Hepburn romanization

[Ultima]

Okay, I know this topic has been somewhat discussed before, but I think we should agree on the way we romanize titles at AniDB. I believe this sums up what we basically want in AniDB: http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/H/Hepburn.htm

However, as you can see there are many variations from that standard format:

Variations of the Hepburn system indicate the long vowels ō and ū as follows:

* Tōkyō: indicated with macrons (standard).
* Tôkyô: indicated with circumflexes.
* Tokyo: not indicated at all (common for Japanese words that have been adopted into English).
* Tookyoo: doubled.
* Toukyou: written using hiragana spelling: ō as ou and ū as uu. This is sometimes called wāpuro style, as this is how text is entered into a Japanese word processor (wādo purosessā) using a keyboard with Roman characters.

Personally, I would go for either the standard way with macrons (or Tōkyō) or the hiragana spelling (Toukyou). Either is fine by me, but I guess I would prefer the hiragana spelling.

Creqs like this are annoying, and we should have a definite stand on how we romanize: http://anidb.ath.cx/perl-bin/animedb.pl ... q.id=51767

Anyways, post comments

[exp]

well,

i think standarizing these aspects is a good thing.
it's also important to remember that this is the default title for all animes, it should really only contain characters which are legal on filesystems.

BYe!
EXP

[wahaha]

Okay, I know this topic has been somewhat discussed before

*g* ... in fact, I opened a similar thread two days ago: ''Romaji, Hepburn'' in small talk ^^;

I'm in favor of using hiragana spelling aswell, but there are two or three additional points which need a decision aswell:

• がんばれ -> "ganbare" or "gambare"?
  The idea behind this is, that "ん" (n) before b, p is pronounced as "m".
  See: titles with "nba" (no titles with "mba")
• 満月をさがして -> "[mangetsu/mitsuki] full moon wo sagashite" or "full moon o sagashite"
  "wo" as particle is pronounced as "o"
  See: titles with 'wo' and titles with 'o'

As I wrote in the other thread, I'm in favor of using "n" and "wo".

[Ultima]

Yeah, I agree with you on both points wahaha Plus, that's the way you would enter on the computer ん -> "nn" and を -> "wo" iirc.

[Wlah]

I agree as well
wo is wo is wo
n is n is n

[pelican]

wo is wo is wo

And wo art thou if you pronounce it like that too. We don't need any wapro romaji here, thank you.

[Andemon]

"n" and "wo", definitely.
That's how my japanese teacher taught me, and she's from Japan. Anything else would seem wrong to me. ^_^

As for the first query, I'd say that it should be "Toukyou" -- again, because I was taught that way.

[Rafal]

What you are taught is not always the right thing or the only right thing, especially when it's about romaji.

"wo" or "o" is purely a matter of preference and there's nothing more or less correct about them. The same counts for "he" or "e", and "wa" or "ha". The Hepburn system is more close to how the Japanese is pronounced so it recommends "o", "e" and "wa" for the particles を、へ and は. Personally I'm more comfortable with seeing and using these rather than "wo", "he" and "ha", although I have the least problems with "wo" myself. But I don't see why we should make an exception for that one. If we stick with Hepburn we should just stick with Hepburn, unless there's a good reason not to.

I agree with romanizing とう as 'tou', とお as 'too', just like how it is spelled in kana.

I also agree "n" should always stay "n".

[Andemon]

Personally I'm more comfortable with seeing and using these rather than "wo", "he" and "ha", although I have the least problems with "wo" myself.

Agreed. I actually made a mistake earlier, was supposed to say "n" and "o". -_-;

I've always written particles を as "o", は as "wa", and へ as "e". I would argue that writing those particles as "wo", "ha" and "he" is incorrect -- but then again, the only base I have for is that is that I've been *taught* so by both my japanese teacher, and the studybooks. -_-

(Third edit. Too damn many mistakes. Should not visit boards after a hard exhausting day at work... >_<)

[Der Idiot]

might as well mention that rar started the romaji/kanji guideline:
http://www.anidb.net/wiki/index.php?tit ... %26_Romaji
"started" as in "v0. Much to do still"