TaikoInfo.org uses a large number of Japanese names and terms. Because the pronunciation, spelling, pluralization, and usage of these terms in English can be somewhat problematic, TaikoInfo.org has adopted a number of conventions, explained below.

Names

Names in Japan are written family name first, given name second. This convention is maintained at TaikoInfo.org when referring to Japanese nationals.

Pronunciation

While the pronunciation of Japanese words is relatively straightforward, representing these words with English spellings can often introduce confusion. There are different schools of thought on the subject, leading to different English spellings of Japanese words. Should it be "kotsuzumi," or "kotuzumi?" "odaiko" or "o-daiko" or "ohdaiko?"

As all of these spellings are only representations of the original Japanese, they can all be considered equally correct (and incorrect.) Confusion often stems from differences in two competing approaches: 1) the use of unchanging English equivalents for the Japanese letters, and 2) a re-writing of Japanese words to match the English phonetic system. The first approach requires the creation of a static set of English letter representations of the basic Japanese sounds. These English equivalents are always read the same. "o" is always pronounced "oh," for example. The "o" of "taiko," "obi," and "tombo" are identical ("taikoh," "ohbi," and "tohmboh"), even if the English phonetic system would suggest otherwise or is ambiguous. The second approach re-writes Japanese words to match English phonetic rules. "Ohbee" and "tohmboe," for example, use the different English phonetic rules to represent the same "oh" sound. "Uchiwa" might also be written "oochiwah," "uechiwah," or "uecheewah." While this second system ensures that an English-speaker is immediately approximating the Japanese pronunciations, the first method is more robust and is often easier to read. "Tsookaysheemay-daikoh," and "Oh-Ehdoh Sookehrohkoo Daikoh" are unwieldy, and the complicated rules of English phonetics means a single sound has multiple possible spellings; "oh" as "oe," "oa," and "owe," for example. These changing spellings can actually mask the original Japanese word from which they are derived. TaikoInfo.org uses the first method, a set of English-spelling approximations for the Japanese letters. This set is explained below.

There are five vowel sounds in Japanese, "a, i, u, e, o," each with its own character. These vowels are always pronounced "ah," "ee," "oo," "eh," and "oh," respectively. Every other phonetic character in Japanese (with the exception of the "n" sound), is formed of a combination of one of these vowel sounds and another consonant sound.

Thus a word like "kumidaiko" would simply be the combination of each of its component sounds: ku(koo) + mi(mee) + da(dah) + i(ee) + ko(koh).

Note there are no "see," "tee," "too," "yee," or "yeh" sounds in Japanese.

TaikoInfo.org uses the spellings above. When unsure of a Japanese word's pronunciation, referring to the chart above should help.

Double consonants

Some Japanese words contain double consonants when written in English. "Betta" and "kakko" are examples. What do these double consonants represent?

The concept of syllables in Japanese is slightly different than in English. Each Japanese letter is given one count. There is a special character in Japanese known as the small "tsu," which introduces a one count pause, or when preceding an "s," extends the "s" sound by one count. When Japanese words are written in English, this is usually indicated with a double consonant. Thus, "betta," and "kakko" would be pronounced, be(beh) + (pause) + ta(tah), and ka(kah) + (pause) + ko(koh). These pauses are significant in Japanese. "Ite" and "itte" represent two unrelated words.

Long vowels

There is a similar extension of vowel sounds. The "o" in "o-daiko," for example, is actually two "oh" sounds back-to-back. A "u" sound following an "o" sound in Japanese is also sometimes extended to a double-count "oh" sound.

Unfortunately, these long vowels are often cumbersome to maintain when writing Japanese words in English. "oodaiko," for example, might express the double-long "oh" sound, but is particularly prone to mis-pronunciation (hence the use of the dash "-"). At TaikoInfo.org, these elongated vowels sometimes go unrepresented for the sake of clarity. "Tokyo," technically "Tookyoo," is a good example.

Intonation

Japanese does not have the same accent rules as English. While it's not true that Japanese is spoken in a "flat" manner, with no accents, in general, words do not have a stressed syllable. So unlike the word "Chicago," where the "ca" would be accented, the three syllables of "nagado" would be evenly stressed.

Spelling

Japanese uses different alphabets (hiragana, katakana) than English (the Roman alphabet of ABC~) and unlike English, Japanese letters are always pronounced the same, regardless of what precedes or follows them. In fact, there's really no such thing as "spelling" in Japanese, as one pronunciation has only one possible written representation. Knowing the correct pronunciation of a Japanese word is equal to knowing its spelling.

The question of spelling Japanese words when representing them in English is somewhat more complicated. See "Pronunciation," above, for the conventions used at TaikoInfo.org. As much as possible, TaikoInfo.org tries to adhere to a particular set of spellings, eliminating differences like "shime," "sheemey," "shimay."

In other writings one may find "shi," represented with the two-letter combination "si" and "tsu" written as "tu." While these spellings are valid, TaikoInfo.org uses "shi" and "tsu" as they more readily lend themselves to an approximation of their respective Japanese sounds.

Taiko vs. Daiko

It is common for certain consonant sounds in Japanese to change based on what precedes them. A term like "nagado" (long body), combined with the word "taiko" (drum) becomes "nagado-daiko." It is important to note that the word "daiko" never exists by itself. It is only the pronunciation of the word "taiko," changed by its combination with another word.

Batchi vs. Batchis

Japanese has no way to make nouns plural. When the number of something is important, the amount is indicated with a modifier; one book, two book, some book, many book. When using Japanese words in an English context, some people add an "s" for the plural form; "one batchi" vs. "two batchis." While this approach has its merits, TaikoInfo.org considers plurality to be part of the original meaning, and uses the same Japanese word in both singular and plural contexts. For example, "She purchased three taiko."

"upright?" "horizontal?" - It's betta with "betta."

When describing the playing positions used with particular drums, it is sometimes convenient to use the words, "upright" and "horizontal." For most drums including nagado and the okedo variants, "upright" refers to drums sitting with one head facing the sky, also known as "betta." The drums are in a "horizontal" position when their heads are perpendicular to the ground. Confusion sometimes arises when using these words to describe the playing positions of the short-bodied hira-daiko. Since this drum has a much larger diameter than its height, some people refer to the hira-daiko sitting position as "horizontal" and the position with skins perpendicular to the ground as "upright." This usage is exactly opposite that of the other drums. This it is because the terms "upright" and "horizontal" refer to the direction of an object's longest axis. In the case of the short, large-diameter hira-daiko, the longest axis, through its body, is opposite that of other taiko drums with the longest axis through the skins, and thus the usage of "upright" and "horizontal" reverses. To avoid this confusion, TaikoInfo.org uses the very convenient term "betta" where possible, which in all cases refers to the drum position with one skin to the sky.