Re: tachi-ai [romanization of Japanese]

[Hareesh Kesavan <hkesavan@stanford.edu>]

....<De-lurking>....

Strange... I didn't expect that I would make my first post to
the sumo mailing list on the subject of grammar and romanization...
but I was struck by some of the things Masumi-san wrote:

On Sun, 11 May 1997, Masumi Abe wrote:

> If you follow the rule you presented here, yorikiri should be
> yori-kiri, hatakikomi should be hataki-komi, oshidashi should
> be oshi-dashi, etc.

[...]

> In a sense, for people who are learning Japanese, 
> those are better way to learn Japanese words.

I have to agree whole-heartedly on this point.  I myself assumed
that hatakikomi was from "hata" and "kikomu" (not that such
words exist in Japanese... I just never bothered to check!), so
I was unconsciously dividing the word as "hata-kikomi" in my mind.

It is very useful to know the "division" of Japanese compound
words, both as a clue as to the meaning of the word (based on the
kanji for each part), but also as an indication of the pronunciation.
I remember being somewhat irritated to hear an English-speaker say
"KOmu-SUbi" instead of "ko-MUsubi", and "yo-KOzuna" instead of
"YOko-ZUna". [Hyphens added for clarity! :) ]

> I strongly oppose to "tachi ai" with a space, or "tachi" in the
> place of "tachiai".

I also agree with this statement, and prefer "tachiai".  That being
said, I understand quite clearly why we English speakers might
prefer a hyphen in the particular case of "tachi-ai".

First of all, English is obviously not a phonetic language, whereas
Japanese is almost perfectly phonetic (extremely predictable way of
reading sounds from or writing sounds as hiragana, katakana and even 
romaji).  Japanese native speakers and non-native students of Japanese
know the phonetic alphabet behind the romaji, whereas non-speakers try to
map the romanized version to their own native languages' phonemes.

Unfortunately, English native speakers are often taught to "know"
words, rather than to pronounce them piece by piece.  This problem
is compounded by the fact that there are very few words in English that
have 3 or more consecutive vowels.  Usually, when I see a bunch of vowels
in a word, I expect them to form a single sound (or diphthong), rather
than a series of distinct sounds.  [Example: "ai" in "wait"]

Therefore, "i-ai" is easier to pronounce than "iai".  QED. :)

End of long and almost entirely sumo-free diatribe. Any comments? :)

....<Re-lurking>....

Hareesh.
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Hareesh Kesavan                                  hkesavan@stanford.edu

My hovercraft is full of eels.