Pronunciation

Japanese has five vowels. Like the vowels in many European languages other than English, they are
“pure” vowels; that is, they are not diphthongized. The vowels are pronounced roughly like these
sounds in standard North American English: “A” as in “father,” “E” as in “set,” “I” as in “bee,” “O”
as in “toe” (but without the “W” glide at the end) and “U” midway between the vowels in “good”
and “goo” (but with the lips less rounded, and without the “W” glide at the end). Vowels in
Japanese may be long or short. Long vowels are held for twice as long as short vowels, but except
for the length, there is no difference in pronunciation between short and long vowels.

That said, the short vowels “I” and “U,” and occasionally others, are often whispered (“devoiced”)
when they come between two unvoiced consonants. For this reason, words such as “deshita” and
“Asuka” often sound like “deshta” and “Aska” to the English ear.

Consonants may also be short or long (“doubled”). Doubled consonants are pronounced by
holding the sound for an extra beat, something like the “P” sound in “cap-pistol.”

The “L” and “R” sound issue is a bit misunderstood: all Japanese can pronounce one of them, and
many can pronounce both. The problem is that in the Japanese language they do not discriminate
between the sounds, and to the English ear it sometimes sounds like an “L,” and sometimes more
like an “R,” or even like a rapid “D” as in “adder.”

Japanese also has what is called a “syllabic nasal.” This sounds like the English “N” in “night” when
it is followed by an “S,” “Z,” “T,” “D,” “N,” or “R” sound, like the “NG” in “sing” when followed
by a vowel or a “K,” “G,” “Y,” or “W” sound, and like the “M” in “man” when followed by a “B,”
“P,” or “M” sound.

Japanese lacks the strong stress accent found in English, and so in Japanese it is generally safest to
pronounce a word flat, making each syllable (including the syllabic nasal) the same length. This
means that instead of “tsuNAmi” (as pronounced in English), it is better to pronounce all three
syllables with equal stress. (Japanese does have a pitch accent, but its complexities are beyond the
scope of this brief overview.)

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Hepburn Romanization

Several methods are in use to transliterate Japanese into the Latin alphabet. A modified version of
the Hepburn system is probably the most widespread, and it also has the advantage of being the
easiest for English speakers to learn. Others that may be encountered include the Kunrei and
Nippon systems.

In Hepburn romanization, “sh” and “ch” represent sounds like those written the same way in
English, as in “fish” and “chocolate.” The sound represented by “g” is always hard as in “get,”
never soft as in “age.”

Note that the hiragana and katakana character sets map to the same sounds. There are many
exceptions, but katakana is generally used for loan words from other languages, while hiragana is
more commonly used for native Japanese words.

Simple Sounds

Latin hiragana katakana Latin hiragana katakana Latin hiragana katakana

a あ ア ka か カ sa さ サ
i い イ ki き キ shi し シ
u う ウ ku く ク su す ス
e え エ ke け ケ se せ セ
o お オ ko こ コ so そ ソ

Latin hiragana katakana Latin hiragana katakana Latin hiragana katakana

ta た タ na な ナ ha (1) は ハ
chi ち チ ni に ニ hi ひ ヒ
tsu つ ツ nu ぬ ヌ fu ふ フ
te て テ ne ね ネ he (2) へ ヘ
to と ト no の ノ ho ほ ホ

Latin hiragana katakana Latin hiragana katakana Latin hiragana katakana

ma ま マ ya や ヤ ra ら ラ
mi み ミ ri り リ
mu む ム yu ゆ ユ ru る ル
me め メ re れ レ
mo も モ yo よ ヨ ro ろ ロ

Latin hiragana katakana Latin hiragana katakana

wa わ ワ n (5) ん ン
wi (3) ゐ ヰ

we (3) ゑ ヱ
o (4) を ヲ

Notes:

(1) Romanized as “wa” when used as grammatical particle.

(2) Romanized as “e” when used as grammatical particle.

(3) No longer in use.

(4) Historically “wo.” Now used only as grammatical particle.

(5) The syllabic nasal; also often romanized as “m” before “b,” “m,” or “p.”

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Voiced Consonants and “P”

Latin hiragana katakana Latin hiragana katakana Latin hiragana katakana

ga が ガ za ざ ザ da だ ダ
gi ぎ ギ ji じ ジ ji ぢ ヂ
gu ぐ グ zu ず ズ zu づ ヅ
ge げ ゲ ze ぜ ゼ de で デ
go ご ゴ zo ぞ ゾ do ど ド

Latin hiragana katakana Latin hiragana katakana

ba ば バ pa ぱ パ
bi び ビ pi ぴ ピ
bu ぶ ブ pu ぷ プ
be べ ベ pe ぺ ペ
bo ぼ ボ po ぽ ポ

In words written in katakana, long vowels are usually indicated by placing a bar after the vowel, as
in カーブ (from “curve”) and ブルー (from “blue”). In the Hepburn system, words whose kana
spellings use a bar to indicate a long vowel are always romanized by placing a macron over the
vowel.

In hiragana, long “A,” “I,” and “U,” are always spelled by writing the vowel sound twice, as in お
かあさん, うつくしい, and ふうりん. Long “E” is sometimes spelled in the same way, by placing
an “e” character after the “E” sound, as in おねえさん, but more commonly it is spelled by
placing the character for “i” after the “E” sound, as in せんせい. Long “O” is usually spelled by
placing the character for “u” after the “O” sound, as in たいおう, but the are a number of
common exceptions where the first character containing the “O” sound is followed by the “o”
character, as in とおい and おおきい. There are also cases where the following “u” character is a
verb ending that keeps its pronunciation as “U” and does not indicate a long “O,” as in おもう.
Here are the rules for romanization for such cases:

• Long “A,” “O,” and “U” are indicated by placing a macron over the long vowel.
• Long “E” follows the same pattern when the long vowel is indicated by the “e” character,
but is written “ei” when the kana spelling uses the “i” character.
• Long “I” is always written “ii.”

For example,

おかあさん okâsan ビール bîru

うつくしい utsukushii ふうりん fûrin
おねえさん onêsan せんせい sensei
たいおう taiô おもう omou
とおい tôi

In phonetic Japanese script, a small “tsu” is used to show that the following consonant is to be
pronounced doubled. In romanized Japanese, doubled consonants are transliterated by writing
the consonant twice, except for a doubled “CH” sound, which is romanized as “-tch-.”

kk (as in “Nikkô”) にっこう

pp (as in “ippai”) いっぱい
ss (as in “bassuru”) ばっする
tch (as in “matcha”) まっちゃ
tt (as in “matte”) まって

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When the syllabic nasal is followed by a vowel or a “Y” sound, an apostrophe (‘) is placed after the
“n” to show that the “n” is not part of the following syllable. The following examples illustrate the
difference.

きにゅう（記入） kinyû
きんゆう（金融） kin‘yû

Short Compound Syllables

Latin hiragana katakana Latin hiragana katakana Latin hiragana katakana

kya きゃ キャ sha しゃ シャ cha ちゃ チャ
kyu きゅ キュ shu しゅ シュ chu ちゅ チュ
kyo きょ キョ sho しょ ショ cho ちょ チョ

Latin hiragana katakana Latin hiragana katakana Latin hiragana katakana

nya にゃ ニャ hya ひゃ ヒャ mya みゃ ミャ
nyu にゅ ニュ hyu ひゅ ヒュ myu みゅ ミュ
nyo にょ ニョ hyo ひょ ヒョ myo みょ ミョ

Latin hiragana katakana Latin hiragana katakana Latin hiragana katakana

rya りゃ リャ gya ぎゃ ギャ ja じゃ ジャ
ryu りゅ リュ gyu ぎゅ ギュ ju じゅ ジュ
ryo りょ リョ gyo ぎょ ギョ jo じょ ジョ

Latin hiragana katakana Latin hiragana katakana Latin hiragana katakana

ja ぢゃ ヂャ bya びゃ ビャ pya ぴゃ ピャ
ju ぢゅ ヂュ byu びゅ ビュ pyu ぴゅ ピュ
jo ぢょ ヂョ byo びょ ビョ pyo ぴょ ピョ

Foreign names and some other words (especially loan words) are written using compound-kana
spellings that are not covered in the foregoing tables. The following examples illustrate the
principles of romanizing such words.

ヴァイオリン vaiorin violin フォーク fôku fork

フューズ fyûzu fuse デュアル dyuaru dual
ティラミス tiramisu tiramisu ツェツェばえ tsetsebae tse-tse fly
クォーター kwôtâ quarter ジェスチャー jesuchâ gesture

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Variant Systems

While most romanizations in the Kunrei and Nippon systems match those of the Hepburn system,
there are a few differences:

Hepburn Kunrei Nippon Hepburn Kunrei Nippon

ka ka kwa shu syu syu
ga ga gwa sho syo syo
shi si si ja (じゃ) zya zya
ji (じ) zi zi ju zyu zyu
chi ti ti jo zyo zyo
ji (ぢ) zi di cha tya tya
tsu tu tu chu tyu tyu
zu (づ) zu du cho tyo tyo
fu hu hu ja (ぢゃ) zya dya
o (を) o wo ju zyu dyu
sha sya sya jo zyo dyo

The Kunrei and Nippon systems indicate long vowels using a circumflex ( ^ ) instead of a macron
( ¯ ).

One feature of the Kunrei and Nippon systems is that they attempt to reflect the original Japanese
kana more closely than the Hepburn system does. However, this leads to romanized spellings that
may give rise to incorrect pronunciations by readers unfamiliar with these systems (“tyo” and
“zyo,” for example). The Hepburn system overcomes this by using spelling conventions familiar to
English readers, and that will, it is hoped, guide the reader toward something closer to the actual
Japanese pronunciation (“cho” and “jo”).

One other variant that is less systematic, but often seen, is what has come to be called “baseball
romanization” because of its use in writing the names of professional baseball players on their
uniforms. This system is based on the Hepburn system, but instead of macrons over long vowels it
uses an “h” after the vowel to be lengthened, as in “Kondoh” and “Saitoh.”

Occasionally other methods are seen for indicating long vowels, such as by writing the vowel
sound twice, as in Toukyou or Tookyoo for “Tokyo.”

Not a true variant but an often-seen error in romanization is the insertion of a superfluous “y” in
some short compound syllables. This appears to be a confounding of the Hepburn system with
other systems, giving rise to such misspellings as “shya,” “chyu,” and “jyo” (the correct Hepburn
romanizations for these being “sha,” “chu,” and “jo”).

Kurodahan‘s Policy

We prefer to use the modified Hepburn system for most uses because of its simplicity and the ease
with which it can be learned by readers of English. Macrons indicating long vowels are sometimes
omitted, especially in nonspecialist texts and for place-names and other proper nouns whose
conventional English spellings ignore distinctions in vowel length (e.g., Tokyo, not Tôkyô; Osaka,
not Ôsaka; and Tojo Hideki, not Tôjô Hideki). For personal names whose owners have
demonstrated a clear preference for a particular spelling, we try whenever possible to observe the
owner‘s preference. (As the last example above shows, it is also Kurodahan‘s policy to write
Japanese and other East Asian names in their original order, that is, family name first and given
name last, unless the owner of the name has demonstrated a preference for reversed order.)

In specialist texts, and for Japanese words from an older stage of the language, we may use
spellings based on the Nippon system, as in Middle Japanese tahutosi (Modern Japanese tôtoi).

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