Transcription into Japanese


In contemporary Japanese writing, foreign-language loanwords and foreign names are normally written in the katakana script, which is one component of the Japanese writing system. As far as possible, sounds in the source language are matched to the nearest sounds in the Japanese language, and the result is transcribed using standard katakana characters, each of which represents one syllable. For example, America is written アメリカ. To accommodate various foreign-language sounds not present in Japanese, a system of extended katakana has also developed to augment standard katakana.
Katakana, like the other Japanese kana, hiragana, has a one-to-one correspondence between sounds and characters. Therefore, once the "Japanese sound" of a word is established, there is no ambiguity in its katakana spelling.
A much less common form of transcription, not covered in this article, uses kanji characters for their phonetic values. For information on this method see Ateji.

Practicalities of transcription

Word length

Because Japanese is written with kanji, the relative complexity of its characters means Japanese generally needs to be written larger than English for legibility. Since Japanese characters encode one syllable at a time rather than one phoneme the amount of space taken tends to be the same, but challenges arise when Japanese encounters syllables and consonant clusters that the kana system isn't designed to handle. For example, the word smartphone is rendered in Japanese as スマートフォン. The syllable smar requires three characters to write down, which, while using one less character than English, does not take up the same amount of horizontal space.

Syllable structure

Since Japanese has few closed syllables, syllable-final consonants in the source language are often represented using the -u kanas with implicitly silent vowels – though this vowel often is pronounced in Japanese – or the syllable coda is not represented at all. For example, the name Jim is written ジム. A similar principle applies to consonant clusters; for example spring would be transcribed as スプリング.

Diphthongs

Japanese has only five native vowel sounds, each a pure vowel with a long and short form, and some degree of approximation is necessary when representing vowels from, for example, English. Diphthongs are represented by sequences of vowels, and pronounced with hiatus, as a sequence of discrete monophthongs, not a diphthong, as in ブラウン Bu-ra-u-n "Brown", ナイス na-i-su "nice", ディア di-a "dear/deer", レア re-a "rare". etc. The English spelling or /ɔːr/ ) is usually "diphthongized" as o-a in Japanese, possibly because it is also pronounced as a diphthong in some accents of English. The English /eɪ/ is transcribed to either e-e or e-i ; similarly, /əʊ/ is transcribed to either o-o or o-u.

Phonemes

Japanese does not have separate l and r sounds, and l- is normally transcribed using the kana that are perceived as representing r-. For example, London becomes ロンドン. Other sounds not present in Japanese may be converted to the nearest Japanese equivalent; for example, the name Smith is written スミス. Foreign sounds can be difficult to express in Japanese, resulting in spellings such as フルシチョフ Furushichofu, アリー・ハーメネイー Arī Hāmeneī and イツハク・パールマン Itsuhaku Pāruman or イツァーク・パールマン Itsāku Pāruman.
The English voiceless labialized velar approximant /hw/, which is a distinct phoneme from /w/ in some varieties of English, can be transcribed as ho-. For example, White is ホワイト Howaito, whale is ホエール hoēru.
French /w/ is typically transcribed as u, but the sequence /wa/ is as o-a.
The English /ti/ and /tɪ/ is typically transcribed to チ chi, but ティ ti is also used. The suffix -tic can be transcribed to either チック -chikku or ティック -tikku. However, -ty is almost always transcribed to ティ -ti, not *チ *-chi.
The English schwa /ə/ is variously "transcribed" to a, e, o, depending on the English spelling. For example, デュアル dyu-a-ru "dual", デュエル dyu-e-ru "duel", テスタメント Te-su-ta-me-n-to "Testament", ロンドン Ro-n-do-n "London". There are no definite rules when it comes to the schwa, however; e.g. ランダム ra-n-da-mu "random", オープン o-o-pu-n "open", ザ za "the". The British /ə/ which is equivalent to the North American /ɚ/ is transcribed to a; e.g. コンピュータ ko-n-pyu-u-ta "computer", モーター mo-o-ta-a "motor". On the other hand, the French schwa is transcribed to u or o similarly to instances where there's a lack of vowels, and the German schwa is almost always transcribed to e.
Although the diphthong /au/ across languages is usually transcribed as アウ a-u, local reading transcriptions of the same sequence from Mandarin, represented in both Wade–Giles and Pinyin as ao are represented as アオ a-o instead, again in more of a manner of transliteration based on these systems - e.g. マオ・ツォートン ma-o tso-o-to-n.
The English /æ/ is typically transcribed to a; e.g. マン ma-n "man", チャネル cha-ne-ru "channel". The sequences /kæ/ and /ɡæ/ are sometimes transcribed to kya and gya respectively; e.g. キャンディ kyandi "candy", ギャラクシー gya-ra-ku-shi-i "galaxy".
The older English suffix -age /-ɪdʒ/ is always transcribed to -e-e-ji as if it were pronounced as /eɪdʒ/ as in "age" or "rage"; e.g. メッセージ me-s-se-e-ji "message", パッケージ pa-k-ke-e-ji "package". The more recent -age /-ɑːʒ/ is more "properly" transcribed to -a-a-ju; e.g. ミラージュ mi-ra-a-ju "mirage". However, "garage" /gəˈrɑːʒ/ is more commonly transcribed to ガレージ ga-re-e-ji as it also has /ˈgærɪdʒ/ as an alternative pronunciation in British English.
The phoneme /v/ in various languages is transcribed either to b or v, although it is unknown whether there is such an equivalent phoneme /v/ in Japanese. For example, ベネチア Benechia / ヴェネツィア Ve-ne-tsi-a "Venezia", オーバー o-o-ba-a "over", ラブ ra-bu / ラヴ ravu "love".
The German /v/ can be transcribed in several ways. In long-established words, it is generally w. E.g.: Walküre "valkyrie" > ワルキューレ wa-ru-kyu-u-re. In newer transcriptions, it can also be v. E.g.: Schwestern "sisters" > シュヴェスタン shu-ve-su-tan.
Although several English dictionaries do not endorse the notion of syllabic /m/, transcriptions into Japanese usually do; in other words, words with sequences /Cm/ is transcribed as if /m/ is syllabic just like /n/ in "seven", /l/ in "battle". For example, リズム ri-zu-mu "rhythm", ファシズム fa-shi-zu-mu "fascism".
Wa is usually written as ワ, although ウァ is sometimes used in transcriptions from Ancient Greek or Latin.
French vowels are usually phonemically transcribed, but non-phonemic stressed vowels are sometimes also transcribed as long vowels. Compare the examples of メゾン me-zo-n "maison" and カレー ka-re-e "Calais", in which the same vowel /ɛ/ is transcribed as e and e-e depending on whether it is stressed or not. The French schwa is ignored altogether: words are usually transcribed as if there were no schwa at all. For example, the word "le" is transcribed as ル ru, as is the single sound /l/ in "cheval" > シュヴァル shuvaru.
Although a syllable-final /n/ is typically transcribed using the moraic ン n, ン is used in French to transcribe nasalized vowels, so French words with a final /n/ often use ヌ nu instead for distinction, e.g. マドレーヌ Ma-do-re-e-nu "Madeleine". This is especially the case when the masculine and feminine of a word are distinct in French, e.g. bon --> ボン bo-n, vs. bonne --> ボンヌ bo-n-nu.
Plain short consonants may be transcribed as geminated consonants to reflect the laxness of the preceding vowel, although this is not universal and there are plenty of exceptions. For example: English kick is キック ki-k-ku and castle is キャッスル kya-s-su-ru, but extra is エクストラ e-ku-su-to-ra and battle is バトル ba-to-ru. This practice expands to almost all English obstruents regardless of their voicing, also to German/Scots /x/, occasionally to /n/ and /m/. For example: English bag is バグ ba--gu; English Anna is アンナ A-n-na; English gamma is ガンマ ga-n-ma; English shuffle is シャッフル sha-f-fu-ru; German Mach is マッハ ma-h-ha, Masoch is マゾッホ Ma-zo-h-ho.
German is transcribed roughly as h-h, accordingly to its preceding vowel, if it's not followed by a vowel ; , its allophone occurring only after high vowels and consonants, are as h if not followed by a vowel, or as hi if not. Russian /x/ is transcribed as fu if not followed by a vowel. Mandarin is transcribed as sh.
Geminated consonants are typically transcribed consistently and faithfully, as gemination is also featured in Japanese. The only notable exceptions are /rr/ and /ɲɲ/, although /ll/ and /ʎʎ/ are still transcribed. Examples: translit=Allāh is アッラーフ A-r-ra-a-fu; Italian Donatello is ドナテッロ Do-na-te-r-ro; Italian degli is デッリ de-r-ri; but Italian Verrocchio is simply ヴェロッキオ Ve-ro-k-ki-o, not *Ve-r-ro-k-ki-o. Italian /ɲɲ/ may be transcribed as the lengthened portion of the preceding vowel and a sequence of /nj/. For example, Sardegna is サルデーニャ Sa-ru-de-e-nya.
Similar to the way speakers of English say Italian words, Japanese does not usually transcribe the Italian glide /j/ to reflect its true nature, but as /i/, perhaps for consistency and convenience. For example, Venezia is ヴェネツィア Ve-ne-tsi-a, Sicilia is シチリア Shi-chi-ri-a. Contemporary transcriptions of palatalized consonants from Slavic languages, however, are made using yōon, e.g.: Russian ピャチゴルスク Pya-chi-go-ru-su-ku, Polish ビェルスコ＝ビャワ Bye-ru-su-ko=bya-wa.
Modern English compounds are usually transcribed in a way that reflects the independent pronunciations of the individual components. That is to say, there is no phonetic linking between components. For example, "overall" is transcribed as オーバーオール o-o-ba-a-o-o-ru, not *o-o-ba-a-ro-o-ru as it is pronounced in English. However, there are a few exceptions, such as "pineapple", which is transcribed as パイナップル pa-i-na-p-pu-ru, or "double-u", as ダブリュー da-bu-ryu-u.

Long vowels

Long vowels are generally written with ー to indicate lengthening, as in コーラ kōra, rather than writing a distinct vowel ×コウラ *koura. There are two irregularities of note here. Firstly, lengthening of the final vowel may be ambiguous, and vary over time or between users. For example, in present Japan, "computer" is generally represented as コンピューター konpyūtā, but in some cases, such as the computer industry, following Japanese Industrial Standards, it is represented as コンピュータ konpyūta. Secondly, in modern Chinese loanwords, notably food names, in careful transcription diphthongs are represented by separate vowels, even if in Japanese they would appear to be a long vowel; this is particularly common with òu, especially in 豆 dòu " bean", usually rendered as トウ. Further, long vowels in the Japanese transcription need not reflect Chinese pronunciation. For example, the dish 東坡肉 "Dongpo pork", in pinyin dōngpōròu, is represented in Japanese as ドンポーロウ donpōrou, or more commonly トンポーロウ tonpōrou. Note that in Chinese pinyin ō represents a high tone, while in Japanese ō represents a long vowel, and /d/ is pronounced differently. This distinction is not always followed, and varies by term: the spelling トンポーロー tonpōrō is also common; and in terms such as 回鍋肉 twice cooked pork, the spelling ホイコーロー is more common, despite representing diphthongs.

Extended katakana

In modern times, an extended katakana system has developed to cater for foreign sounds not present in Japanese. Most of these novel katakana forms are digraphs, composed of standard katakana characters, but in digraph combinations not found in native words. For example, the word photo is transcribed as フォト, where the novel digraph フォ is made up from フ plus a novel small combining form of オ. In other cases novel diacritics may be applied to create new sounds, such as ヴ for vu, which consists of ウ combined with a dakuten to indicate a voiced pronunciation.

Interpunct

Japanese is written without spaces between words, and, to aid understanding, foreign phrases and names are sometimes transliterated with an interpunct separating the words, called a nakaguro; for example, . When it is assumed that the reader knows the separate gairaigo words in the phrase, the middle dot is omitted, especially for wasei eigo. For example, the phrase konpyūtā gēmu contains two well-known gairaigo, and therefore is not written with a middle dot; the same principle is applied for panti sutokkingu, Japanese coinage.

Katakana tables

The following tables give the Hepburn romanization and an approximate IPA transcription for katakana as used in contemporary Japanese. Their use in transcription is, of course, in the inverse direction.

Standard katakana

Extended katakana

The following katakana have been developed or proposed specifically for the purposes of transcribing foreign words. Examples such as トゥ in カートゥーン, ティ in パーティ, ツァ in モーツァルト are found mostly in foreign words.

Table of transcription from English