#romanisation

[culmaer]

I feel like pinyin is needlessly confusing, and frankly wade-giles transcription is as well, and it's all because of the retroflex-affricate intersection

Mandarin plosives have an aspiration distinction rather than voicing, and both systems handle this in an oké way, though I prefer pinyin and it is by far the most popular system these days. if I were doing a WG-style system, I'd replace the apostrophes with <h>

/p, pʰ/ = PY <b, p> and WG <p, p'>

/t, tʰ/ = PY <d, t> and WG <t, t'>

/k, kʰ/ = PY <g, k> and WG <k, k'>

then we get to the fricative-affricate trios,

Dent. /s, ts, tsʰ/ = PY <s, z, c> and WG <s, ts, ts'>

Retro. /ʂ, tʂ, tʂʰ/ = PY <sh, zh, ch> and WG <sh, ch, ch'>

Palat. /ɕ, tɕ, tɕʰ/ = PY <x, j, q> and WG <hs, ch, ch'>

and here pinyin is just misleading. I actually quite enjoy <q> aesthetically for a "ch-like" sound, but if we're trying to use single letters for everything, firstly, why ? and secondly, using digraphs only for the retroflexes,, moreover the second letter being <_h> but it's not for aspiration, is a Really Weird Choice. and WG doesn't even bother to distinguish the retroflexes so that's not an option.

I like the pinyin-style "pseudo-voicing" transcription for plosives, but I do like the idea of using <_h> for the affricates in the culmær system. that is inconsistent, yes, but it feels more intuitive

dental looks better than <s, dz, ts>

retroflex <ś, tś, tśh> ... or perhaps we use <x, tx, txh> here to avoid diacritics for some reason, though it is suboptimal for people coming from pinyin which I don't want to disregard as a design criterion

palatal <c, tc, tch> or <j, tj, tjh>, maybe even <c, tj, tch> ? the <c, j> feel good as palatals because IPA, but again we've got the pinyin issue. and it's a real pity to lose the <q> here

it's actually much more difficult to redesign this in a satisfying way than anticipated, so much more tricky ...

[aonobaralyrics]

きくお - 天つ水のメノコ

Kikuo - Amatsu Mizu no Menoko

Lyrics: kanji + romaji

岩屋の奥村はずれに住む雨女

iwaya no oku murahazure ni sumu ame onna

若く美しうららうららメノコ雨女

wakaku utsukushi urara urara menoko ame onna

天つ 天つ水よ怒り唸れ

amatsu amatsu mizu yo ikari unare

天つ 天つメノコ泣き眠れ

amatsu amatsu menoko naki nemure

うらら メソコわんわん泣く日にゃ 雨どっと降る

urara menoko wanwan naku hi nya ame dotto furu

村の掟じゃ泣かせ泣かせ

mura no okite ja nakase nakase

打てや こりゃえと

ute ya korya e to

天つ 天つ水よ怒り唸れ

amatsu amatsu mizu yo ikari unare

天つ 天つメノコ泣き眠れ

amatsu amatsu menoko naki nemure

色好みの旅のオノコ

irogonomi no tabi no onoko

これに恋い明かし

kore ni koi akashi

日照り干上がり

hideri hiagari

こりゃ追い出せや雨降りやせぬ

korya oidase ya ame furiyasenu

天つ 天つ水よ怒り唸れ

amatsu amatsu mizu yo ikari unare

天つ 天つメノコ泣き眠れ

amatsu amatsu menoko naki nemure

メノコこれにゃ病み耐え難し

menoko kore nya yami tae katashi

雨すさまじく

ame susamajiku

恨み果てて 村五つに

urami hatete mura itsutsu ni

人流れ消ゆ

hito nagarekiyu

天つ 天つ水よ怒り唸れ

amatsu amatsu mizu yo ikari unare

天つ 天つメノコ泣き眠れ

amatsu amatsu menoko naki nemure

天つ 天つ水よ怒り唸れ

amatsu amatsu mizu yo ikari unare

天つ 天つメノコ泣き眠れ

amatsu amatsu menoko naki nemure

オノコ メノコ 泣き踊れ

onoko menoko naki odore

月よ陽よ嵐となれ

tsuki yo hi yo arashi to nare

オノコ メノコ眠る社で

onoko menoko nemuru yashiro de

突けよ離れよ闇夜の底で

tsuke yo hanare yo yamiyo no soko de

オノコ メノコ 泣き踊れ

onoko menoko naki odore

あめつちのもと 嵐を呼べ

ametsuchi no moto arashi wo yobe

オノコ メノコ祭る社で

onoko menoko matsuru yashiro de

突けよ離れよ魑魅(スダマ)となって

tsuke yo hanare yo sudama to natte

オオ...

ooh…

[bernaticneon]

Roman archaeology in smaller rural areas deserves so much more love. Everyone’s obsessed with the Egyptian pyramids, Pompeii, and the Colosseum (don’t get me wrong, those are iconic), but the smaller sites? They’re the unsung heroes of ancient history. These little rural spots are often where you find the real stories—the stuff that rewrites everything we thought we knew.

Like, I was reading about Huerta Varona the other day (in Palencia), and it’s wild to think about how Spanish Romanisation played out in ways historians didn’t even imagine. These sites might not have massive amphitheaters or shiny marble statues, but they hold the evidence of how people actually lived. Small settlements, local adaptations of Roman culture, the blending of traditions—it’s honestly fascinating.

But the problem? They barely get any recognition. There’s little funding, no big marketing campaigns, and sometimes even the local governments overlook them. Meanwhile, they’re out here telling us how empires spread and how everyday people interacted with history’s big movers and shakers. They’re just as amazing as the famous spots, but because they’re “rural” or less flashy, they don’t get the spotlight they deserve.

So yeah, let’s hype up the small sites. They may not have the drama of Pompeii, but they’re rewriting history piece by piece, and that’s just as incredible.

[lurkingteapot]

When I say I wish popular romanisations of Thai were less ambiguous and more consistent, it's stuff like this:

Phupha and Pat (and Pa!) have the same initial consonant sound. Pran's is different—it's the same as Kampung's "p" sound. Pran, Pa, and Phupha share an "a" sound though—the same "a" sound Kampung also has (though it's written differently (*)). Kampung's "u" sound and Phupha's "u" sound are not the same. Kampung's "p" is the same sound as the initial in Pran. Kampung and Korn share an initial. It's the same sound the names Gunn (MSP) and Gun (Atthaphan) and Kan (KPTS) start with. All three of those names are pronounced identically. Kan (KPTS) is not pronounced the same as Kan (The Eclipse). Tian does not share an initial with Toto, but Toto (BBS) and Tinn (MSP) do. If the romanisation of BBS given names and ATOTS place names were consistent, we'd have Phut and Pha and Pran (or Pa Pan Dao). (Pa the person and Pha the word for cliff do not sound the same because of tones, but that's another topic.) I could go on.

And all this is just based on consonants and vowel quality and lengths, not even going into different glyphs for the same consonant. I don't have a solution to offer for this. I 100% think authors or subtitling teams (or, y'know, REGULAR PEOPLE who just want folks who don't speak Thai to be able to put their name in writing) choosing a romanisation that looks good to them is valid. But I'm also a language nerd, so I can't quite stop thinking how much harder this makes it for folks trying to learn more about the language, or pick up more about it, either.

(Name examples and corresponding official romanisation taken from real life, A Tale of Thousand Stars, Bad Buddy Series, KinnPorsche The Series, My School President, and Our Skyy 2)

(*) Edited 2023-06-16 to add: this was a mistake stemming from too many unchecked edits and I'm sorry. Kampung's "a" is neither long nor short whereas Pran, Pa, and Phupha have long "a" sounds and Pat has a short one.

[kawion]

why does the romanisation of cantonese turn g sounds into k sounds??? take wong kar wai, kung fu, kowloon?? there's no k sounds in any of them

[bongboyblog]

23-07-2020

[degtau]

落ちた事のある空  + CLEVER SLEAZOID lyrics & romanisation

https://direngrey.fandom.com/wiki/%E8%90%BD%E3%81%A1%E3%81%9F%E4%BA%8B%E3%81%AE%E3%81%82%E3%82%8B%E7%A9%BA

https://direngrey.fandom.com/wiki/CLEVER_SLEAZOID_(2020)

With the help of the internet people, I was able to add these to the wiki, finally. Since the booklet apparently doesn’t come with an English translation, we’ll have to wait for someone to do those. Any volunteers? :D

[stephenescher]

How to Create a Romanisation System for Your Conlang

How to Create a Romanisation System for Your #Conlang: Includes rant about #Klingon

The name of Nìmpyèshiu’s native writing system: in Nìmpyèwèn (left), romanised (top-right),  and in IPA transcription (bottom-right).

I like IPA a lot, and I always highly recommend using it when creating and describing your conlang’s phonology. However, most people don’t even know what the IPA is and they may interpret that first sentence rather differently. In some situations, it is more…

View On WordPress