Today we are going to talk a little about romaji, which is a writing system used to transcribe the reading of Japanese words into the Roman/Latin alphabet, allowing people who do not know Japanese to read.
Romaji (ローマ字) literally means “Roman letter,” and this is how we refer to the transliteration of the Japanese language. This romanization is present where there are messages intended for foreigners, such as in street signs, in passports, in dictionaries, and in textbooks for language students.
Interestingly, the word Romaji can be written in various ways, as there are different types of romanization of the Japanese language. You may find roumaji, romaji, ro-maji, or rōmaji (with accent). There is no right or wrong!
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The Origin of Japanese Romanization – Romaji
The first romanization originated from the spelling of the Portuguese language and was created in 1548 by a Catholic named Yajiro. This system was created so that missionaries could preach and teach without having to learn to read Japanese. There is a great similarity between Japanese syllables and syllables in Portuguese, making this work much easier.
During the Meiji era, some Japanese scholars tried to abolish the Japanese writing system and use only rōmaji. Several Japanese texts were published entirely in rōmaji, but the idea soon died out, probably due to the numerous words with the same pronunciation or with only one syllable. Kanji is a very necessary item in Japanese and can never be left out.
Rōmaji makes life easier for many who do not understand Japanese. Let’s see the example of a romanized sentence:
| Japanese | 俺の妹がこんなに可愛いわけがない |
| Translation | There’s no way my sister can be this cute |
| Roumaji | Ore no imouto ga konnani kawaii wake ga nai |
| Rōmaji | Ore no imōto ga konnani kawaii wake ga nai |
As you may have noticed, there are 2 different ways to write “rōmaji” or “roumaji,” both are correct, it all depends on the type or system of romanization you use. The romanization system can use either a vowel, a macron, or an accent to romanize long vowels. Let’s get to know some types of Rōmaji.
DIFFERENT Types of ROMAJI – ROMANIZATION
Throughout Japanese history, several versions of romanization have been created, among them:
Hepburn System (ヘボン式 / hebon-shiki) – The Hepburn system was created by James Curtis Hepburn (1815-1911). An American missionary from Philadelphia, who arrived in Japan in 1859 and compiled the first Japanese-English dictionary. The Hepburn system is now the most widely used romanization system.
Kunrei System (訓令式 / kunreishiki) – The Kunrei system was promulgated by the Japanese government during the 1930s. A revised version was issued in 1954. See below the differences between Kuntei and Hepburn romanization:
| Hepburn | si, ti, tu, hu, zi, sya, syu, syo, tya, tyu, ty, zya, zyu, zyo |
| Kunrei | shi, chi, tsu, fu, ji, sha, shu, sho, cha, chu, cho, ja, ju, jo |
JSL – The JSL is a romanization system based on Japanese phonetics. It is written as heard and has no accents or dashes. The difference with Hepburn is that JSL uses vowels instead of accents to represent long vowels.
Long vowels are pronounced by elongating the vowel. Words like 東京 (Tōkyō) and ローマ字 (rōmaji) have long vowels, see how they are romanized in each system:
| JSL | oo ou | toukyou ou tookyoo | ro-maji |
| Hepburn | ā, ē, ī, ō, ū | tōkyō | rōmaji |
| Kunrei | â, ê, î, ô, û | tôkyô | rômazi |
Nihon-shiki (日本式 / nipponshiki) – It is a little-used system, created by Tanakadate Aikitsu in 1881.
| Nihon | da, di, du, de, do, dya, dyu, dyo |
| Kunrei | da, zi, zu, de, do, zya, zyu, zyo |
| Hepburn | da, ji, zu, de, do, ja, ju, jo |
Is it worth using romanization to study Japanese?
The romanization of the Japanese language can hinder more than help. Starting with the fact that there are different types of romaji, leading people to even argue about the correct way to write it.
Other modifications occur when romanizing a word or name of foreign origin, words that have an “L” but are written with “R” in Japanese can be easily romanized with “l”.
Many question why the Japanese do not just use romaji? The main reason is the homonymous and homophonic words, there are thousands of them in Japanese. How will you know which kami [紙,神,髪] means “paper” when there are several words with the same writing and pronunciation?
The constant use of rōmaji will only hinder your learning. If you already know hiragana and katakana, stay away from rōmaji as much as possible. If you need to convert a text to rōmaji, just paste it into Google Translate or some converter.
If you already master the basics of the Japanese language such as hiragana and katakana, we strongly encourage you to stay away from romanization. However, for those who have not yet immersed themselves in the Japanese language, our Roman letters have advantages, one of which is their ease of reading and the space between words that does not exist in standard Japanese.
With Romaji you can learn basic things without problems such as:
- Asking basic questions for everyday life;
- Greetings;
- Learning and singing Japanese songs;
- The numbers;
- The hours, days, and months;
- Shopping;
- Asking for directions;
- Staying in a hotel;
- Sharing with people who do not know Japanese;
- Among others..;
It is necessary to use romanization to learn hiragana and katakana from scratch.
There are problems and difficulties in studying using only romanization in the long term. Some of these problems are:
- Very similar words;
- Lack of different sounds in Japanese;
- Words written in kanji;
- Words written with only one syllable or phoneme;
- Different types of romaji;
- Lack of romanized material;
In addition to Romaji, there is another facilitator for those who have already learned hiragana and katakana called Furigana. We recommend reading the article about furigana by clicking here.
Videos about Romaji
To finish, we will leave some videos about romanization below that can help you understand more about the subject. Starting with a video made by the sensei of our Japanese course at Suki Desu and then from Luiz Rafael, who is another Sensei that I respect a lot, promote, and follow with pleasure.
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