View source for JSL romanization

{{Short description|Romanization of Japanese}}
{{Japanese_writing}}
'''JSL''' is a [[romanization]] system for transcribing the [[Japanese language]] into the [[Latin script]]. It was devised by [[Eleanor Jorden]] for (and named after) her 1987 book ''[[Japanese: The Spoken Language]]''. The system is based on [[Kunrei-shiki romanization]].<ref name="Jorden21">Jorden 1987: 21</ref> Japanese Yale is a less well-known alternative name for the JSL system.

{| border="0" cellspacing="2px" cellpadding="3px" align="right" style="margin-left:0.5em"
|- bgcolor="#BECFEB"	
! colspan="3" align="center" | Example:<br/>tat-u
|- bgcolor="#CFEBBE"
! Conjugation 	 !! JSL !! Hepburn
|- bgcolor="#E7F5DE"
| Mizen 1 	 || {{Transliteration|ja|tat-a-}} || {{Transliteration|ja|hepburn|tat-a-}}
|- bgcolor="#E7F5DE"
| Mizen 2 	 || {{Transliteration|ja|tat-o-}} || {{Transliteration|ja|hepburn|tat-o-}}
|- bgcolor="#E7F5DE"
| Ren'yô 	 || {{Transliteration|ja|tat-i-}} || {{Transliteration|ja|hepburn|tach-i-}}
|- bgcolor="#E7F5DE"
| Syûsi 	 || {{Transliteration|ja|tat-u.}} || {{Transliteration|ja|hepburn|tats-u.}}
|- bgcolor="#E7F5DE"
| Rentai 	 || {{Transliteration|ja|tat-u-}} || {{Transliteration|ja|hepburn|tats-u-}}
|- bgcolor="#E7F5DE"
| Katei 	 || {{Transliteration|ja|tat-e-}} || {{Transliteration|ja|hepburn|tat-e-}}
|- bgcolor="#E7F5DE"
| Meirei 	 || {{Transliteration|ja|tat-e.}} || {{Transliteration|ja|hepburn|tat-e.}}
|}

It is designed for teaching spoken Japanese, and so, it follows [[Japanese phonology]] fairly closely. For example, different conjugations of a verb may be achieved by changing the final vowel (as in the chart on the right), thus "bear[ing] a direct relation to Japanese structure" (in Jorden's words<ref name="Jorden21" />), whereas the common [[Hepburn romanization]] may require exceptions in some cases, to more clearly illustrate pronunciation to native English speakers.

JSL differs from Hepburn, particularly in that it uses doubled vowels, rather than [[Macron (diacritic)|macron]]s, to represent the long vowels {{IPA|/oː/}} and {{IPA|/ɯː/}}. [[Tokyo]] ({{Transliteration|ja|hepburn|Tōkyō}}) and [[Osaka]] ({{Transliteration|ja|hepburn|Ōsaka}}), for instance, would be written ({{Transliteration|ja|Tookyoo}}) and ({{Transliteration|ja|Oosaka}}) in JSL. Also, JSL represents {{angbr|ん}}, the syllabic n, as an "n" with a macron over it, ({{Transliteration|ja|n̄}}), to avoid the practice that other systems use of sometimes writing (n) and sometimes (n') depending on the presence of a following vowel or (y).

There is a close tie between Japanese pronunciation and JSL, where one consistent symbol is given for each Japanese phoneme. This means that it does depart from Japanese [[orthography]] somewhat, as {{lang|ja|おう}} is romanized as ({{Transliteration|ja|oo}}) when it indicates a long {{IPA|/oː/}}, but as ({{Transliteration|ja|ou}}) when it indicates two distinct vowel sounds, such as in ({{Transliteration|ja|omou}}) for {{lang|ja|思う}} ({{lang|ja|おもう}}). Similarly, ({{Transliteration|ja|ei}}) is reserved for the pronunciation [ei] only, whereas other romanization systems (including Hepburn) follow the [[hiragana]] orthography, therefore making it impossible to tell whether [eː] or [ei] are represented.<ref>Jorden 1987: 22</ref> It also distinguishes between ({{Transliteration|ja|g}}), which is used when only a {{IPA|/ɡ/}} sound is possible, and ({{Transliteration|ja|ḡ}}), which is used when a [[velar nasal]] sound {{IPAblink|ŋ}} (the "ng" in the English word "singer") is also possible. The particles は and へ are romanized ({{Transliteration|ja|wa}}) and ({{Transliteration|ja|e}}), by their pronunciation. However, like Kunrei-shiki and Nihon-shiki, JSL does not distinguish between [[allophone]]s in Japanese which are close to different phonemes in English.

JSL indicates the [[Japanese pitch accent|pitch accent]] of each [[mora (linguistics)|mora]]. A vowel with an [[acute accent]] (´) denotes the first high-pitch mora, a [[grave accent]] (`) marks the last high-pitch mora, and a [[circumflex]] (ˆ) marks the only high-pitch mora in a word. In this system {{lang|ja|日本}} 'Japan' would be written ({{Transliteration|ja|nihôn̄}}) and {{lang|ja|二本}} 'two (sticks)' as ({{Transliteration|ja|nîhon̄}}), {{lang|ja|端です}} 'It's the edge' would be ({{Transliteration|ja|hasí dèsu}}) (standing for {{IPA|/hasi desu/ [hàɕi des(ɯ̀ᵝ)}}].<ref>Jorden 1987: 11-13</ref> (This is why doubled vowels must be used instead of macrons.)

==See also==
* The [[Yale romanization of Cantonese]] and [[Yale romanization of Korean]] were developed at Yale (where Eleanor Jorden did her doctorate) in the 1960s and 1970s.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

*Jorden, Eleanor Harz with Noda, Mari. ''Japanese: The Spoken Language'', vol. 1. 1987. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. {{ISBN|0-300-03831-3}}.

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

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[[Category:Romanization of Japanese]]
[[Category:Japanese writing system]]
[[Category:Writing systems introduced in 1987]]