From: mpsuzuki@hiroshima-u.ac.jp
Date: Mon Jan 25 2010 - 11:40:53 CST
On Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:15:18 -0500
Ed Trager <ed.trager@gmail.com> wrote:
>On Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 10:33 AM, <mpsuzuki@hiroshima-u.ac.jp> wrote:
>> Excuse me, could you tell me what kind of problems are
>> caused by mixing 2 different romanization systems? I
>> feel it uncomfortable slightly, but not so serious.
>
>As I am sure you know and will agree, romanization systems in general
>lead to very ambiguous pronounciation and are clearly no substitute
>for native writing systems that are better suited to the languages
>they were designed for.
There is no romanization system for Japanese to replace
current Japanese writing system, but the ambiguity of
the pronunciation is not the major reason for Japanese
case, I think. Current Japanese writing system does not
describe the pronunciation exactly.
If people are asked to write "$BEl5~(B" (so-called "Tokyo")
in hiragana, most people will write "$B$H$&$-$g$&(B" =
To-U-Kyo-U. They pronunciate "TooKyoo", but they doesn't
write "$B$H$*$-$g$*(B" nor "$B$H!<$-$g!<(B". They know the official
spell in hiragana is not same with the most approximate
description of the pronunciation by hiragana.
For kJapaneseOn of "$BEl(B", what is best hiragana string
to notice the pronunciation? "$B$H$&(B", "$B$H$*(B" or "$B$H!<(B" ?
Regards,
mpsuzuki
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