Polivanov system

Polivanov system is a system of transliterating the Japanese language into Russian cyrillic script, either to represent Japanese proper names or terms in Russian or as an aid to Japanese language learning in those languages. The system was developed by Yevgeny Polivanov in 1917.

The following cyrillization system for Japanese is known as the Yevgeny Polivanov system. Note that it has its own spelling conventions and does not necessarily constitute a direct phonetic transcription of the pronunciation into the standard Russian usage of the Cyrillic alphabet.

Main table

Hiragana and Katakana to Polivanov cyrillization correspondence table, for single/modified kana.

Geminate consonants

Consonants are geminated exactly as they are in romaji: e.g. -kk- > -кк-.

Common errors and deviations

In English texts, Japanese names are written with the Hepburn system.^[1] Attempts may be made to transcribe these as if they were English, rather than following a dedicated Japanese Cyrillization scheme.

A common example of this^[1] is attempting to transcribe shi (Polianov: си) as ши and ji (Polianov: дзи) as джи. This is inadvisable for use in Russian, because ши is actually pronounced like шы in Russian, and джи like джы, thus making the vowel (/ɨ/) closer to Japanese /u/ than to Japanese /i/. Whereas, щи would have a correct vowel sound, but be pronounced more like Japanese sshi.^[1]

Equally often, people transcribe cha, chi, chu, cho as ча, чи, чу, чо. This is phonetically correct, but does not conform with the Polianov scheme (тя, ти, тю, тё),^[1] which more closely resembles the Kunrei-siki romanisations (tya, ti, tyu, tyo) for these particular characters.

Sometimes е, rather than э, is used for e,^[1] despite е being pronounced ye in Russian (though not in other languages). This is typically not done in the initial position, despite older romanisations such as "Yedo" doing so. In any case, it does not conform with the Polianov scheme, although it is seen as more acceptable for words that are in general use (e.g. kamikaze > камикадзе instead of камикадзэ).^[1] Replacing ё (yo) with е (ye) is incorrect, however, as it will change the Japanese word too much.

The sound yo (Polivanov: ё), when in the initial position or after a vowel, is often written as йо (yo), which has the same pronunciation: Ёкосука -> Йокосука (Yokosuka), Тоёта -> Тойота (Toyota). Although, the spelling "йо" is not common in Russian words, these are more generally accepted for Japanese names than the transliterations using "ё".^[1]

Exceptions

Some proper names, for historical reasons, do not follow the above rules. Those include but are not limited to:

Some personal names beginning with "Yo" (or used after a vowel) are written using "Йо" instead of "Ё" (e.g. Йоко for Yoko Ono, but Ёко for Yoko Kanno and all other Yokos). The letter "Ё" is not often used in Japanese Cyrillization due to its facultative use in the Russian language (and possible substitution with the letter "Е" which would affect the pronunciation), but professional translators use ё mandatory.

See also

• Japanese language education in Russia
• Romanization of Japanese
• Cyrillization of Japanese

References

External links

• Online Japanese→Polivanov transcription converter
• Proposal for a coordinated Japanese transcription system for several Slavic languages
• Суси or Суши (Susi or Sushi) – Cyrillization of し (and others) controversy (Russian)
• Automatic cyrillization of hiragana and katakana
• Say no to romaji!, a resource promoting the use of kana in the Japanese learning industry, contains a discussion between students and teachers of Japanese on the subject of rōmaji and kiriji.
• Kiriji and Yevgeny Polivanov