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'Cyrillization of Japanese' is the practice of expressing Japanese sounds using Cyrillic characters. It is officially accepted in Russia, called ''kiriji'' (киридзи) in Russian. In Japan, the Cyrillic script is called ''kiriru moji'' (キリル文字) or ''roshiamoji'' (ロシア文字).
Below is a cyrillization system for the Japanese language known as the Polivanov system.

Contents

Main table

Supplemental table

Double consonants

Vowel length

Syllabic ''-n''

Common errors

Exceptions

See also

External links

Main table

Hepburn romanization to Polivanov cyrillization correspondence table, for single/modified kana.

あ - а	い - и/й	う - у	え - э	お - о
か - ка	き - ки	く - ку	け - кэ	こ - ко
が - га	ぎ - ги	ぐ - гу	げ - гэ	ご - го
さ - са	し - си	す - су	せ - сэ	そ - со
ざ - дза	じ - дзи	ず - дзу	ぜ - дзэ	ぞ - дзо
た - та	ち - ти	つ - цу	て - тэ	と - то
だ - да	ぢ - дзи	づ - дзу	で - дэ	ど - до
な - на	に - ни	ぬ - ну	ね - нэ	の - но
は - ха	ひ - хи	ふ - фу	へ - хэ	ほ - хо
ぱ - па	ぴ - пи	ぷ - пу	ぺ - пэ	ぽ - по
ば - ба	び - би	ぶ - бу	べ - бэ	ぼ - бо
ま - ма	み - ми	む - му	め - мэ	も - мо
や - я		ゆ - ю		よ - ё
ら - ра	り - ри	る - ру	れ - рэ	ろ - ро
わ - ва	ゐ - и/й		ゑ - э	を - о
ん - н/м

Supplemental table

For contracted kana.

きゃ - кя	きゅ - кю	きょ - кё
ぎゃ - гя	ぎゅ - гю	ぎょ - гё
しゃ - ся	しゅ - сю	しょ - сё
じゃ - дзя	じゅ - дзю	じょ - дзё
ちゃ - тя	ちゅ - тю	ちょ - тё
ぢゃ - дзя	ぢゅ - дзю	ぢょ - дзё
にゃ - ня	にゅ - ню	にょ - нё
ひゃ - хя	ひゅ - хю	ひょ - хё
ぴゃ - пя	ぴゅ - пю	ぴょ - пё
びゃ - бя	びゅ - бю	びょ - бё
みゃ - мя	みゅ - мю	みょ - мё
りゃ - ря	りゅ - рю	りょ - рё

Double consonants

In ''kiriji'' consonants are doubled exactly as they do in ''romaji'': e.g. ''-kk-'' > ''-кк-''.

Vowel length

In ''kiriji'' vowel length is marked with either a colon after the vowel
or with a macron over it: 'tennô' > ''тэнно:'' or ''тэнно̄''.
However, in most non-linguistic texts the Japanese vowel length is not marked at all.

Syllabic ''-n''

Before ''p'', ''b'', ''m'' the syllabic ''-n'' is transcribed as ''м'' according to pronunciation;
before vowels and ''y'' it is transcribed as ''нъ'' in order to indicate syllable
boundary; in all other cases it is transcribed as ''н''.

Examples

Japanese	Romaji	Cyrillic
しんぶん	''shinbun''	''симбун''
さんか	''sanka''	''санка''
かんい	''kan'i''	''канъи''
ほんや	''hon'ya''	''хонъя''

Common errors

Most often, Japanese names come to Russians not directly, but via English.
In English texts, Japanese names are written with the Hepburn system.
People then try to transcribe Japanese names as if they were English.
Very often people want to transcribe ''shi'' as ''ши'' and ''ji'' as ''джи''.
This is incorrect, because in Russian ''ши'' is pronounced as ''шы'' and
''джи'' as ''джы''. The Russian sound /ы/ is in fact closer to Japanese /u/
than to Japanese /i/. (It would probably be closer to Japanese to write ''щи'', but Polivanov's system uses ''си'' and ''дзи'').
Equally often people transcribe ''cha'', ''chi'', ''chu'', ''cho'' as
''ча'', ''чи'', ''чу'', ''чо''. This is acceptable phonetically,
but for reasons of consistency it is better to follow the rules and
write ''тя'', ''ти'', ''тю'', ''тё''.
Sometimes ''э'' is replaced with ''е'' (but not at the beginning of a word).
This is tolerable, especially for the words that are in general use (e.g. ''kamikaze'' > ''камикадзе'' instead of ''камикадзэ'').
But one should never replace ''ё'' with ''е''— it will change the Japanese word too much.

Exceptions

Some Japanese names, for historical reasons, do not follow the above rules.
These are: 'Tokyo' : ''Токио'' (instead of ''Токё''), 'Kyoto' : ''Киото'' (instead of ''Кёто''),
'Yokohama' : ''Иокогама'' (instead of ''Ёкохама''), 'Yokosuka' : ''Йокосука'' (instead of ''Ёкосука''),
'Toyota' : ''Тойота'' (instead of ''Тоёта''),
'jujitsu' : ''джиу-джитсу'' (instead of ''дзюдзицу'') etc.
Also, many of the personal names beginning with "Yo" are written using "Йо" instead of "Ё" (e.g. Йоко for Yoko).

See also

★ Japanese language education in Russia

External links

★ Online romaji<->kiriji converter