An interesting challenge. Just a few points on the Japanese language while my kettle boils (they may not matter for the Japanglish you defined, but, hey, they might inspire a new version):
1. Japanese kana alphabets are of the form ka/ki/ku/ke/ko as you say, but not all our English sounds are traditional to the Japanese language, so there are no va/vi/vu... and English l / r sounds are troubling (the kana for ra/ri/ru... aren't quite an English r or an l but somewhere in between. Larry and Rally would probably both be written as ra-ri or ra-rri)
2. Which takes me to a doubled consonant: there is a symbol in kana to differentiate between a tt/rr/ss and a t/r/s in case you want to add that to your rules
3. Ka/ki/ku/ke/ko is the regular form but... there are irrgeulars: ta/chi/tsu/te/to, sa/shi/su/se/so and hi/hi/fu/he/ho. When I was a child learning the language at school, we 'romanised' them in this way but some traditional texts used ta/ti/tu/te/to but told you to pronounce 'ti' as 'chi'.
4. There is a vowel-free consonant. N. So hanko is a word (for a name stamp). The N can become an M before a B or a P sound, eg Bimbo or Rambo.
5. There are also the single vowels a/i/u/e/o and some additional vowel sounds are created eg by ta-i (which would sound like our tie) or se-i (close to our say).
6. In recent years the language has evolved, esp to reflect foreign words - Scotland's capital would have been pronounced (I think) eh-gin-ba-ra because the Japanese did not have a 'di' as in dinner kana/ sound. Now the kana combo of 'de' and a small 'i' tells people to pronounce it ehdinbara
7. And last (darn. The water in the kettle has cooled. I have written an essay!): if you wanted to be strict, you could also look at whether the syllable is pronounced the same way. Ma-ge would be pronounced Ma (as in matador) Gue (as in guest).
Off to have a coffee to recover from that enthusiasm!
This is amazing. Thank you. Especially 4, which I didn't know about. I will have to have a longer think about whether I could possibly write something with these additional restrictions. Then a lie down.
I studied Japanese and found it fascinating. I love how they incorporate loan words for "western" things, but from different languages/variations. So they decided to go with erefatoru "elevator" rather than "lift" (erm... Rifutu?). Sensibly went with "pan" from Portuguese rather than English "bread" (buredu?). My favourite borrowed word is propelling pencil: sharupipenshuru! (As I recall the spelling, it's been a while...) "Sharpy pencil" - it's wonderful!
When i went there to work in my twenties, I brought a Berlitz phrase book and even now still remember wondering why the editor of the slim volume had decided to include re-mo-n me-re-n-gu pa-i (lemon meringue pie). I always I could have guessed that.
I had a friend who did a year with JET in Japan. She saw a "chesu kaku" (cheesecake) in a supermarket and it was a sponge cake with cheddar on it! Cheese plus cake equals cheesecake. I mean, it makes sense... Almost!
Oh my word, this is monstrous – in a good way. It's like being bombarded with crossword solutions before seeing the puzzles. Or having a fight in a multi-coloured ball pit. On the downside, I'll be switching to tzatziki for a month or two...
An interesting challenge. Just a few points on the Japanese language while my kettle boils (they may not matter for the Japanglish you defined, but, hey, they might inspire a new version):
1. Japanese kana alphabets are of the form ka/ki/ku/ke/ko as you say, but not all our English sounds are traditional to the Japanese language, so there are no va/vi/vu... and English l / r sounds are troubling (the kana for ra/ri/ru... aren't quite an English r or an l but somewhere in between. Larry and Rally would probably both be written as ra-ri or ra-rri)
2. Which takes me to a doubled consonant: there is a symbol in kana to differentiate between a tt/rr/ss and a t/r/s in case you want to add that to your rules
3. Ka/ki/ku/ke/ko is the regular form but... there are irrgeulars: ta/chi/tsu/te/to, sa/shi/su/se/so and hi/hi/fu/he/ho. When I was a child learning the language at school, we 'romanised' them in this way but some traditional texts used ta/ti/tu/te/to but told you to pronounce 'ti' as 'chi'.
4. There is a vowel-free consonant. N. So hanko is a word (for a name stamp). The N can become an M before a B or a P sound, eg Bimbo or Rambo.
5. There are also the single vowels a/i/u/e/o and some additional vowel sounds are created eg by ta-i (which would sound like our tie) or se-i (close to our say).
6. In recent years the language has evolved, esp to reflect foreign words - Scotland's capital would have been pronounced (I think) eh-gin-ba-ra because the Japanese did not have a 'di' as in dinner kana/ sound. Now the kana combo of 'de' and a small 'i' tells people to pronounce it ehdinbara
7. And last (darn. The water in the kettle has cooled. I have written an essay!): if you wanted to be strict, you could also look at whether the syllable is pronounced the same way. Ma-ge would be pronounced Ma (as in matador) Gue (as in guest).
Off to have a coffee to recover from that enthusiasm!
This is amazing. Thank you. Especially 4, which I didn't know about. I will have to have a longer think about whether I could possibly write something with these additional restrictions. Then a lie down.
So, on 7, your words ape or ace or face might be problematic as they in essence end on a consonant sound
I studied Japanese and found it fascinating. I love how they incorporate loan words for "western" things, but from different languages/variations. So they decided to go with erefatoru "elevator" rather than "lift" (erm... Rifutu?). Sensibly went with "pan" from Portuguese rather than English "bread" (buredu?). My favourite borrowed word is propelling pencil: sharupipenshuru! (As I recall the spelling, it's been a while...) "Sharpy pencil" - it's wonderful!
When i went there to work in my twenties, I brought a Berlitz phrase book and even now still remember wondering why the editor of the slim volume had decided to include re-mo-n me-re-n-gu pa-i (lemon meringue pie). I always I could have guessed that.
Hahahaha that's brilliant!
I had a friend who did a year with JET in Japan. She saw a "chesu kaku" (cheesecake) in a supermarket and it was a sponge cake with cheddar on it! Cheese plus cake equals cheesecake. I mean, it makes sense... Almost!
I like this little piece and I reckon I would've enjoyed it without knowing the context or rules n'all.
Oh my word, this is monstrous – in a good way. It's like being bombarded with crossword solutions before seeing the puzzles. Or having a fight in a multi-coloured ball pit. On the downside, I'll be switching to tzatziki for a month or two...