Cyrillization of Japanese
Cyrillization of JapaneseBelow is a cyrillization system for the Japanese language known as the Polivanov system. It is officially accepted in Russia.
In Japan, the Cyrillic script is called kiriru moji (キリル文字) or roshiaji (ロシア字).
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2 Supplemental table: 3 Double consonants: 4 Vowel length: 5 Syllabic -n 6 Common errors: 7 Exceptions: |
In kiriru moji consonants are doubled exactly as they do in romaji: e.g. -kk- > -кк-.
In kiriru moji vowel length is marked with either a colon after the vowel
or with a macron over it: tennô > тэнно: or тэнно̄.
However, in most non-linguistic texts the Japanese vowel length is not marked at all.
Before p, b, m the syllabic -n is transcribed as м according to pronunciation;
before vowels and y it is transcribed as нъ in order to indicate syllable
boundary; in all other cases it is transcribed as н.
Examples: shinbun > симбун, sanka > санка,
kan'i > канъи, hon'ya > хонъя.
Most often, Japanese names come to Russians not directly, but via English.
In English texts, Japanese names are written with the Hepburn system.
People then try to transcribe Japanese names as if they were English.
Very often people want to transcribe shi as ши and ji as джи.
This is very poor, because in Russian ши is pronounced as шы and
джи as джы. The Russian sound [ы] is in fact closer to Japanese [u]
than to Japanese [i]. (It would be better to write щи.)
Equally often people transcribe cha, chi, chu, cho as
ча, чи, чу, чо. This is acceptable phonetically,
but for reasons of consistency it is better to follow the rules and
write тя, ти, тю, тё.
Sometimes э is replaced with е (but not at the beginning of a word).
This is tolerable (e.g. kamikaze > камикадзе instead of камикадзэ).
But you should never replace ё with е
— it will change the Japanese word too much.Main table:
a - а i - и/й u - у e - э o - о
ka - ка ki - ки ku - ку ke - кэ ko - ко
ga - га gi - ги gu - гу ge - гэ go - го
sa - са si/shi - си su - су se - сэ so - со
za - дза zi/ji - дзи zu - дзу ze - дзэ zo - дзо
ta - та ti/chi - ти tu/tsu - цу te - тэ to - то
da - да di/ji - дзи du/zu - дзу de - дэ do - до
na - на ni - ни nu - ну ne - нэ no - но
ha - ха hi - хи hu/fu - фy he - хэ ho - хо
pa - па pi - пи pu - пу pe - пэ po - по
ba - ба bi - би bu - бу be - бэ bo - бо
ma - ма mi - ми mu - му me - мэ mo - мо
ya - я yu - ю yo - ё
ra - ра ri - ри ru - ру re - рэ ro - ро
wa - ва wo - о
-n/-m = -н/-м
Supplemental table:
kya - кя kyu - кю kyo - кё
gya - гя gyu - гю gyo - гё
sya/sha - ся syu/shu - сю syo/sho - сё
zya/ja - дзя zyu/ju - дзю zyo/jo - дзё
tya/cha - тя tyu/chu - тю tyo/cho - тё
dya/ja - дзя dyu/ju - дзю dyo/jo - дзё
nya - ня nyu - ню nyo - нё
hya - хя hyu - хю hyo - хё
pya - пя pyu - пю pyo - пё
bya - бя byu - бю byo - бё
mya - мя myu - мю myo - мё
rya - ря ryu - рю ryo - рё
Double consonants:
Vowel length:
Syllabic -n
Common errors: