Hey guys, I wanted to ask if anybody knows if there is a document or a paper describing the rules of English (or Latin) writings to katakana, and/or English sounds to katakana. I want to understand more, why, for example, floor is フロア and not フロー, why guitar is ギター, why terminal is ターミナル (not テーミナル) and so on. I know they transcribe English schwa and r-colored vowel using katakanas ending in /a/ sound. I want to know what linguist decided that and see more of such rules. If such a document for English language to Japanese exists, I will be very grateful if you can share it with me.
2 comments
Not an expert opinion, but I’m not sure any formal rules exist. Katakana-isation is inconsistent. It’s not so noticeable when the English pronunciation and spelling are simple, but while katakana purports to show the pronunciation, it’s almost always based on the spelling. And with English not being a consistently phonetic language at all, this means you’ll find a lot of inconsistencies. And sometimes of course it’s deliberate, to make life easier for Japanese speakers.
By way of anecdote, the katakana spelling of my own name was decided by some civil servant somewhere, not by me. Unfortunately it’s “incorrect” to my ears, as it’s based on the spelling. They didn’t ask me to pronounce it and made their own merry way. Because of this, my entire official life revolves around this katakana version now. (I saw a particularly heinous instance of this in the subtitles of a show whose character, McGee, was transliterated as マックギー, despite the other characters regularly saying the man’s name – perhaps subtitle writers get scripts, rather than audio. I don’t know.)
almost is customary, no rule. but cabinet guideline [here](https://www.bunka.go.jp/kokugo_nihongo/sisaku/joho/joho/kijun/naikaku/gairai/index.html). to summarize this, customary is the rule.