Re: Shikona and sumo terms transcription from Japanese to English, wouldn't it be correct to do it another way?

[Syd Hoare <syd-hoare@judo-sumo-london.com>]

Hi,
As you know Japanese is written with a mixture of characters and alphabet(Kanji
& kana).  A character will have a pronunciation....To or Tou, Ko or Kou etc and
that is fixed. Japanese does not have a lot of sounds  If a Rikishi choses his
shikona with a (Kou) character in it that is the way it has to be pronounced.
When speaking Japanese it is important to get the vowels right since if you dont
they often wont know what you are talking about even though the pronunciation
will sound close enough to the gaijin. Judo for example could be pronounced four
ways depending on how you lengthen the vowels.  The correct way is with both
vowels long.  Diphthongs( two vowels) are always pronounced individually.  So
sensei is actually sen se i which to a Japanese ear will sound quite different
to sen se. A&I will sound slightly different to A&E.  Vowels generally do not
differ very much in their pronunciation unlike English. Sumou is actually a bit
like snow but with an m instead of the n.  W always sounds to me like W and
never V.  If you look at the mouth shape when the two are said it is different.
It is not too bad knowing the various pronunciations if you have learned the
characters otherwise it is a bit of a problem.
Syd

ShiroiKuma wrote:

> Hi all:
>
> This got me thinking a couple of times, and maybe it's a question more for
> linguistic experts: Why is it that in generally accepted ways of
> transcribing shikona and Japanese terms in general did we leave out certain
> letters signifying prolongation and not others?
>
> I.e.: generally, one writes "dohyo" and not "dohyou", "Takatoriki" and not
> "Takatouriki", but yet we write the prolongation "i" as in "keiko"? Why
> isn't it "keko" by the same logic, or why isn't it "sense" instead of
> "sensei". Maybe, to promote correct pronunciation, in typed publications it
> should all be "dohyo", "keko" etc. with an accent mark above the "o" and "e"
> to signify pronunciation length?
>
> Last, why does one use "w" instead of "v", when it seems that the
> pronunciation is clearly "Vakanohana" and not "Wakanohana"?
>
> I know this is just a user consensus, but is there any logic behind it? Or
> would it theoretically be more coherent to do it as suggested above?
>
> Later,
>
> ShiroiKuma
> ^Ô^Ò^¢^ÌF
> ShiroiKuma@ShiroiKuma.com
> ICQ#: 33474001
>
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