Gaigana or ‘foreign writing’ is a bridge between Romaji and Japanese kana; it is a romanized representation of kana, whereas Rōmaji is a transcription of Japanese into roman script. Gaigana is intended to soften the passage of gaijin [foreigners] into the Japanese language by addressing the limitations of Rōmaji. Prototype gaigana fonts are only available here, this it is used extensively in the printed version of
 ‘Emergency Passport _* Japanese Script’
This website does not utilise these fonts in order that the text will display correctly on your computer.

Writing

Gaigana lends itself particularly well to handwriting. Although the script is familiar for students, it also instills a sense of the rhythm and feel of kana. It may be written as discreet joined up glyphs to help write and see a word through kana syllables:

Spelling

Gaigana follows the exact kana spelling. Once you have learnt a word you will be able to spell it correctly in hiragana. For example, Google hits for different spellings of douzo (in thousands): dozo 393, doozo 112, douzo 61 dōzo 1.  The first two would lead a beginner to make an incorrect hiragana spelling. The same is true for the word  Rōmaji itself:  Romaji 1700, Roumaji 10, Rōmaji 54, Roomaji 27. For this word the uppercase gaigana is used showing us it is a katakana word:

Typing

The gaigana font is designed to ease typing, there’s no need to insert a special symbol every time you need to type common words such as dōzo and rōmaji. All keys to type both katakana and hiragana gaigana are available directly on the keyboard. For example the ō of Rōmaji may potentially mean おｨう､(ou) or オIー[ (oo), in this case it’s the latter, and the correct transcription is simply entered using the left square bracket key.

Learning

Students are often encouraged to learn words in Rōmaji, then hiragana, then later ‘unlearn’ that form and use the kanji form. However, seeing a word in a familiar script enables us to visualize the word using letters which are instantly familiar due to years of use, without any risk of misreading the word when later encountered in kana or kanji.

Pronunciation

The associations the mind creates between Romaji and English words increase the risk of mispronunciation. Beginners may break this natural association, as gaigana letters generally appear like kana as single visual units. The letters r and fu are often mispronounced The Japanese pronunciation of ‘ra’ is half way between ‘la’ and ‘ra’. The letter r in gaigana resembles both l and r to help learners not become accustomed to poor pronunciation. ‘fu’ is a compromise between hu and fu for similar reasons.

Transcription

As gaigana is a direct representation of kana, spelling misunderstandings need not arise. Any text in gaigana will appear correctly when displayed as hiragana.

Some particles notably ‘wa, he’ and ‘o’, are spelt using different kana than their pronunciation would suggest. These particles are represented in gaigana with a particle or dot to remind beginners of this anomaly.

Definition

Lowercase letters are used for hiragana. If typed in uppercase, gaigana appears in a heavier and more angular font which is used for katakana words (or ‘on’ kanji readings within the guide). This helps a learner know what to expect when the word is written in Japanese. The marking of glides helps us remember that these often take an ‘on’ reading.

There is also an unfinished companion language book in preparation which utilizes gaigana. The name ‘gaigana’ itself was selected to differentiate it unambiguously from the various models of romaji. The original proposed name ‘gaiji’ is already ‘taken’, ‘gai’ is ‘co-incidentally’ a homonym of the name of its creator.