tlug: Anglicization - Re: Server Name?

[Matt Gushee <matt@example.com>]

John Little writes:
 > % 
 > %    Tonkatu
 > %    Shimbashi (too long, simbasi)
 > %    Shibuya (sibuya?)
 > %
 > 
 >   I know there's a name for this particular method of anglicization
 >   (the transliteration of "sh" to "s" and "tsu" to "tu"). Does anyone
 >   know what it is, so that I can create some "****** hantai!" signs
to
 >   nail to the wall outside the Education Ministry?  :-)  :-)

If I'm not mistaken, it's called the (wouldn't you know it!) Monbusho
system. Ah, excuse me, the *Monbusyo* system [gag].

 >   Is it *just* me, or is this like fingernails down a blackboard to
 >   other native English speakers, too?

Yes yes yes, absolutely! Actually, though, I think there's a legitimate
linguistic rationale for this atrocity. To wit, because the Japanese
themselves don't distinguish between the 's' of 'sa' and the 'sh' of
'shi', the Tonkatu/sibuya romanization is in a sense truer to the
original. Needless to say, it's very counter-intuitive for us
Englischer folk. The romanization we like, by the way--the kind
with Shibuya and tonkatsu--is called the Hepburn system (or maybe it's 
a derivative of that).

Funnily enough, Chinese was subjected to a similarly hideous
romanization system for many years. China, however, eventually figured 
out that nobody could figure out how to pronounce Mao Tse-tung and
Ts'ingtao, and made everyone start spelling them Mao Zedong and
Qingdao (though, come to think of it, the beer labels are still
spelled the old way, aren't they?).

We can only hope Japan will follow suit in our lifetimes :-/

Matt Gushee
Oshamanbe, Hokkaido
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