Kiriji and Romaji: how to write Japanese in Cyrillic

So, let's read in Japanese. You need to start this lesson after you have thoroughly mastered the first Lesson of the Japanese language, namely, you have learned the syllabary alphabet called Hiragana, and you can distinguish and read all its basic characters.

So, let's begin. Naturally, the characters of the Hiragana alphabet do not exist on their own. When combined they form words. Let's learn to read them correctly.

(Tip: You can periodically return to this lesson until you are 100% sure that you are reading correctly and remember all the rules of Japanese pronunciation)

1) Reduction of sounds [and] and [y]

If the sounds [i] and [u] in Japanese are located between 2 voiceless consonant sounds (for example, [k], [s], [p], [t]), then they are reduced, that is, they are partially not pronounced :

ひと → reads “hto” (and NOT hito!), the sound [and] is partially reduced / translation of the word: “man” した → reads “sta” (and NOT sita!) (the sound “s” should be pronounced closer to “shch” , while the sound itself should be pronounced briefly. In the first lesson, we explained in detail the features of the pronunciation of Hiragana sounds); the sound [and] is partially reduced / translation of the word: “bottom, below” ふとい → read “ftoy” (and NOT futoy!), the sound [u] is partially reduced (drops out) / “thick” あした → read “ashta”, sound [ and] is partially reduced / translation of the word: “tomorrow” ふた → reads “fta”, the sound [u] is partially reduced / translation of the word: “lid” よろしく → reads “eroshchku”, sound [and] is partially reduced / translation: “hello”です → read “des”, the sound [u] at the end is partially reduced / translation: verb link “is, to be”

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2) Pronunciation [n] ん

The pronunciation of ん varies depending on what sound follows it.

a)
Before the syllables of the series ま、ば、ぱ is pronounced like [m]!!!
うんめい → ummei / “fate” (after ん there is a symbol め from the series ～ま (ま、み、む、め、も)) まんまんな → mammanna / “full of something” ～んぱ → mpa

b) In all other cases as [n]:

せんろ → senro / “rails” みんな → minna / “all”

c) Takes on a slightly nasal [ŋ] sound before syllables が、か てんき → tenki / “weather” けんがく → kengaku / “study of something”

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For any customer, first of all, it is important that a specific employee is responsible for the translation of the text: it is easier for him to communicate with the manager of the translation agency, who can answer any question about the ordered translation. In this context, the location of the translation agency office will be a favorable factor for most clients from Moscow. The translation agency is located in the center of Moscow, which largely determines the geography of our clients; it is especially convenient when there is an urgent need to translate a large volume of printed documentation or transmit reporting documents.

3) Formation of voiced and voiceless consonants

[゛] – nigori. It is added to signs with a voiceless consonant sound, converting it into a voiced sound.

[゜] – maru.
Forms signs with the consonant [n].
Maru is placed only at the は row. These signs are placed above the main symbol. か → が ga き → ぎ gi く → ぐ gu け → げ ge こ → ご go

さ → ざ za し → じ ji (with buzzing) す → ず zu せ → ぜ ze そ → ぞ zo

た → だ da ち → ぢ ji (with buzzing) つ → づ zu て → で de と → ど do

は → ば ba ひ → び bi ふ → ぶ bu へ → べ be ほ → ぼ bo

は → ぱ pa ひ → ぴ pi ふ → ぷ pu へ → ぺ pe ほ → ぽ po

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The translation agency cooperates with proven translators from around the world. In terms of personnel, the company focuses on long-term joint activities with translators. This is the main factor ensuring the high and consistent quality of our translations. In all areas of translation, we can offer translation services on almost any translation topic. The costs of professional translators from Russia, the EU countries and the USA are the main expense item for a translation agency. It is not possible to simply reduce translation costs and translator fees. First-class specialists will leave and remain in the translation agency; at best, they will be “average”. However, it turns out that by hiring professional translators you can achieve good results at lower costs. Most specialists at the Flarus translation agency prefer to work regularly at lower prices than to have unstable orders at higher translation prices.

The service of booking a translator is popular among clients of the translation agency Flarus. For example, if you are satisfied with the quality of the translation and want the same translator to carry out all your orders, we can assign a specific translator to you.

4) Combinations with や、ゆ、よ

The formation of a new syllable with these vowel sounds occurs in Japanese as follows: Base syllable of the form [sogl + い] + smaller ゃ、ょ、ゅ = New syllable

For example,
き(ki) + ゃ(я) = new syllable きゃ (kya) in the voiced version: ぎ(gi) + ゃ(я) = new syllable ぎゃ (gya)きゃ
kya → ぎゃ gya きゅ kyu → ぎゅ gyu きょ kyo → ぎょ gyo

しゃ xia (shcha) → じゃ jia しゅ shu (schu) → じゅ ju しょ sho (shche) → じょ jo

ちゃ cha (with [h]) → ぢゃ jia ちゅ chu (with [h]) → ぢゅ ju ちょ cho (with [h]) → ぢょ jo

ひゃ hya → びゃ bya ひゅ hyu → びゅ byu ひょ hyo → びょ byo Try to write the rows with み、に、ぴ yourself in the same way

The pronunciation of the entire syllable and the meaning of the entire word depend on the value of や、ゆ、よ!!!

ひやく→ read “hiyaku” / “jump”: The sign [や] is read independently as a separate syllable. ひゃく→ read “hyaku” / “jump”: The sign [ゃ] is not read independently, it is part of a new syllable

びょういん → reads “byo:in” / “hospital” (about long sounds in the next paragraph) びよういん → reads “biyo:in” / “beauty salon”

じゆう → read “jiu:” / “freedom” じゅう → read “ju:” / “ten”

Let's learn Japanese from scratch! レッスン3 – Lesson 3

Japanese alphabet and its transcription using Latin characters

The need to study Romaji is dictated primarily by the fact that this alphabet is used both in Japan and in Russia and foreign countries. In addition, knowledge of romaji makes it possible to correctly convey in practical Russian transcription Japanese names, first names and surnames found in languages ​​using the Latin script.

Since the appearance of the first Romaji texts recorded by missionaries, various systems for writing Japanese text in Latin letters have been put forward, but currently the most common of them are two: the state Japanese Latin script, intended for the Japanese, and the so-called Hepburn Latin script, created at one time for English speakers.

Everything here is the same as in the previous lessons, only in letters of the Latin alphabet. They need to be remembered. The rest is optional (more details later).

Japanese alphabet in Latin transcription (Hepburn Latin)

Column syllables KA, SA, TA, HA and their voiced correspondence in Latin transcription (Hepburn Latin)

Syllables with soft consonants in Latin transcription (Hepburn Latin)

Differences between the state (1) and Hepburn (2) Latin alphabet systems

5) Longitude of sounds

a) Sounds [o] and [u]

are lengthened by the sign [う],
while [う] is not read separately, but only “pulls” the previous sound (increasing the duration of the sound).
The “long” sound sounds twice as long as usual. On our website, we will denote the longitude of a sound with a colon during transcription! Be careful in future reading lessons.

そう → so: / so くうこう → ku:ko: / airport こうこう → ko:ko: / high school しんよう → shinyo: / trust りょこう → ryōko: / travel りゆう→ ryu: / reason Exceptions are words , where [o] is lengthened by the sign お: おおきい → o:ky / big とお → to: / ten とおい → to:y / distant

b) Sounds [a], [i], [e]

are lengthened by signs with the same sound [あ], [い], [え] respectively ちいさい → ti:sai / small いいえ → i:e / no ええ → e: / yes ねえ → ne: / so, listen

c) Sound [e]

can also be lengthened with the sign [い]: せんせい → sensee: / teacher せいと → se:to / student けいたい → ke:tai / abbr. mobile phone

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6) Doubling voiceless consonants

The small sign [っ] doubles the consonant sound that follows it: ちょっと → te tt

o (more correctly through a light “ch”: chetto) / a little, a little きって → ki
tt
e / postage stamp きっぷ → ki
pp
u / ticket つっこむ → tsu
kk
omu / immerse yourself, delve into We recommend moving on to the next lesson and practicing everything reading rules.

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^^

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Rules for converting Kunrei Romaji to Kiriji

Vowels

Syllables

Combinations

N and M

N before p, b, m in the Hepburn system (and in pronunciation, but not in the official system) is replaced by m. Similar changes occur in kiriji.

Syllabic "n"

before vowels it is sometimes designated as
“нъ”
to distinguish it in pronunciation from
“n”
as part of a syllable:
“kanyi”
(“rank”), but
“kani”
(“crab”).

Accent

Typically, Japanese words, titles and names in Russian are pronounced with emphasis on the penultimate syllable, and such emphasis is generally preferable in doubtful cases. However, there are a number of exceptions, in particular:

• Words ending in “on”
  ,
  “an”
  ,
  “mono”
  and
  “ko”
  (in three-syllable words) are pronounced with emphasis on the last syllable:
  “ippOn”
  ,
  “jomOn”
  ,
  “kimonO”
  ,
  “nuriko”
  , but
  “ heiko"
  ,
  "tenno"
  ,
  "nagano"
  .
  If the ending is “en”
  , you can do both (
  seinEn
  -
  seinen
  ).
• Words ending in diphthongs “ai/ey/ui/oh”
  are pronounced with emphasis on the last syllable:
  “sensei”
  ,
  “samurai”
  ,
  “bankey”
  .
• The emphasis cannot fall on “u”
  and
  “i”
  standing between two voiceless consonants.
  In this case, it is transferred to the second syllable from the end (if there is one), or to the last syllable: “Asuka”
  ,
  “sukA”
  ,
  “tasuki”
  ,
  “tEzuka”
  ,
  “fukU”
  .
• If the last syllable of a Japanese word is long, then the stress falls on it, even if the longitude of the syllable is not conveyed in the spelling: "maho"
  .
• The word “Tokyo”
  is pronounced this way according to tradition (actually, the more correct spelling is
  “Tokyo”
  ).
• Words containing one syllable with “е”
  can be pronounced with emphasis on this syllable (according to the general rule of Russian stress):
  “aUm shinriyo”
  (“Aum” is not a Japanese word and is pronounced according to different rules).

Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to find an authoritative source describing the rules for forming the pronunciation of Japanese words in Russian. In this regard, I formulated the above rules based on an analysis of historically established pronunciation among otaku. ^_^

However, I’ll reveal a little professional linguistic secret - reference books on correct pronunciation are formed in a similar way, only based on surveys of more representative groups.

E. D. Polivanov - biographical information

Evgeny Dmitrievich Polivanov

born February 28 (March 12, new style) 1891 in Smolensk. In 1912, he graduated from St. Petersburg University and, at the same time, from the Eastern Practical Academy (Japanese category). In 1917-1918 he worked as Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs for Eastern countries. In 1919, Polivanov became a professor at Petrograd University. By that time he already spoke 17 languages.

In 1921, Polivanov went to work for the Comintern, then became a professor at the Central Asian University in Tashkent. In 1926, he returned to Moscow to work in a number of Oriental educational institutions. In 1929, he became a professor at the Uzbek State Research Institute in Samarkand (since 1930 - in Tashkent), and in 1934 - at the Kyrgyz Institute of Cultural Construction (Frunze).

Polivanov’s main work is “Introduction to Linguistics for Oriental Universities”

(1928), the first textbook of this kind in our country.
Also in 1930, he published (co-authored) “Grammar of the Modern Chinese Language”
and
“Grammar of the Japanese Spoken Language”

“Manas”
into Russian .
Together with Yu. N. Tynyanov
,
B. M. Eikhenbaum
and other famous writers, he became the founder and participant
of OPOYAZ
(Society for the Study of Poetic Languages).

In 1928-1929, Polivanov sharply opposed the social-Marxist “New Doctrine of Language”

Academician
Marr
. For this, he was persecuted by Marr's students, he was forbidden to work and publish. On August 1, 1937, he was arrested in Frunze, and on January 25, 1938, he was shot in Moscow. In 1963, Polivanov was posthumously rehabilitated.

Hepburn system

In the second half of the 19th century, American missionary D. K. Hepburn

(JC Hepburn) proposed his own Romaji transcription system, based on the English way of writing consonants and the Latin way of writing vowels.

Hepburn's system became the de facto standard for transcription of the Japanese language, first in English-speaking countries, and then in all countries using the Latin alphabet. During the occupation after World War II, the Hepburn system was declared official in Japan. It still continues to be used by the Japanese when they correspond with foreigners.

It is the transcription according to the Hepburn system that can most often be found on the Internet.

Differences between the official and Hepburn systems:

Declension

Japanese words ending in "a"

,
“ya”
,
“y”
and
“n”
, are declined in accordance with the rules of the Russian language, although there is a linguistic tradition
of “radical Japaneseists”
.

There is no reason not to do this. If it is important to definitely indicate the initial form of a word, you should reformulate its first mention in the text so that the word is in the nominative case.

Example: “The works of Nagai Go...”

->
“Nagai Go created many works...”
.

If you write "Works of Nagai Go"

, then in Russian it will mean that Nagai Go is a woman. The native language should be respected more than the foreign one. ^_^

Vowel length notation

• In the official system - by doubling the vowel (ookii) or by ^ above the letter. The length of the sound "o" is often indicated by the combination "ou": "ryousi".
• In Hepburn's - as in the official system, as well as a line above the letter and the letter "h" after the vowel - "Yohko".
• In kiriji - a colon after the letter ( ryo:shi
  ) or a line above the letter.

The length of the vowel may also not be indicated at all, since the transfer of this phonetic feature does not make sense in the Russian language. Especially often, the length of vowels is not indicated when transmitting Japanese names. For example, the name "Tarot"

in Romaji it is written as "Tarou".