese input methods
Japanese input methods are the methods used to input Japanese characters on a computer.There are two main methods of inputting Japanese on computers. One is via a romanized version of Japanese called rōmaji , and the other is via keyboard keys corresponding to the Japanese kana...
Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
into word processor
Word processor
A word processor is a computer application used for the production of any sort of printable material....
s (wādo purosessā, often abbreviated
Japanese abbreviated and contracted words
Abbreviated and contracted words are a common feature of Japanese. Long words are often contracted into shorter forms, which then become the predominant forms. For example, the University of Tokyo, in Japanese Tōkyō Daigaku becomes , Tōdai, and "remote control", rimōto kontorōrā , becomes rimokon....
wāpuro) while using a Western QWERTY
QWERTY
QWERTY is the most common modern-day keyboard layout. The name comes from the first six letters appearing in the topleft letter row of the keyboard, read left to right: Q-W-E-R-T-Y. The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington in the...
keyboard.
In Japanese, the more formal name is , literally "Roman character kana conversion". One conversion method has been standardized as JIS X 4063:2000 (Keystroke to KANA Transfer Method Using Latin Letter Key for Japanese Input Method); however, the standard explicitly states that it is intended as a means of input, not as a method of romanization.
Wāpuro rōmaji is now frequently employed in general-purpose computer input as well as word processing, but the name lives on. Wāpuro-style romanizations are also frequently used by native speakers of Japanese in informal contexts, as well as many fans of anime
Anime
is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....
and other aspects of Japanese culture
Culture of Japan
The culture of Japan has evolved greatly over the millennia, from the country's prehistoric Jōmon period to its contemporary hybrid culture, which combines influences from Asia, Europe and North America...
. In these often online cases, the most common characteristic is the lack of hard-to-type circumflexes or macrons. Also, some ambiguities in these online spellings may exist, unlike wāpuro rōmaji, that would produce errors when actually typed into kana, for example differences between ず and づ, as well as particles which are sometimes spelled phonetically instead when direct display of the romaji is intended.
Spelling conventions
In practice, there are as many variants of wāpuro rōmaji as there are manufacturers of word processing and IME software. Many aspects of HepburnHepburn romanization
The is named after James Curtis Hepburn, who used it to transcribe the sounds of the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet in the third edition of his Japanese–English dictionary, published in 1887. The system was originally proposed by the in 1885...
, Kunrei and Nihon-shiki
Nihon-shiki
Nihon-shiki or Nippon-shiki Rōmaji is a romanization system for transliterating the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet. In discussion about romaji, it is abbreviated as Nihon-shiki or Nippon-shiki. Among the major romanization systems for Japanese, Nippon-shiki is the most regular, and has...
romanizations are accepted, so that both si (Kunrei/Nihon-shiki) and shi (Hepburn) resolve to し. Some conventions, however, differ from standard romanizations:
- Owing to the difficulty of entering diacritics like macrons or circumflexes with standard keyboards—as well as the ambiguity of ō, etc. which in Hepburn can represent either おう or おお—long vowels are almost universally entered following kanaKanaKana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...
spelling rules; thus, kou for こう and kuu for くう. - The Nihon-shiki forms of romanization take precedence over other romanizations. Thus du usually produces づ rather than どぅ.
- Small kana can be entered by prefacing them with an x or l, e.g. xa for ぁ, or ltu for っ. This is commonly employed for modern katakanaKatakanais a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...
combinations like ティ, which would be entered texi or thi. However, on some systems l is treated the same as r when followed by a vowel or "y". - じゃ, じゅ and じょ may also be romanized as jya, jyu and jyo respectively. This matches the kana closely, but is used by neither Nihon-shiki/Kunrei (which would be zya, zyu, zyo) nor Hepburn (ja, ju, jo).
- The Hepburn spelling tchi for っち may be rejected, and cchi must be used instead.
- The Hepburn spelling mma is likely to be rendered っま, not the intended んま (nma). This is not an issue for revised Hepburn, which eliminates the -mm- forms in favor of -nm-.
- MoraicMora (linguistics)Mora is a unit in phonology that determines syllable weight, which in some languages determines stress or timing. As with many technical linguistic terms, the definition of a mora varies. Perhaps the most succinct working definition was provided by the American linguist James D...
n, ん, can be entered as nn, n orn' . While moraic n can be typed in simply as n in some cases, in other cases it is necessary to type in a non-ambiguous form to prevent the IME from interpreting the n as belonging to a kana from the na column (な na, に ni, ぬ nu, ね ne, の no). - Phonetic names can often be used for Japanese typographic symbolsJapanese typographic symbolsThis page lists Japanese typographic symbols which are not included in kana or kanji.The links in the Unicode column lead to the Unihan database.-Repetition marks:-Brackets and quotation marks:-Phonetic marks:-Punctuation marks:...
not found on standard keyboards. For example, in some IMEs ～ can be entered as nami or kara and an ellipsis (…) can be entered as tenten.
Phonetic accuracy
Unlike Kunrei and Hepburn, wāpuro style is based on a one-to-one transcriptionTranscription (linguistics)
Transcription in the linguistic sense is the systematic representation of language in written form. The source can either be utterances or preexisting text in another writing system, although some linguists only consider the former as transcription.Transcription should not be confused with...
of the kana
Kana
Kana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...
. Wāpuro thus does not represent some distinctions observed in spoken Japanese, but not in writing, such as the difference between /oː/ (long vowel) and /oɯ/ (o+u). For example, in standard Japanese the kana おう can be pronounced in two different ways: as /oː/ meaning "king" (王), and as /oɯ/ meaning "to chase" (追う). Kunrei and Hepburn spell the two differently as ō and ou, as the former is a long vowel while the latter has a o which happens to be followed by a u; however, wāpuro style renders them both as ou. Likewise, the irregularly spelled particles wa (は), e (へ) and o (を) must be entered as written (ha, he and wo respectively), not as pronounced, unlike in Kunrei and Hepburn.