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JSL is aromanization system for transcribing theJapanese language into theLatin script. It was devised byEleanor Jorden for (and named after) her 1987 bookJapanese: The Spoken Language. The system is based onKunrei-shiki romanization.[1] Japanese Yale is a less well-known alternative name for the JSL system.
| Example: tat-u | ||
|---|---|---|
| Conjugation | JSL | Hepburn |
| Mizen 1 | tat-a- | tat-a- |
| Mizen 2 | tat-o- | tat-o- |
| Ren'yô | tat-i- | tach-i- |
| Syûsi | tat-u. | tats-u. |
| Rentai | tat-u- | tats-u- |
| Katei | tat-e- | tat-e- |
| Meirei | tat-e. | tat-e. |
It is designed for teaching spoken Japanese, and so, it followsJapanese 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[1]), whereas the commonHepburn 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 thanmacrons, to represent the long vowels/oː/ and/ɯː/.Tokyo (Tōkyō) andOsaka (Ōsaka), for instance, would be written (Tookyoo) and (Oosaka) in JSL. Also, JSL represents⟨ん⟩, the syllabic n, as an "n" with a macron over it, (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 Japaneseorthography somewhat, asおう is romanized as (oo) when it indicates a long/oː/, but as (ou) when it indicates two distinct vowel sounds, such as in (omou) for思う (おもう). Similarly, (ei) is reserved for the pronunciation [ei] only, whereas other romanization systems (including Hepburn) follow thehiragana orthography, therefore making it impossible to tell whether [eː] or [ei] are represented.[2] It also distinguishes between (g), which is used when only a/ɡ/ sound is possible, and (ḡ), which is used when avelar nasal sound[ŋ] (the "ng" in the English word "singer") is also possible. The particles は and へ are romanized (wa) and (e), by their pronunciation. However, like Kunrei-shiki and Nihon-shiki, JSL does not distinguish betweenallophones in Japanese which are close to different phonemes in English.
JSL indicates thepitch accent of eachmora. A vowel with anacute accent (´) denotes the first high-pitch mora, agrave accent (`) marks the last high-pitch mora, and acircumflex (ˆ) marks the only high-pitch mora in a word. In this system日本 'Japan' would be written (nihôn̄) and二本 'two (sticks)' as (nîhon̄),端です 'It's the edge' would be (hasí dèsu) (standing for/hasidesu/[hàɕides(ɯ̀ᵝ)].[3] (This is why doubled vowels must be used instead of macrons.)