''Romaji, Hepburn''

[Rar]

Quick question as a complete novice to all of this. What's the policy on romajification (eheh) of words that originated in another language? Its been a common thing to swap r/l in romajification back for console games and such, to great amusement of all. But there are a few cases where it seems to have been done to indicate pronuciation in japanese rather than the spelling of the original word, eg: Naushika rather than Nausicaa (with or without diaeresis). Well, that's are rather unique case as it started in another alphabet again, but just wondered.

Rar

[wahaha]

Quick question as a complete novice to all of this. What's the policy on romajification (eheh) of words that originated in another language?

Well... this is still just a suggestion, but:

• For Katakana:
  • ... if the katakana represent a non-japanese word (that can be properly spelled in lower ASCII), transcribe it in the original spelling.

So, due to the origins of the name, it'd then be "Nausikaä" (or rather "Nausikaa", since "ä" isn't lower ascii).
Likewise, there would be no "enjeru" [angel] or - my favourite example - "nowaaru" [noir], which is basically the reason why I suggested this in the first place. ^^

[Rar]

Or rather with 'c' instead of k, yeah. The k is useful to give the japanese hard pronunciation, I'm not sure how it should sound. I say 'nar-sis-a' (like the flower, which comes from a different but related greek name) and bartleby gives 'nar-siki-a' (and a handy wav file). Of course, greek being as it is (long dead), any fine proncuciation issues are rather silly. Anyway, I'd say Nausicaa (diaeresis certainly isn't needed) the generally accepted use, so under your scheme would be the correct one.

Rar

[analogued]

Of course, greek being as it is (long dead)

I'm sure the greek people would love to hear your theory

[Rar]

Modern greek is a rather different language Homer's, and transliteration is always going to involve an amount of guesswork, which is the relevant point.

Rar

[Edit: Though wiki gives some good indications i notice:
"Modern Greek has a somewhat artificial, conservative form called Katharevousa, which includes numerous Ancient Greek words pronounced in a modern way, and the spoken form Dhimotiki, which since 1976 is the official language of Greece, instead of Katharevousa."]
[Edit: Also, I am learning that Homer is a complicated issue as well...]

[rowaasr13]

• literally transcribe long vowels (ああ=aa, おお=oo, おう=ou, ...)
• write the particle 「を」 as "wo"
• always write 「ん」 as "n" ("sempai" -> "senpai")

This is so called "wa-puro ro-maji" and I completely agree with you that it would be good if this variation will be prefred one (or only one) on AniDB, with only exception for ha=wa, when used as particle. This method gives almost perfect mapping kana <-> romaji.

Other things that I'd like to see documented:

Capitalization. I think it should be like this:
If name is in latin alphabet - leave as-is. If it is romaji - in anime names all words start with capital letter, except particles (na no de mo ka yo ni he wa ga (I'll extend list latter)). In ep. names - only first letter in sentence and names are capitalized.

Then, spacing:
All particles should be split from main word:
gin no
kirei na
chiisa na (often seen without space)
suru after noun should be split too (possibly with exception for irregular suru-verbs like aisuru).

Name suffixes/title suffixes should be separated with -:
A-san
B-sensei
C-housi
D-chan
etc...

Anything else?

[analogued]

This is so called "wa-puro ro-maji" and I completely agree with you that it would be good if this variation will be prefred one (or only one) on AniDB, with only exception for ha=wa, when used as particle. This method gives almost perfect mapping kana <-> romaji.

Well, the ha -> wa when used as a particle is already mentioned in the Wikipedia link wahaha provided. As I understood it, he only mentioned the things he thought should be different from that article. Like the wo <-> o thing. So yeah... he was thinking the same thing... I think

Apart from that I agree with everything you said (I should mention that, since I don't know much japanese, you've lost me a little there with the particle spacing ... suru!? hehe)

[wahaha]

So yeah... [wahaha] was thinking the same thing... I think

You're right ^^

There's one other particle in Hepburn-transcription which doesn't match wapuro-style, though: へ [he/e]. I don't really have an opionion on this one, but as "he" would match wapuro-style, it'd probably make sense to use it.

I should mention that, since I don't know much japanese, you've lost me a little there with the particle spacing ...

Same here. I have yet to read a single explanation on where to set spaces in romaji... (apart from rowaasr13's suggestion)

[rowaasr13]

"Wa-puro ro-maji", or "word processor romaji" is exactly what you would type in wordprocessor to get kana from it, so except suggested and common "ha ->wa", all other particles should be exactly, as you type them on keyboard を = wo, へ = he.

[rowaasr13]

So, can someone with good english and style compose it into one list and then pass to exp for adding links to it everywhere romaji is used? If there's anything more to add - it always can be added later.

[rowaasr13]

I was reviewing some of titles and here's one more thing, that should be mentioned: irregular furigana used in anime/ep. titles should be put in parenthesis right after base kanji for that furigana.

Like this, for example: 満月(フルムーン)をさがして

[kidan]

For katakana it would be a good idea to write those parts in CAPITAL LETTERS.
For hiragana only small letters should be used
and kanji could be written starting with a Capital Letter.
This would be consequent and the romaji carry more information about the original way the title was written this way.

[wahaha]

Since both animes and episodes have a seperate method to add the original japanese text, most of the time there's IMO no real need to preserve the info what was in kanji and what was in katakana. Also, "hiragana only in small letters" may look awkward for titles simplified for a younger audience.

[gholovo]

Since both animes and episodes have a seperate method to add the original japanese text, most of the time there's IMO no real need to preserve the info what was in kanji and what was in katakana. Also, "hiragana only in small letters" may look awkward for titles simplified for a younger audience.

I concur. I would like to add, also, that capital letters are generally used for katakana when the katakana represent a foreign word, but since (I think) it is our policy to write the word as intended, this is not necessary.

And, of course, since we can now add the Japanese titles in addition to the romaji titles, this is all really rather academic.

[rowaasr13]

For katakana it would be a good idea to write those parts in CAPITAL LETTERS.
For hiragana only small letters should be used
and kanji could be written starting with a Capital Letter.
This would be consequent and the romaji carry more information about the original way the title was written this way.

Hehe, see Court no Naka no Tenshi-tachi alias I've added back when there was only english name. I too like this system, but it is not exactly best one for representing titles in DB, I think