Talk:Koshi-byo

Name

It's difficult to name this article because of the different ways of Romanising Japanese. Additionally, the long 'o' sound is problematic; often this is not marked even in Japan. I rejected 'Kōshi-byō' as the title because it would be difficult to type the symbols with the bar (macron) in a search - this line indicates the vowel is long. A direct transliteration from the native kana system would be 'Koushi-byou' - this I also rejected because 'ou' is seen less often these days. I also rejected many people's preferred doubling of the vowel - 'Kooshi-byoo' - because there is a danger of misreading. English speakers might think the words have the vowel in 'boot', for instance. I thus decided to do what is done with such words as 'Tokyo' in English and often in Japan as well, i.e. ignore the length. (Properly, 'Tokyo' should be 'Tōkyō: both vowels are long.) This is not so bizarre, as short vowels are restricted in English: for instance, the vowels in 'photo' are diphthongs, i.e. long. It's not possible to have the vowel in 'hot' as a final vowel, and this would also be an unlikely reading for the first syllable of 'photo'. Finally, length of 'Kyoshi-byo' is indicated in the Japanese translation following the title. John Stephenson 03:27, 24 October 2007 (CDT)