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The was devised by the Reverend James Curtis Hepburn to transcribe the sounds of the Japanese language into the Roman Alphabet for his Japanese–English Dictionary , published in 1867 . This system was subsequently revised and called Shūsei Hebon-shiki (修正ヘボン式). This revised version is sometimes also referred to as '''Hyōjun-shiki''' (標準式) (standard style).

The original and revised variants of Hepburn remain by far the most popular methods of transcription of Japanese. It gives the best indication to an English speaker of how the word is pronounced in modern Japanese. Native Japanese speakers familiar with the Roman alphabet through the study of English tend to find Hepburn more comfortable than the official Kunrei-shiki system.


LEGAL STATUS

Hepburn is based on English phonology, not Japanese, and as such has faced some opposition in Japan. In particular, a September 21 , 1937 Cabinet Ordinance proclaimed an alternative system now commonly known as Kunrei to be Japan's official romanization for all purposes, but this was overturned by the Supreme Commander Allied Powers (SCAP) during the Occupation Of Japan . The (slightly revised) ordinance was reissued 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 Kunrei. The Z39.11-1972 standard was consequently deprecated on October 6 , 1994 .

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 where it lacks '' De Jure '' status, Hepburn remains the '' De Facto '' standard. Signs and notices in city offices and police stations, at shrines, temples and attractions also use it. English-language Newspaper s and Media use the simplified form of Hepburn. Cities and Prefectures use it in information for foreigners, and English-language publications by the Japanese Foreign Ministry use simplified Hepburn too. Official tourism information put out by the government uses it, as do guidebooks, local and foreign, on Japan.

Students of Japanese as a foreign language usually learn Hepburn.


STANDARD VARIANTS OF HEPBURN ROMANIZATION

There are three standard variants of Hepburn romanization.

  • The first is traditional Hepburn, which renders Long Vowels and syllabic ''n'' in a variety of ways.


  • The second is revised Hepburn, a revised version of ''traditional Hepburn'', in which the rendering of syllabic ''n'' as ''m'' before certain consonants is no longer used. This is the most common form of Japanese romanization used today, and is used by the Library Of Congress . (''Revised Hepburn'' may be referred to as ''modified Hepburn''.)


  • The third is modified Hepburn, which builds on ''revised Hepburn'' to further modify ''traditional Hepburn''. This version is consistent in its treatment of long vowels (using Macron s) and syllabic ''n''. It has been adopted by some major dictionaries (e.g. the ''Pocket Kenkyusha Japanese Dictionary'' published by Oxford University Press ), but is still mainly the preserve of linguists. (The term ''modified Hepburn'' may be used to refer to ''revised Hepburn''.)


Details of these variants can be found below.


FEATURES OF HEPBURN ROMANIZATION

  • ''si''.



Particles

  • When ''he'' へ is used as a particle it is written ''e''.

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

  • When ''wo'' を is used as a particle it is written ''o''.



Long vowels

In traditional and '''revised Hepburn''':
  • The long vowels o and '''u''' are indicated by a Macron —e.g., long o is written ''ō''.

  • In words of Japanese or Chinese origin, the long vowel e is written ''ei''.

  • In words of Japanese or Chinese origin, the long vowel i is written ''ii''.

  • In words of foreign origin, all long vowels are indicated by macrons.


In modified Hepburn:
  • All long vowels are indicated by doubling the vowel, e.g. long o is written ''oo''.

  • ---The combination ''ei'' is reserved for cases where the two vowels are pronounced as distinct sounds, e.g. in the word ''Supein'' (スペイン), meaning "Spain".



Syllabic ''n''

In traditional Hepburn:
  • Syllabic ''n'' (ん) is written as ''n'' before consonants, but as ''n''' (with an apostrophe) before vowels and ''y''. It is written as ''m'' before other Labial Consonant s, i.e. ''b'', ''m'', and ''p''.


In revised Hepburn:
  • The rendering ''m'' before labial consonants is not used, being replaced with ''n''. It is still written ''n''' before vowels and ''y''.


In modified Hepburn:
  • Syllabic ''n'' is always written as ''n'' with a macron (''n̄''), such as is used to indicate long vowels in traditional Hepburn. (This can be achieved on word processors through the use of various specialized fonts, e.g. Times Gandhari.) This renders the use of apostrophes unnecessary.



Double consonants

  • Double (or " Geminate ") consonants are marked by doubling the consonant following the Sokuon , っ, except for ''sh''→''ssh'', ''ch''→''tch'', ''ts''→''tts''..



Variations

Variations of the Hepburn system indicate the long vowels ō and '''ū''' as follows:
  • ''Tōkyō'': indicated with Macron s. This follows the rules of the traditional and '''revised Hepburn''' systems, and is considered to be standard.

  • ''Tokyo'': not indicated at all. This is common for Japanese words that have been adopted into English. This 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 es. Circumflexes are how long vowels are indicated by the alternative Nihon-shiki and Kunrei-shiki romanizations. Circumflexes are often used when a word processor does not allow macrons. With the spread of Unicode, this is becoming rare.

  • ''Tohkyoh'': indicated with an "h". This is sometimes known as "passport Hepburn", as the Japanese Foreign Ministry has authorized (but not required) this usage in passports. {Link without Title}

  • ''Toukyou'': written using '' style, as this is how text is entered into a Japanese word processor (''wādo purosessā'') using a keyboard with Roman Character s. This is not recognized as standard and is almost exclusively found in amateur romanization. Nevertheless, this method most accurately represents the way that vowels are written in kana, 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).

  • ''Tookyoo'': written by doubling the long vowels. This follows the rules of the modified Hepburn system, but is also common when writing words of foreign origin without reference to any particular system, i.e. ''paatii'' for パーティー ("party") instead of ''pātī''. This is also used in the JSL form of romanization.


Some linguists 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.


HEPBURN ROMANIZATION CHARTS



For hiragana


The characters in red are obsolete in modern Japanese.


For standard katakana

The characters in red are obsolete in modern Japanese.


For extended katakana

These are used mainly to represent the sounds in words in other languages. Most of these are not formally standardized and some are very rarely used.


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