Hepburn romanization

Japanese writing
Components
Kanji Stroke order Radicals Kyōiku kanji Jōyō kanji Jinmeiyō kanji Hyōgai kanji List of kanji by stroke count List of kanji by concept
Kana Hiragana Katakana Hentaigana Man'yōgana Sogana Gojūon
Typographic symbols Japanese punctuation Iteration mark
Uses
Syllabograms Furigana Okurigana Braille
Romanization
Rōmaji Hepburn (colloquial) Kunrei (ISO) Nihon (ISO transliteration) JSL (transliteration) Wāpuro (keyboard)

Hepburn romanization (ヘボン式ローマ字, Hebon-shiki Rōmaji, 'Hepburn-type Roman letters') is a system for the romanization of Japanese that uses the Latin alphabet to write the Japanese language. It is used by most foreigners learning to spell Japanese in the Latin alphabet and by the Japanese for romanizing personal names, geographical locations, and other information such as train tables, road signs, and official communications with foreign countries. Largely based on English writing conventions, consonants closely correspond to the English pronunciation and vowels approximate the Italian pronunciation.

The Hepburn style (Hebon-shiki) was developed in the late 19th century by an international commission that was formed to develop a unified system of romanization. The commission's romanization scheme was popularized by the wide dissemination of a Japanese–English dictionary by commission member and American missionary James Curtis Hepburn which was published in 1886. The "modified Hepburn system" (shūsei Hebon-shiki), also known as the "standard system" (Hyōjun-shiki), was published in 1908 with revisions by Kanō Jigorō and the Society for the Propagation of Romanization (Romaji-Hirome-kai).

Although Kunrei romanization is officially favored by the Japanese government today, Hepburn romanization is still in use and remains the worldwide standard. The Hepburn style is regarded as the best way to render Japanese pronunciation for Westerners. Since it is based on English and Italian pronunciations, people who speak English or Romance languages (e.g., Italian, French, Portuguese and Spanish) will generally be more accurate in pronouncing unfamiliar Japanese words romanized in the Hepburn style compared to Nihon-shiki romanization and Kunrei-shiki romanization.

Legal status

Hepburn is based on English phonology and has competed with the alternative Nihon-shiki romanization, which was developed in Japan as a replacement of the Japanese script. In 1930 a Special Romanization Study Commission was appointed to compare the two. The Commission eventually decided in favor of a slightly-modified version of Nihon-shiki, which was proclaimed to be Japan's official romanization for all purposes by a September 21, 1937, cabinet ordinance; it is now known as the Kunrei-shiki romanization. The ordinance was temporarily overturned by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) during the Occupation of Japan, but it was reissued with slight revisions in 1954.

In 1972 a revised version of Hepburn was codified as ANSI standard Z39.11-1972. It was proposed in 1989 as a draft for ISO 3602 but rejected in favor of the Kunrei-shiki romanization. The ANSI Z39.11-1972 standard was deprecated on October 6, 1994.

As of 1978 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, and many other official organizations used Hepburn instead of Kunrei-shiki. In addition The Japan Times, the Japan Travel Bureau, and many other private organizations used Hepburn instead of Kunrei-shiki. The National Diet Library used Kunrei-shiki.

Although Hepburn is not a government standard, some government agencies mandate it. For example, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs requires the use of Hepburn on passports, and the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport requires the use of Hepburn on transport signs, including road signs and railway station signs.

In many other areas that it lacks de jure status, Hepburn remains the de facto standard. Signs and notices in city offices and police stations and at shrines, temples and attractions also use it. English-language newspapers and media use the simplified form of Hepburn. Cities and prefectures use it in information for English-speaking residents and visitors, and English-language publications by the Japanese Foreign Ministry use simplified Hepburn as well. Official tourism information put out by the government uses it, as do guidebooks, both local and foreign, on Japan.

Many students of Japanese as a foreign language learn Hepburn.

Variants

Former Japan National Railways-style board of Toyooka Station. Between the two adjacent stations, “GEMBUDŌ” follows the Hepburn romanization system, but “KOKUHU” follows the Nihon-shiki/Kunrei-shiki romanization system.

There are many variants of the Hepburn romanization. The two most common styles are as follows:

• The Traditional Hepburn, as defined in various editions of Hepburn's dictionary, with the third edition (1886) often considered authoritative (although changes in kana usage must be accounted for). It is characterized by the rendering of syllabic n as m before the consonants b, m and p: Shimbashi for 新橋.
• Modified Hepburn (修正ヘボン式, Shūsei Hebon-shiki), also known as Revised Hepburn, in which (among other points) the rendering of syllabic n as m before certain consonants is no longer used: Shinbashi for 新橋. The style was introduced in the third edition of Kenkyūsha's New Japanese-English Dictionary (1954), was adopted by the Library of Congress as one of its ALA-LC romanizations, and is the most common version of the system today.

In Japan itself, there are some variants officially mandated for various uses:

• Railway Standard (鉄道掲示基準規程, Tetsudō Keiji Kijun Kitei), which follows the Hyōjun-shiki Rōmaji. All Japan Rail and other major railways use it for station names.
• Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Standard, how to spell Roman letters (Hepburn style) of road signs, which follows the modified Hepburn style. It is used for road signs.
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs Passport Standard (外務省旅券規定, Gaimushō Ryoken Kitei), a permissive standard, which explicitly allows the use of "non-Hepburn romaji" (非ヘボン式ローマ字, hi-Hebon-shiki rōmaji) in personal names, notably for passports. In particular, it renders the syllabic n as m before b, m and p, and romanizes long o as oh, oo or ou (Satoh, Satoo or Satou for 佐藤).

Details of the variants can be found below.

Obsolete variants

The romanizations set out in the first and second versions of Hepburn's dictionary are primarily of historical interest. Notable differences from the third and later versions include:

Second version

• エ and ヱ were written as ye: Yedo
• ズ and ヅ were written as dzu: kudzu, tsudzuku
• キャ, キョ, and キュ were written as kiya, kiyo and kiu
• クヮ was written as kuwa

First version

The following differences are in addition to those in the second version:

• ス was written as sz.
• ツ was written as tsz.
• ズ and ヅ were written as du.
• クヮ was written as kuwa.

Features

The main feature of Hepburn is that its orthography is based on English phonology. More technically, where syllables that are constructed systematically, according to the Japanese syllabary, contain an "unstable" consonant in the modern spoken language, the orthography is changed to something that better matches the real sound as an English-speaker would pronounce it. For example, し is written shi not si.

Some linguists such as Harold E. Palmer, Daniel Jones and Otto Jespersen object to Hepburn, as the pronunciation-based spellings can obscure the systematic origins of Japanese phonetic structures, inflections, and conjugations. Supporters argue that Hepburn is not intended as a linguistic tool.

Long vowels

The long vowels are generally indicated by macrons ( ¯ ). Since the diacritical sign is usually missing on typewriter and people may not know how to input it on computer keyboards, the circumflex accent ( ˆ ) is often used in its place.

The combinations of vowels are written as follows in traditional/modified Hepburn:

A + A

In traditional and modified:

The combination of a + a is written aa if a word-border exists between them (that is, in a word consisting of multiple characters, if one character's pronunciation ends in a and the next character begins with a).

• 邪悪（じゃあく）: {ji + ya} + {a + ku} = jaaku – evil

In traditional Hepburn:

The long vowel a is written aa

• お婆さん（おばあさん）: {o} + {ba + a} + {sa + n} = obaa-san – grandmother

In modified Hepburn:

The long vowel a is indicated by a macron:

• お婆さん（おばあさん）: {o} + {ba + a} + {sa + n} = obāsan – grandmother

I + I

In traditional and modified:

The combination i + i is always written ii.

• お兄さん（おにいさん）: o + ni + i + sa + n = oniisan – older brother
• お爺さん（おじいさん）: o + ji + i + sa + n = ojiisan – grandfather
• 美味しい（おいしい）: o + i + shi + i = oishii – delicious
• 新潟（にいがた）: ni + i + ga + ta = Niigata
• 灰色（はいいろ）: ha + i + i + ro = haiiro – grey

U + U

In traditional and modified:

The combination u + u is written uu if a word-border exists between them or it is the end part of terminal form of a verb:

• 食う（くう）: {ku} + {-u} = kuu – to eat
• 縫う（ぬう）: {nu} + {-u} = nuu – to sew
• 湖（みずうみ）: {mi + zu} + {u + mi} = mizuumi - lake

The long vowel u is indicated by a macron:

• 数学（すうがく）: {su + u} + {ga + ku} = sūgaku – mathematics
• 注意（ちゅうい）: {chu + u} + {i} = chūi – attention
• ぐうたら: {gu + u + ta + ra} = gūtara – loafer
• 憂鬱（ゆううつ）: {yu + u} + {u + tsu} = yūutsu - depression

E + E

In traditional and modified:

The combination e + e is written ee if a word-border exists between them:

• 濡れ縁（ぬれえん）: {nu + re} + {e + n} = nureen – open veranda

In traditional Hepburn:

The long vowel e is written ee:

• お姉さん（おねえさん）: {o} + {ne + e} + {sa + n} = oneesan – older sister

In modified Hepburn:

The long vowel e is indicated by a macron:

• お姉さん（おねえさん）: {o} + {ne + e} + {sa + n} = onēsan – older sister

O + O

In traditional and modified:

The combination o + o is written oo if a word-border exists between them:

• 小躍り（こおどり）: {ko} + {o + do + ri} = koodori – dance

The long vowel o is indicated by a macron:

• 氷（こおり）: {ko + o + ri} = kōri – ice
• 遠回り（とおまわり）: {to + o} + {ma + wa + ri} = tōmawari – roundabout route
• 大阪（おおさか）: {o + o} + {sa + ka} = Ōsaka – Osaka

O + U

In traditional and modified:

The combination o + u is written ou if a word-border exists between them or it is the end part of terminal form of a verb:

• 追う（おう）: {o} + {-u} = ou – to chase
• 迷う（まよう）: {ma + yo} + {-u} = mayou – to get lost
• 子馬（こうま）: {ko} + {u + ma} = kouma – foal
• 仔牛（こうし）: {ko} + {u + shi} = koushi – calf

The long vowel o is indicated by a macron:

• 学校（がっこう）: {ga + (sokuon)} + {ko + u} = gakkō – school
• 東京（とうきょう）: {to + u} + {kyo + u} = Tōkyō – Tokyo
• 勉強（べんきょう）: {be + n} + {kyo + u} = benkyō – study
• 電報（でんぽう）: {de + n} + {po + u} = dempō or denpō – telegraphy
• 金曜日（きんようび）: {ki + n} + {yo + u} + {bi} = kinyōbi or kin'yōbi – Friday
• 格子（こうし）: {ko + u} + {shi} = kōshi – lattice

E + I

In traditional and modified:

The combination e + i is written ei.

• 学生（がくせい）: ga + ku + se + i = gakusei – student
• 経験（けいけん）: ke + i + ke + n = keiken – experience
• 制服（せいふく）: se + i + fu + ku = seifuku – uniform
• 姪（めい）: me + i = mei – niece
• 招いて（まねいて）: ma + ne + i + te = maneite – call/invite and then

Other combination of vowels

All other combinations of two different vowels are written separately:

• 軽い（かるい）: ka + ru + i = karui – light (for weight)
• 鴬（うぐいす）: u + gu + i + su = uguisu – bush warbler
• 甥（おい）: o + i = oi – nephew

Loanwords

The long vowels indicated by chōonpu (ー) within loanwords are written with macrons (ā, ī, ū, ē, ō) as follows:

• セーラー: se + (chōonpu) + ra + (chōonpu) = sērā – sailor
• パーティー: pa + (chōonpu) + ti + (chōonpu) = pātī – party
• ヒーター: hi + (chōonpu) + ta + (chōonpu) = hītā – heater
• タクシー: ta + ku + shi + (chōonpu) = takushī – taxi
• スーパーマン: su + (chōonpu) + pa + (chōonpu) + ma + n = Sūpāman – Superman
• バレーボール: ba + re + (chōonpu) + bo + (chōonpu) + ru = barēbōru – volleyball
• ソール: so + (chōonpu) + ru = sōru – sole

The combinations of two vowels within loanwords are written separately:

• バレエ: ba + re + e = baree – ballet
• ソウル: so + u + ru = souru – soul, Seoul
• ミイラ: mi + i + ra = miira – mummy

Variations

There are many variations on the Hepburn system for indicating the long vowels. For example, 東京（とうきょう） can be written as:

• Tōkyō – indicated with macrons. That follows the rules of the traditional and modified Hepburn systems and is considered to be standard.
• Tokyo – not indicated at all. That is common for Japanese words that have been adopted into English and is also the convention used in the de facto Hepburn used in signs and other English-language information around Japan, mentioned in the paragraph on legal status.
• Tôkyô – indicated with circumflex accents, like the alternative Nihon-shiki and Kunrei-shiki romanizations. They are often used when macrons are unavailable or difficult to input, due to their visual similarity.
• Tohkyoh – indicated with an h (only applies after o). It is sometimes known as "passport Hepburn" as the Japanese Foreign Ministry has authorized (but not required) it in passports.
• Toukyou – written using kana spelling: ō as ou or oo (depending on the kana) and ū as uu. That is sometimes called wāpuro style, as it is how text is entered into a Japanese word processor by using a keyboard with Roman characters. The method most accurately represents the way that vowels are written in kana by differentiating between おう (as in とうきょう（東京）, written Toukyou in this system) and おお (as in とおい（遠い）, written tooi in this system).
  • However, using this method makes the pronunciation of ou become ambiguous, either a long o or two different vowels: o and u. See Wāpuro rōmaji#Phonetic accuracy for details.
• Tookyoo – written by doubling the long vowels. Some dictionaries such as Pocket Kenkyusha Japanese dictionary and Basic English writers' Japanese-English wordbook follow this style, and it is also used in the JSL form of romanization. It is also used to write words without reference to any particular system.

Particles

In traditional and modified:

• When は is used as a particle, it is written wa.

In traditional Hepburn:

• When へ is used as a particle, Hepburn originally recommended ye. This spelling is obsolete, and it is commonly written as e (Romaji-Hirome-Kai, 1974).
• When を is used as a particle, it is written wo.

In modified Hepburn:

• When へ is used as a particle, it is written e.
• When を is used as a particle, it is written o.

Syllabic n

In traditional Hepburn:

Syllabic n (ん) is written as n before consonants, but as m before labial consonants: b, m, and p. It is sometimes written as n- (with a hyphen) before vowels and y (to avoid confusion between, for example, んあ n + a and な na, and んや n + ya and にゃ nya), but its hyphen usage is not clear.

• 案内（あんない）: annai – guide
• 群馬（ぐんま）: Gumma – Gunma
• 簡易（かんい）: kan-i – simple
• 信用（しんよう）: shin-yō – trust

In modified Hepburn:

The rendering m before labial consonants is not used and is replaced with n. It is written n' (with an apostrophe) before vowels and y.

• 案内（あんない）: annai – guide
• 群馬（ぐんま）: Gunma – Gunma
• 簡易（かんい）: kan'i – simple
• 信用（しんよう）: shin'yō – trust

Long consonants

Elongated (or "geminate") consonant sounds are marked by doubling the consonant following a sokuon, っ; for consonants that are digraphs in Hepburn (sh, ch, ts), only the first consonant of the set is doubled, except for ch, which is replaced by tch.

• 結果（けっか）: kekka – result
• さっさと: sassato – quickly
• ずっと: zutto – all the time
• 切符（きっぷ）: kippu – ticket
• 雑誌（ざっし）: zasshi – magazine
• 一緒（いっしょ）: issho – together
• こっち: kotchi (not kocchi) – this way
• 抹茶（まっちゃ）: matcha (not maccha) – matcha
• 三つ（みっつ）: mittsu – three

Romanization charts

Gojūon					Yōon
あ ア a	い イ i	う ウ u	え エ e	お オ o
か カ ka	き キ ki	く ク ku	け ケ ke	こ コ ko	きゃ キャ kya	きゅ キュ kyu	きょ キョ kyo
さ サ sa	し シ shi	す ス su	せ セ se	そ ソ so	しゃ シャ sha	しゅ シュ shu	しょ ショ sho
た タ ta	ち チ chi	つ ツ tsu	て テ te	と ト to	ちゃ チャ cha	ちゅ チュ chu	ちょ チョ cho
な ナ na	に ニ ni	ぬ ヌ nu	ね ネ ne	の ノ no	にゃ ニャ nya	にゅ ニュ nyu	にょ ニョ nyo
は ハ ha	ひ ヒ hi	ふ フ fu	へ ヘ he	ほ ホ ho	ひゃ ヒャ hya	ひゅ ヒュ hyu	ひょ ヒョ hyo
ま マ ma	み ミ mi	む ム mu	め メ me	も モ mo	みゃ ミャ mya	みゅ ミュ myu	みょ ミョ myo
や ヤ ya		ゆ ユ yu		よ ヨ yo
ら ラ ra	り リ ri	る ル ru	れ レ re	ろ ロ ro	りゃ リャ rya	りゅ リュ ryu	りょ リョ ryo
わ ワ wa	ゐ ヰ i †		ゑ ヱ e †	を ヲ o ‡
				ん ン n /n'
が ガ ga	ぎ ギ gi	ぐ グ gu	げ ゲ ge	ご ゴ go	ぎゃ ギャ gya	ぎゅ ギュ gyu	ぎょ ギョ gyo
ざ ザ za	じ ジ ji	ず ズ zu	ぜ ゼ ze	ぞ ゾ zo	じゃ ジャ ja	じゅ ジュ ju	じょ ジョ jo
だ ダ da	ぢ ヂ ji	づ ヅ zu	で デ de	ど ド do	ぢゃ ヂャ ja	ぢゅ ヂュ ju	ぢょ ヂョ jo
ば バ ba	び ビ bi	ぶ ブ bu	べ ベ be	ぼ ボ bo	びゃ ビャ bya	びゅ ビュ byu	びょ ビョ byo
ぱ パ pa	ぴ ピ pi	ぷ プ pu	ぺ ペ pe	ぽ ポ po	ぴゃ ピャ pya	ぴゅ ピュ pyu	ぴょ ピョ pyo

• Each entry contains hiragana, katakana, and Hepburn romanization, in that order.
• † — The characters in red are rare historical characters and are obsolete in modern Japanese. In modern Hepburn romanization, they are often undefined.
• ‡ — The characters in blue are rarely used outside of their status as a particle in modern Japanese, and romanization follows the rules above.

Extended katakana

These combinations are used mainly to represent the sounds in words in other languages.

Digraphs with orange backgrounds are the general ones used for loanwords or foreign places or names, and those with blue backgrounds are used for more accurate transliterations of foreign sounds, both suggested by the Cabinet of Japan's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Katakana combinations with beige backgrounds are suggested by the American National Standards Institute and the British Standards Institution as possible uses. Ones with purple backgrounds appear on the 1974 version of the Hyōjun-shiki formatting.

	イィ yi		イェ ye
ウァ wa	ウィ wi	ウゥ wu*	ウェ we	ウォ wo
		ウュ wyu
ヴァ va	ヴィ vi	ヴ vu⁑	ヴェ ve	ヴォ vo
ヴャ vya		ヴュ vyu	ヴィェ vye	ヴョ vyo
			キェ kye
			ギェ gye
クァ kwa	クィ kwi		クェ kwe	クォ kwo
クヮ kwa
グァ gwa	グィ gwi		グェ gwe	グォ gwo
グヮ gwa
			シェ she
			ジェ je
	スィ si
	ズィ zi
			チェ che
ツァ tsa	ツィ tsi		ツェ tse	ツォ tso
		ツュ tsyu
	ティ ti	トゥ tu
		テュ tyu
	ディ di	ドゥ du
		デュ dyu
			ニェ nye
			ヒェ hye
			ビェ bye
			ピェ pye
ファ fa	フィ fi		フェ fe	フォ fo
フャ fya		フュ fyu	フィェ fye	フョ fyo
		ホゥ hu
			ミェ mye
			リェ rye
ラ゜ la	リ゜ li	ル゜ lu	レ゜ le	ロ゜ lo
リ゜ャ lya		リ゜ュ lyu	リ゜ェ lye	リ゜ョ lyo
ヷ va⁂	ヸ vi⁂		ヹ ve⁂	ヺ vo⁂

• * — The use of ウゥ to represent wu is rare in modern Japanese except for Internet slang and transcription of the Latin digraph VV into katakana.
• ⁑ — ヴ has a rarely-used hiragana form in ゔ that is also vu in Hepburn romanization systems.
• ⁂ — The characters in green are obsolete in modern Japanese and very rarely used.

See also

• List of ISO romanizations

References

• Kent, Allen, Harold Lancour, and Jay Elwood Daily (Executive Editors). Encyclopedia of Library and Information Science Volume 21. CRC Press, April 1, 1978. ISBN 0824720210, 9780824720216.

External links

• Preface of first edition of Hepburn's original dictionary, explaining romanization
• Preface of third edition of Hepburn's original dictionary, explaining romanization