Help talk:Japanese

Rewording
Slight change of wording and I added a little to the pronounciation. The way it was written before wasn't of much use as it didn't actually indicate some of the pronounciations but rather referred to them. The IPA guide is completely useless if you're not a linguist (I'm rather well versed in linguistics and I still can't look at IPA) but I'm still having trouble explaining pronounciation for gutteral stops (double consonants) and syllabic /n/ when followed by a vowel (a la 万円 man'en). Appreciate input for those 2 cases. freshgavin TALK   05:11, 6 December 2005 (UTC)
 * I've heard the small tsu pronounced in different ways, e.g. やっと "ya-ato" like it was written *やあと, even though that doesn't seem to be the textbook way to do it. Okay, that was in a song, but still... Shinobu 19:38, 20 December 2005 (UTC)
 * Yeah, that's only in music that they pronounce it that way. Just try to produce a gutteral stop at the top of your lungs (in rhythm with music) and you'll see why.   freshgavin  TALK    16:24, 26 December 2005 (UTC)

The IPA guide is completely useless if you're not a linguist (I'm rather well versed in linguistics and I still can't look at IPA) This comment strikes me as bizarre. First, here in Japan, many (non-linguist) learners of foreign languages have at least some familiarity with IPA; and it's hard to believe that Japan is unique. Secondly, I've encountered many linguists and while many (syntacticians, etc.) have been rusty in IPA, not one of them has been unable to look at it. Thirdly, I think you underestimate the intelligence of readers of WP, who can surely pick up the necessary rudiments of a notation system if they think it's worthwhile. (In order to make use of IPA, you don't have to know much of it.) And lastly, the kind of person who'll refuse to make any intellectual effort is unlikely to be reading a page such as this: they'll just pronounce the Hepburn as if what's written in it is in one of the languages they already know. -- Hoary 07:23, 28 March 2006 (UTC)


 * I don't want to be bothered with IPA if I don't have to. Most western hemisphere readers are familiar with the vowels of Spanish, and most Europeans are familiar with those of Italian, and if you can use those sounds, getting it right is just a matter of altering your accent a bit. Unfree (talk) 20:53, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

Example images of how the characters should look like
The example images are using a mincho font while the page CSS sets a gothic font so even if you have Japanese set up correctly the text and the image won't match. --Doc aberdeen 23:41, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

(Mincho vs Gothic? No problem, I think. Good typographic variety if the system works.)

About the text: this looks like the Declaration of human rights, but... well, I know some Japanese (I speak it like a half-ape and can browse or exchange mail using a dictionary for the difficult parts), but the vocabulary and the construction of this phrase aren't at all what I'm used to see. In particular, I can't understand the hiragana "katsu" near the beginning and the double "to" in "...-to ...-to wo sazukerarete ori" bit. How about an alternative sample of text, such as the incipit of the Japanese Constitution or "Snow Country"? --Rikypedia 18:37, 21 June 2007 (UTC)

The images appear rather blurry on my laptop computer. Wouldn't .png or .gif images be better? Unfree (talk) 20:32, 30 November 2008 (UTC)

The use of furigana in Wikipedia
I'd like to see this article say something about the use of furigana in Wikipedia. In the English language article on the topic, it is achieved by the use of HTML tables. Michiganotaku 00:04, 5 January 2007 (UTC)


 * See Wikipedia talk: Manual of Style (Japan-related articles). ムー カオズ ルール (Talk to Moo) 04:00, 24 December 2008 (UTC)

Installation on Ubuntu
The page claims that installation is required to display Japanese text on Ubuntu, however I could view the Japanese text perfectly after a clean install.
 * Not only that but they don't have sudo on that command. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.252.48.81 (talk) 04:31, 18 May 2008 (UTC)

Apostrophe?
Coming here from Sailor Uranus, I was curious about a Japanese name with an apostrophe in it: Ten'ō Haruka. There's no information on this page as to what that apostrophe does or represents. 91.107.146.1 (talk) 21:53, 5 May 2008 (UTC)
 * It's mentioned under the Help:Japanese section. Basically it's to distinguish Tenō てのう (pronounced as: TE-NOH) from Ten'ō てんおう (for example 天応, which means "Ten'ō era") (pronounced as: TEN-OH). I hope this helps. - Io Katai (talk) 04:52, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

Article Improvements (Request)
Since I lack abilities to add japanese names (obviously because the PC won't let me translate English to Japanese), here are the articles that must be improved by Japanese users:


 * MotorStorm (though it released in US and EU as well, placing a Japanese name for this article is vital to improve this article)
 * Excite Truck (the same as Excitebike, except truck is torakku in japanese)
 * Ridge Racer 7
 * Burnout Paradise (japanese players are seen driving around during Freeburn) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.45.52.142 (talk) 00:30, 21 July 2008 (UTC)