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Apfhex · Jan 12, 2004, 08:56 PM

Is there any software that can take Hiragana, Katakana, or Kanji and convert it to roman characters? This would be extremely useful for me (it's mostly for the Kanji since I know very little of it).

I had been using a web site, but I've encountered instances where it refuses to connect (times out) when converting certain sets of characters.

wataru · Jan 12, 2004, 09:20 PM

I've never heard of such software. Sorry.

(Even if it does exist, it won't be accurate 100% of the time. Your best bet would be to stick to regular dictionaries and memorization.)

hadocon · Jan 12, 2004, 09:49 PM

Have you heard of Babelfish?

It converts to and from many languages. Including Japanese.

Apfhex · Jan 12, 2004, 09:54 PM

Originally posted by hadocon:
Have you heard of Babelfish? It converts to and from many languages. Including Japanese.

Yes, but I don't want to translate. I want to change Japanese (specifically kanji) characters to roman characters.

hadocon · Jan 12, 2004, 10:50 PM

Originally posted by Apfhex:
Yes, but I don't want to translate. I want to change Japanese (specifically kanji) characters to roman characters.

Oh... I did not know that you meant romanji.

wataru · Jan 12, 2004, 11:00 PM

Originally posted by hadocon:
Oh... I did not know that you meant romanji.

It's not romanji! It's romaji! (pet peeve)

spiky_dog · Jan 13, 2004, 04:18 AM

almost what you're looking for:

you can cut and paste in your troublesome kanji into the j-e dictionary, and it will provide definitions with okurigana.

http://linear.mv.com/cgi-bin/j-e/sji...e/nocolor/dict

MrBS · Jan 13, 2004, 04:22 AM

You're going to be out of luck with kanji... hiragana and katakana are trivial, but the kanji isn't a 1-1 translation, the pronunciation (hence the romaji) will vary depending on the context or even the interpretation of the character. So it's a bit much to ask your computer to do. Learn how to use a kanji dictionary (there are probably some online too) and you'll see the multiple meanings and pronunciations of whatever kanji you're looking up and you'll have to decide which definition is appropriate.

~BS

VEGAN · Jan 13, 2004, 08:33 AM

Originally posted by Apfhex:
Is there any software that can take Hiragana, Katakana, or Kanji and convert it to roman characters? This would be extremely useful for me (it's mostly for the Kanji since I know very little of it).

I had been using a web site, but I've encountered instances where it refuses to connect (times out) when converting certain sets of characters.

The Apple's japanese input thingie converts kanji to kana... but as wataru said... it's not "100% accurate"

The best I can suggest is to continue learning... and use `edict' [dictionary]...

wataru · Jan 13, 2004, 11:25 AM

Oh yeah, if you want a quick and dirty little dictionary app, try Word Lookup.

Apfhex · 05:06 PM

Originally posted by VEGAN:
The Apple's japanese input thingie converts kanji to kana... but as wataru said... it's not "100% accurate"

I know that it can't be 100% accurate, but I'd still like to do it.

I know it's ultimately best to just learn the kanji, but I'd just like to be able to (for example) know what the name of a song is (in Japanese) without spending a long time looking up the kanji. I though that if a script of a web page can do it with reasonable accuracy, it could also be made into an app (maybe not a small or simple app, either, because the database and computing power needed might be large).

Edit: And thanks for the tip about WordLookup. I've been using the WWWJDIC for years and didn't even know about EDICT or the apps that use the file.