Polivanov system

Last updated

Polivanov system is a system of transliterating the Japanese language into Russian Cyrillic script, either to represent Japanese proper names or terms in Russian or as an aid to Japanese language learning in those languages. The system was developed by Yevgeny Polivanov in 1917.

Contents

In terms of spelling the system is a middle ground between Kunrei-shiki and Hepburn romanisations, matching the former everywhere except for morae hu and tu, which are spelled as in Hepburn (fu and tsu), moras starting with z (which are spelled with dz, as in archaic Hepburn, but following the consistency of Kunrei-shiki with Jun being spelled as Dzyun) and syllabic n, which is changed to m before b, p and m as in traditional Hepburn.

The following cyrillization system for Japanese is known as the Yevgeny Polivanov system. Note that it has its own spelling conventions and does not necessarily constitute a direct phonetic transcription of the pronunciation into the standard Russian usage of the Cyrillic alphabet.

Main table

Hiragana and Katakana to Polivanov cyrillization correspondence table, for single/modified kana.[ citation needed ]

Kana Cyrillic Hepburn
аa
каka
саsa
таta
наna
хаha
маma
яya
раra
ваwa
-n
гаga
дзаza
даda
баba
паpa
Kana Cyrillic Hepburn
и/йi
киki
сиshi
тиchi
ниni
хиhi
миmi
 
риri
виwi
 
гиgi
дзиji
дзиji
биbi
пиpi
Kana Cyrillic Hepburn
уu
куku
суsu
цуtsu
нуnu
фуfu
муmu
юyu
руru
 
 
гуgu
дзуzu
дзуzu
буbu
пуpu
Kana Cyrillic Hepburn
эe
кэke
сэse
тэte
нэne
хэhe
мэme
 
рэre
вэwe
 
гэge
дзэze
дэde
бэbe
пэpe
Kana Cyrillic Hepburn
оo
коko
соso
тоto
ноno
хоho
моmo
ёyo
роro
воwo
 
гоgo
дзоzo
доdo
боbo
поpo
Kana Cyrillic Hepburn
きゃキャкяkya
しゃシャсяsha
ちゃチャтяcha
にゃニャняnya
ひゃヒャхяhya
みゃミャмяmya
りゃリャряrya
ぎゃギャгяgya
じゃジャдзяja
ぢゃヂャдзяja
びゃビャбяbya
ぴゃピャпяpya
Kana Cyrillic Hepburn
きゅキュкюkyu
しゅシュсюshu
ちゅチュтюchu
にゅニュнюnyu
ひゅヒュхюhyu
みゅミュмюmyu
りゅリュрюryu
ぎゅギュгюgyu
じゅジュдзюju
ぢゅヂュдзюju
びゅビュбюbyu
ぴゅピュпюpyu
Kana Cyrillic Hepburn
きょキョкёkyo
しょショсёsho
ちょチョтёcho
にょニョнёnyo
ひょヒョхёhyo
みょミョмёmyo
りょリョрёryo
ぎょギョгёgyo
じょジョдзёjo
ぢょヂョдзёjo
びょビョбёbyo
ぴょピョпёpyo

Syllabic n (ん/ン) is spelled м (m) before b, p, m, and spelled нъ before vowels.

Grammar particles は and へ are written ва and э. Syllable を is written either во or о depending on pronunciation (albeit о is more preferred).

Diphthongs

It is permitted to use й instead of и in diphthongs (e.g. shinjitai → синдзитай, seinen → сэйнэн). However, и is always used on a morpheme clash: Kawai (kawa + i) → Каваи.

Yevgeny Polivanov recommended (but not prescribed as mandatory) to use й for Sino-Japanese (on'yomi) words, and и for native Japanese (kun'yomi) words. Another Polinanov's recommendation is to spell the diphthong ei as a long vowel э:, but this recommendation is almost never followed in practice. Instead, long vowel ē in the name ending -bē is often transliterated as -эй, e.g. Gonbē → Гомбэй.

Geminate consonants

Consonants are geminated exactly as they are in romaji: e.g. -kk-> -кк-.

Long vowels

Long vowels may be marked by macron as in Hepburn, but since letter ё has a diacritical mark already it is permitted and much more common to mark long vowels by using a colon (e.g. сё:гун). The sequence ei may be written э:, эй or эи. In regular texts long vowels are usually unmarked.

Vowel omission

Normally, vowels in the Polivanov system are always spelled, even if they are not pronounced. However, the voiceless u in the name ending -suke may be omitted:

Ryūnosuke → Рюноскэ.

Some translators tend to omit voiceless u in all cases when su (and, less often, tsu) is followed by a k-syllable, e.g. Akatsuki Акацки, Daisuki Дайски. However, this omission is considered non-standard.

Another non-standard (if not controversial) practice is omitting the voiceless u at the end of words, mostly in desu → дэс and masu → мас. This spelling can be found in some learning materials, but most professional translators oppose it, because native speakers may pronounce su at the end of the word with a distinctive u sound (especially in "feminine" speech).

Common mistakes and deviations

In English texts, Japanese names are written with the Hepburn system. Attempts may be made to transcribe these as if they were English, rather than following a dedicated Japanese Cyrillization scheme.

A common example of this is attempting to transcribe shi (Polivanov: си) as ши and ji (Polivanov: дзи) as джи. This is inadvisable for use in Russian, because ши is actually pronounced like шы in Russian, and джи like джы, thus making the vowel (/ɨ/) closer to Japanese /u/ than to Japanese /i/. Whereas, щи would have a correct vowel sound, but be pronounced more like Japanese sshi.

Equally often, people transcribe cha, chi, chu, cho as ча, чи, чу, чо. This is phonetically correct, but does not conform with the Polivanov scheme (тя, ти, тю, тё), which more closely resembles the Kunrei-shiki romanisations (tya, ti, tyu, tyo) for these particular characters.

Sometimes е, rather than э, is used for e, despite е being pronounced ye in Russian (though not in other languages). This is typically not done in the initial position, despite older romanisations such as "Yedo" doing so. In any case, it does not conform with the Polivanov scheme, although it is seen as more acceptable for words that are in general use (e.g. kamikaze> камикадзе instead of камикадзэ). Replacing ё (yo) with е (ye) is incorrect, however, as it will change the Japanese word too much.

The sound yo (Polivanov: ё), when in the initial position or after a vowel, is often written as йо (yo), which has the same pronunciation: Ёкосука -> Йокосука (Yokosuka), Тоёта -> Тойота (Toyota). Although, the spelling "йо" is not common in Russian words, these are more generally accepted for Japanese names than the transliterations using "ё". "Ё" is not often used in Japanese Cyrillization due to its facultative use in the Russian language (and possible substitution with the letter "Е" which would affect the pronunciation), but for professional translators, the use of ё is mandatory.[ citation needed ] Some personal names beginning with "Yo" (or used after a vowel) are written using "Ё" (e.g. Йоко for Yoko Ono, but Ёко for Yoko Kanno and all other Yokos).

Exceptions

Some proper names, for historical reasons, do not follow the above rules. For example, the geographical names of Japan in Russian are transmitted according to special instructions for the transfer of geographical names (other language names, for example from the Ainu language, do not fall under the Polivanov system). [1] Other Japanese names and concepts were adapted into Russian from other languages (for example, under the influence of Hepburn or other transliteration systems). Those include but are not limited to:[ citation needed ]

Examples
English (Rōmaji)Russian spellingCyrillizationJapanese
Japan (Nihon, Nippon)ЯпонияНихон, Ниппон日本 (にほん, にっぽん)
Tokyo (Tōkyō)ТокиoТо:кё:東京 (とうきょう)
Kyoto (Kyōto)КиотоКё:то京都 (きょうと)
YokohamaИокогама (also Йокохама)Ёкохама横浜 (よこはま)
YokosukaЙокосукаЁкосука横須賀 (よこすか)
ToyotaТойота (Тоёта in older publications)Тоётаトヨタ (originally: 豊田)
jujitsu (jūjutsu)джиу-джитсудзю:дзюцу柔術 (じゅうじゅつ)
yen (en)иенаэн円 (えん)

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Diacritic</span> Modifier mark added to a letter

A diacritic is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek διακριτικός, from διακρίνω. The word diacritic is a noun, though it is sometimes used in an attributive sense, whereas diacritical is only an adjective. Some diacritics, such as the acute ⟨ó⟩, grave ⟨ò⟩, and circumflex ⟨ô⟩, are often called accents. Diacritics may appear above or below a letter or in some other position such as within the letter or between two letters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hepburn romanization</span> System of Japanese romanization

Hepburn romanization is the main system of romanization for the Japanese language. The system was originally published in 1867 by American Christian missionary and physician James Curtis Hepburn as the standard in the first edition of his Japanese–English dictionary. The system is distinct from other romanization methods in its use of English orthography to phonetically transcribe sounds: for example, the syllable is written as shi and is written as cha, reflecting their spellings in English.

The Thai script is the abugida used to write Thai, Southern Thai and many other languages spoken in Thailand. The Thai script itself has 44 consonant symbols, 16 vowel symbols that combine into at least 32 vowel forms, four tone diacritics, and other diacritics.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romanization</span> Transliteration or transcription to Latin letters

In linguistics, romanization is the conversion of text from a different writing system to the Roman (Latin) script, or a system for doing so. Methods of romanization include transliteration, for representing written text, and transcription, for representing the spoken word, and combinations of both. Transcription methods can be subdivided into phonemic transcription, which records the phonemes or units of semantic meaning in speech, and more strict phonetic transcription, which records speech sounds with precision.

Kunrei-shiki romanization, also known as the Monbusho system or MEXT system, is the Cabinet-ordered romanization system for transcribing the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet. Its name is rendered Kunreisiki rômazi in the system itself. It is taught in the Monbushō-approved elementary school curriculum. The ISO has standardized Kunrei-shiki, under ISO 3602.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian alphabet</span> Alphabet that uses letters from the Cyrillic script

The Russian alphabet is the script used to write the Russian language. It comes from the Cyrillic script, which was devised in the 9th century for the first Slavic literary language, Old Slavonic. Initially an old variant of the Bulgarian alphabet, it became used in the Kievan Rusʹ since the 10th century to write what would become the modern Russian language.

Nihon-shiki is a romanization system for transliterating the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet. Among the major romanization systems for Japanese, it is the most regular one and has an almost one-to-one relation to the kana writing system.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cyrillization</span> Transcription of languages into Cyrillic script

Cyrillization or Cyrillisation is the process of rendering words of a language that normally uses a writing system other than Cyrillic script into the Cyrillic alphabet. Although such a process has often been carried out in an ad hoc fashion, the term "cyrillization" usually refers to a consistent system applied, for example, to transcribe names of German, Chinese, or English people and places for use in Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Macedonian or Bulgarian newspapers and books. Cyrillization is analogous to romanization, when words from a non-Latin script-using language are rendered in the Latin alphabet for use

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kalmyk Oirat</span> Oirat dialects spoken in Kalmykia, Russia

Kalmyk Oirat, commonly known as the Kalmyk language, is a variety of the Oirat language, natively spoken by the Kalmyk people of Kalmykia, a federal subject of Russia. In Russia, it is the standard form of the Oirat language, which belongs to the Mongolic language family. The Kalmyk people of the Northwest Caspian Sea of Russia claim descent from the Oirats from Eurasia, who have also historically settled in Mongolia and Northwest China. According to UNESCO, the language is "definitely endangered". According to the Russian census of 2021, there are 110,000 speakers out of an ethnic population consisting of 178,000 people.

Russian orthography has been reformed officially and unofficially by changing the Russian alphabet over the course of the history of the Russian language. Several important reforms happened in the 18th–20th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romanization of Russian</span> Romanization of the Russian alphabet

The romanization of the Russian language, aside from its primary use for including Russian names and words in text written in a Latin alphabet, is also essential for computer users to input Russian text who either do not have a keyboard or word processor set up for inputting Cyrillic, or else are not capable of typing rapidly using a native Russian keyboard layout (JCUKEN). In the latter case, they would type using a system of transliteration fitted for their keyboard layout, such as for English QWERTY keyboards, and then use an automated tool to convert the text into Cyrillic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E (Cyrillic)</span> Letter of the Cyrillic script

Э э is a letter found in three Slavic languages: Russian, Belarusian, and West Polesian. It represents the vowels and, as the e in the word "editor". In other Slavic languages that use the Cyrillic script, the sounds are represented by Ye (Е е), which represents in Russian and Belarusian in initial and postvocalic position or and palatalizes the preceding consonant. This letter closely resembles and should not be confused with the older Cyrillic letter Ukrainian Ye, of which Э is a reversed version.

Wāpuro rōmaji (ワープロローマ字), or kana spelling, is a style of romanization of Japanese originally devised for entering Japanese into word processors while using a Western QWERTY keyboard.

In Japanese writing, the kana (hiragana) and (katakana) occupy the fourth place, between う and お, in the modern Gojūon (五十音) system of collating kana. In the Iroha, they occupy the 34th, between こ and て. In the table at right, え lies in the first column and the fourth row. Both represent.

, in hiragana, or in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Historically, both are phonemically, reflected in the Nihon-shiki wo, although the contemporary pronunciation is, reflected in the Hepburn romanization and Kunrei-shiki romanization o. Thus it is pronounced identically to the kana o. Despite this phonemic merger, the kana wo is sometimes regarded as a distinct phoneme from /o/, represented as /wo/, to account for historical pronunciation and for orthographic purposes.

The cyrillization of Chinese is the transcription of Chinese characters into the Cyrillic alphabet.

The romanization of Japanese is the use of Latin script to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is sometimes referred to in Japanese as rōmaji.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yo (Cyrillic)</span> Letter of the Cyrillic script

Yo, Jo or Io is a letter of the Cyrillic script. In Unicode, the letter ⟨Ё⟩ is named CYRILLIC CAPITAL/SMALL LETTER IO.

The cyrillization of Japanese is the process of transliterating or transcribing the Japanese language into Cyrillic script in order to represent Japanese proper names or terms in various languages that use Cyrillic, as an aid to Japanese language learning in those languages or as a potential replacement for the current Japanese writing system. This can be done in an ad hoc fashion or using one of a number of systems.

References