AniDB Definition:Romanisation: Difference between revisions

The information on this page is provided as ''guidelines'' on the use of romanised Japanese (''rōmaji'') in [[AniDB:About|AniDB]]. Please be aware that this is not an exact science, there are many viable solutions to the same problem, though when submitting [[How_to_update_or_correct_existing_entries|change requests]] on romanised titles users are expected to adhere to the 'house style' of the database. When there is contention over a particular issue, this page will provide both alternatives. External links to Wikipedia are provided throughout for ideas and terms that might be unfamiliar.

* '''Primarily''', to provide a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transcription_%28linguistics%29 transcription] of the Japanese title that is ''aurally recognisable'' and ''readable'' by a user with little or no knowledge of the language. In using Roman script, this is obviously targeted at speakers of European languages, however as this constitutes a majority of the population of AniDB users, this is a fair restriction.

* There is no requirement to be able to reconstruct the original title from romanised form. With [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_writing_system three distinct scripts plus Roman], a wide range of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homophone homophones], and typographic intricacies such as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Furigana furigana] usage, this is beyond the scope of a 26 letter alphabet. In all cases the Japanese title should be presented as well, a romanised form is in no way a replacement for this.

* Further more, the romanisation need not be a lossless [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transliteration transliteration] of Japanese spelling. Though less so than English, Japanese pronunciation deviates somewhat from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoneme phonemic] spelling. As the aim is to provide an aurally recognisable transcription, it is more important to better reflect the sound than exact spelling.

* Romanised titles do not need to provide a basis for correct Japanese [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collation collation] of titles. This is a technical problem that would be better handled correctly through its own system, and would interfere with the primary purpose of the romanisation.

* Romanisations need not have an 'official' status. Though both the Japanese makers and international licensees might provide a romanised title, this is irrelevant to a transcription of the Japanese title - except arguably in the case of [[{{PAGENAME}}#What to do with names and invented terms|names]].

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepburn Hepburn] romanisation system was devised for a Japanese–English dictionary, published in 1867. Despite having no official status, variations of it are used for a vast majority of transcriptions, both inside and outside Japan. Unlike the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C5%8Dmaji two other main romanisation schemes], it concentrates of representing Japanese phonology rather than the underlying spelling.

Each [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mora_%28linguistics%29 mora] represented in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kana kana] spelling of a Japanese word can be transcribed into Roman letters according to the table below, with a few special cases that are listed in the following sections. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiragana hiragana] is on the left, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katakana katakana] is on the right.

Table adapted from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepburn_romanization wikipedia article on Hepburn]. Obsolete kana are shown in <font color=red>red</font>.

:{{a|3083|Anime TV de Hakken! Tamagotchi|アニメ　ＴＶで発見!!　たまごっち}} The toys are best known as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tamagotchi Tamagotchi], the spelling 'tamagocchi' not used.

:{{a|242|Futari Ecchi|ふたりエッチ}} [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecchi Ecchi] has been borrowed back into English, and almost always spelt with the 'cch' - though this particular title is arguably just 'Futari H'.