Japanese-shiki

The method Nihon (日本式系統) is a method of romanisation Japanese. It was introduced in 1885 by Tanakadate Aikitsu (田中舘愛橘). It is based on a logical structure (Produit Cartesian initial consonants and final vowels), which allows a natural construction of the verbal Suffixe S.

Table of transcription of the spelling-books

The characters in rouge are now obsolete.

The characters in bleu are the syllables from which the transcriptions differ.

Remarks

the long vowels can be marked in Hiragana in multiple ways:

あ + あ = aa ;
い + い = II ;
う + う = ū ;
え + い = I.E.(internal excitation) ;
お + う = ō , but お + お = oo .

For example: 東京 (とうきょう) = Tōkyō (capital of the Japan) and 大阪 (おおさか) = Oosaka (city of the Kansai)

the consonants Géminé be indicated in Hiragana by a っ are doubled.

For example: 札幌 (さっぽろ) = Sapporo (capital of the prefecture of Hokkaidō)

the ん ( N ) is a final consonant. To distinguish it from “N” initial of the characters (な, に, ぬ, ね and の), one makes it follow of an apostrophe so necessary.

For example: 簡易 (かんい) = kan' I (easy) and 蟹 (かに) = kani (crab)

Tanakadate introduced its system of transcription in 1885. Since, the language evolved/moved. In particular the sounds くゎ ( kwa ) and ぐゎ ( gwa ) were respectively comparable with か ( ka ) and が ( ga ). In the same way, the sounds ゐ ( wi ) and ゑ ( we ) disappeared. On another side, the transcription is unaware of the wide syllables.

Comparison with the other systems of transcription

the transcription Hepburn is more faithful to the Phonétique Japanese. Inter alia, the transcriptions of all the natures traced in blue in the preceding table are different.
the transcription Kunrei can be perceived like a modern version of the transcription Japanese-shiki. The Japanese-shiki is even comparable with a restricted version of the standard ISO 3602 describing Kunrei-shiki.

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