The cyrillization of Japanese is the process of transliterating or transcribing the Japanese language into Cyrillic script, either to represent Japanese proper names or terms in Cyrillic script (and various languages based on Cyrillic) or as an aid to Japanese language learning in those languages. This can be done in an ad hoc fashion (e.g. when "sushi" is transliterated as "суши" in Russian Cyrillic or as "суші" in Ukrainian Cyrillic) or using one of a number of systems.
There are a number of cyrillization systems used by different Cyrillic alphabet-based languages, such as:
- The standard and most widely used system for cyrillization into Russian Cyrillic is known as the Polivanov system, named after the Russian and Soviet linguist Yevgeny Polivanov. One of the most arguable questions in this system is a representation of し, ち and じ into "си" (si), "ти" (ti) and "дзи" (dzi) respectively.
- The standard and most widely used (for example, in publications of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv) system for cyrillization into Ukrainian Cyrillic is known as Kovalenko system, named after the Ukrainian linguist Oleksandr Kovalenko. Unlike the Polivanov system, Kovalenko system is very close to the original Japanese pronunciation.
External links
- Online Japanese→Polivanov transcription converter
- Proposal for a coordinated Japanese transcription system for several Slavic languages
- Automatic cyrillization of hiragana and katakana