View source for Wāpuro rōmaji

{{Short description|Japanese romanization system}}
{{Redirect|Wāpuro|word processors in general including Japanese ones|word processor}}
{{More citations needed|date=November 2007}}{{Japanese writing}}

{{nihongo|3='''Wāpuro rōmaji'''|2=ワープロローマ字}}, or '''kana spelling''', is a style of [[romanization of Japanese]] originally devised  for [[Japanese input methods|entering]] [[Japanese language|Japanese]] into {{nihongo|[[word processor#Japanese word processor devices|word processor]]s|ワードプロセッサー|wādo purosessā|often [[Japanese abbreviated and contracted words|abbreviated]] ''wāpuro''}} while using a Western [[QWERTY]] keyboard.

In Japanese, the more formal name is {{nihongo|3=rōmaji kana henkan|2=ローマ字仮名変換}}, literally "Roman character kana conversion".  One conversion method has been standardized as [[Japanese Industrial Standard|JIS]] X 4063:2000 (Keystroke to KANA Transfer Method Using Latin Letter Key for Japanese Input Method); however, the standard explicitly states that it is intended as a means of input, not as a method of romanization.<ref name="jisx4063">「この規格は、キー入力時の変換方式を規定するものであって、日本語のローマ字の標準表記を規定するものではない。」 [https://www.jisc.go.jp/app/jis/general/GnrDisuseJISStandardList?toGnrJISStandardDetailDisuseStandardList&jisStdId=1000017193&jisStdNo=X4063 JISX4063 仮名漢字変換システムのための英字キー入力から仮名への変換方式]<!-- http://www.jisc.go.jp/app/pager?%23jps.JPSH0083D%3AJPSO0082%3A%2FJPS%2FJPSO0083.jsp=&amp;AKKNB_vJISJISID=1000017193 --><!--http://www.jisc.go.jp/app/pager?%23jps.JPSH0083D%3AJPSO0081%3A%2FJPS%2FJPSO0083.jsp=&amp;AKKNB_vJISJISID=56804--><!--http://www.jisc.go.jp/app/pager?%23jps.JPSH0083D%3AJPSO0081%3A%2FJPS%2FJPSO0083.jsp=&amp;AKKNB_vJISJISID=1000004241-->, page 2.</ref>

{{lang|ja-latn|Wāpuro rōmaji}} is now frequently employed in general-purpose computer input as well as word processing, but the name lives on.  Wāpuro-style romanizations are also frequently used by native speakers of Japanese in informal contexts, as well as by many fans of [[anime]] and other aspects of [[Culture of Japan|Japanese culture]]{{citation needed|date=October 2022}}. A common characteristic of these (often online) cases is the avoidance of hard-to-type circumflexes or macrons. Also, some ambiguities in spelling may exist. Spellings are seen that would fail to produce the desired kana when typed on a computer, for example failure to distinguish between {{lang|ja|ず}} (properly entered as "zu") and {{lang|ja|づ}} (properly entered as "du").

==Spelling conventions==

In practice, there are as many variants of wāpuro rōmaji as there are manufacturers of word processing and IME software. Many aspects of [[Hepburn romanization|Hepburn]], [[Kunrei]] and [[Nihon-shiki]] romanizations are accepted, so that both ''si'' (Kunrei/Nihon-shiki) and ''shi'' (Hepburn) resolve to {{lang|ja|し}}. Some conventions, however, differ from standard romanizations:
* Owing to the difficulty of entering diacritics like macrons or circumflexes with standard keyboards (as well as the ambiguity of ō, etc., which in Hepburn can represent either {{lang|ja|おう}} or {{lang|ja|おお}}) [[long vowel]]s are almost universally entered following [[kana]] spelling rules; thus, ''kou'' for {{lang|ja|こう}} and ''koo'' for {{lang|ja|こお}}.
*The Nihon-shiki forms of romanization take precedence over other romanizations. Thus ''du'' usually produces {{lang|ja|づ}} rather than {{lang|ja|どぅ}}.
* Small kana can be entered by prefacing them with an ''x'' or ''l'', e.g. ''xa'' for {{lang|ja|ぁ}}, or ''ltu'' for {{lang|ja|[[っ]]}}. This is commonly employed for modern [[katakana]] combinations like {{lang|ja|ティ}}, which would be entered as ''texi'', ''thi'', or ''<nowiki>t'i</nowiki>''. However, on some systems ''l'' is treated the same as ''r'' when followed by a vowel or "y".
* {{lang|ja|じゃ}}, {{lang|ja|じゅ}} and {{lang|ja|じょ}} may also be romanized as ''jya'', ''jyu'' and ''jyo'' respectively.  This matches the kana closely, but is used by neither Nihon-shiki/Kunrei (which would be ''zya, zyu, zyo'') nor Hepburn (''ja, ju, jo'').
* The Hepburn spelling ''tchi'' for {{lang|ja|っち}} may be rejected, and ''tti'' or ''cchi'' may be required instead.
* The Hepburn spelling ''mma'' is likely to be rendered {{lang|ja|っま}}, not the intended {{lang|ja|んま}} (''nma'').  This is not an issue for revised Hepburn, which eliminates the ''-mm-'' forms in favor of ''-nm-''.
* [[Mora (linguistics)|Moraic]] ''n'', {{lang|ja|ん}}, can be entered as ''nn'', ''n'' or ''<nowiki>n'</nowiki>''. While moraic ''n'' can be typed in simply as ''n'' in some cases, in other cases it is necessary to type in a non-ambiguous form to prevent the IME from interpreting the ''n'' as belonging to a kana from the ''na'' column ({{lang|ja|な}} ''na'', {{lang|ja|に}} ''ni'', {{lang|ja|ぬ}} ''nu'', {{lang|ja|ね}} ''ne'', {{lang|ja|の}} ''no'').
* Phonetic names can often be used for [[Japanese typographic symbols]] not found on standard keyboards. For example, in some IMEs ～ can be entered as ''nami'' (wave) or ''kara'' (from) and an ellipsis (...) can be entered as ''tenten'' (point point).

==Phonetic accuracy==
Unlike Kunrei and Hepburn, the wāpuro style is based on a one-to-one [[transcription (linguistics)|transcription]] of the [[kana]].<ref name="jisx4063"/>  Wāpuro thus does not represent some distinctions observed in spoken Japanese, but not in writing, such as the difference between {{IPA|/oː/}} (long vowel) and {{IPA|/oɯ/}} (o+u).  For example, in standard Japanese the kana {{lang|ja|おう}} can be pronounced in two different ways: as {{IPA|/oː/}} meaning "king" ({{lang|ja|王}}),<ref>[https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E7%8E%8B_%28%E3%81%8A%E3%81%86%29/ 大辞泉 おう［わう］ 1 【王】]</ref> and as {{IPA|/oɯ/}} meaning "to chase" ({{lang|ja|追う}}).<ref>[https://dictionary.goo.ne.jp/word/%E8%BF%BD%E3%81%86/ 大辞泉 お・う〔おふ〕【追う／▽逐う】]</ref>  Kunrei and Hepburn spell the two differently as ''ô''/''ō'' and ''ou'', because the former is a long vowel while the latter has an ''o'' that happens to be followed by a ''u''; however, wāpuro style simply transcribes the kana and renders them both as ''ou''.  Likewise, the irregularly spelled particles ''wa'' ({{lang|ja|は}}), ''e'' ({{lang|ja|へ}}) and ''o'' ({{lang|ja|を}}) must be entered as written (''ha'', ''he'' and ''wo'' respectively), not as pronounced (unlike Kunrei and Hepburn, which transcribe the pronunciation).

==See also==
* [[Japanese language and computers]]
* [[Pinyin input method]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Japanese romanization}}
{{Japanese language}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wapuro romaji}}
[[Category:Romanization of Japanese]]
[[Category:Japanese writing system]]