The JSL reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Apr-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

JSL

JSL is a romanization system for transcribing the Japanese language into the Roman alphabet. It was devised by Eleanor Jorden for (and named after) her 1987 book Japanese: The Spoken Language.

JSL is designed for teaching Japanese, and so follows the Japanese kana spelling closely. It differs from Nihon-shiki in that it uses doubled vowels, rather than macrons, to represent long o and u. Tōkyō and Ōsaka, for instance, would be written Tookyoo and Oosaka in JSL.

JSL has a system of indicating the pitch of each mora. An acute (´) vowel denotes the first high-pitch mora, a grave (`) marks the last high-pitch mora, and a circumflex (ˆ) marks the only high-pitch mora in a word. In this system 日本 "Japan" would be written as nihôn and 二本 "two bottles" as nîhon. (This is why doubled vowels must be used instead of macrons.)

JSL is not popular outside of teaching settings because it does not give a good indication to English speakers of how the word is pronounced in Japanese.

See rōmaji for a comparison of romanization systems.

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