From: Mark Crispin (mrc+unicode@panda.com)
Date: Mon Jan 25 2010 - 12:39:41 CST
On Tue, 26 Jan 2010, mpsuzuki@hiroshima-u.ac.jp wrote:
> "silliness" is good description. Some Japanese people
> use とおきょお, きれえ or like that to imitate a drunk,
> uneducated baby, etc etc.
Or トキオ (or トッキオ) to imitate a gaijin... ;)
> I don't recommend to write
> them in official documents to Japan.
I would think that in any sort of official document, one would either
write in English ("Tokyo") or in proper kanji ("東京"). I can't imagine
using hiragana for anything other than ruby.
Now, I admit to appreciate seeing the station name in hiragana at train
stations rather than having to hunt around for the name in English. But
I've needed it less as my ability to read kanji has improved as has my
ability to understand the conductor's announcements (without having to
translate them in my mind to English).
>> Fortunately, it's invariably unambiguous. I follow kana when writing
>> romanized text to a native Japanese, and shift to "wa" and "e" when
>> writing romanized text to a non-Japanese.
> Interesting. Unihan.txt is a text to a native Japanese,
> or a text to a non-Japanese?
I don't know. I think that everybody is trying to decide that.
-- Mark --
http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.
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