What are MAL's rules for romanizing chouonpu?

Sep 13, 2019 7:47 PM

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Aug 2019

I've observed that, on MAL, the rules are that a long o formed by おう is romanized as ou, and one formed by おお is romanized as oo (never as the ō used in standard Hepburn romainzation).

However, what are rules for romanizing a long o, and indeed other long vowels, formed by a chouonpu (the ー character), as in オー?

Most uses of chouonpu are in non-Japanese words transliterated into katakana, which on MAL are written as the original word (or, if the original is in a non-Roman-character-language, the standard English romanization of it), never as a transliteration of a transliteration.

However, sometimes a chouonpu or a wave dash (〜) is used as a nonstandard way of writing a Japanese word in titles of works. Or sometimes they are used in writing a completely made-up sound or name which has no original language.

What rule are we to follow to deal with cases like those?

I'm thinking for example of グスコーブドリの伝記. グスコー is meant to be a Japanese name, but because it's only written in kana, not kanji, and with a chouonpu, I cannot tell whether the original spelling is ぐすこう (Gusukou) or ぐすこお (Gusukoo). The MAL page seems to have gone for ou in the romanization, but I cannot tell from the information there what the reason for this is, since there's no う nor ウ in the Japanese spelling, only a ー.

NotSafeforFunSep 13, 2019 8:09 PM

Sep 18, 2019 7:43 PM

lanblade

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Jan 2011

3324

1. Look at the official furigana

if it's not available

2. Listen to the pronunciation from official PVs.
an ou vs oo sound is quite different IMO.
eg. "gusukou" is said https://youtu.be/EF4Az9IgL6o?t=103

and if still iffy

3. Use context
like you said, it's supposed to be his first name. Japanese names end with an "ou" such as Jirou, Ichirou, Gorou, Kyou, etc. So while yes Guskou is a madeup fantasy name, it does fit the naming style of Japanese names. I honestly can't think of any Japanese name that actually ends with an "oo."

lanbladeSep 19, 2019 6:35 PM

Mar 7, 2022 7:13 PM

NotSafeforFun

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Aug 2019

While that answers the reasoning behind that specific case, it still doesn't answer the question regarding sound effects and pseudo-foreign names.

I'm thinking of cases like アーヤと魔女, in which アーヤ (Āya in Hepburn) is a made-up, pseudo-Western name derived from the Japanese word ayatsuru (操る). This title is currently transliterated as Aya, with no indication that the A is a long vowel.

Should it maybe instead be Aaya, for consistency with how long vowels in native Japanese words are transliterated?

Mar 13, 2022 12:10 AM

zagzee

Offline

Oct 2018

461

NotSafeforFun said:
Should it maybe instead be Aaya, for consistency with how long vowels in native Japanese words are transliterated?

Probably. In the original romanization thread it's stated that long vowels represented by chouonpu are written as double letters. It's an old thread, but there's nothing else. Either way, it could be a case of moderator discretion.

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What are MAL's rules for romanizing chouonpu?

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