Which romanization system should I use in my word game?


I have developed a word game quite similar to Scrabble, and I am currently
considering adding a Japanese word list to it.

Please note that I have no real knowledge of the language, apart from knowing
the different alphabet types.

While Hiragana or Katakana are not really suited to the games mechanics, I
believe using a romaji word list is the best option.

Now, I am wondering which romanization system I should use (knowing that my
primary target would be native Japanese):

  * Kunrei-shiki, which is the official system
  * Hepburn, which is the most widely used (but apparently mostly by foreign speakers)

At first sight, I cannot see any difference between the two systems in terms
of ease to form words with a small set of letters (7) (I may be wrong though).
So I think the best option would be to use the system in which native Japanese
are most comfortable with.

**Which system would that be?**

And secondarily, do you believe that a word game in romaji actually has
potential? (i.e. would it be interesting to play, as it is in English).




I think, this is not only the question of familiarity, but also of game
mechanics, and that side is more important. For native Japanese there would be
no problem using either Kunrei-shiki or Hepburn romanization, but they provide
different means to make words.

For example, if a player has three tokens for "a", "s", "i", and Kunrei-shiki
is used, then he/she would be able to arrange word "asi" ("leg"), but if
Hepburn is used, this would not be an option. The player would be forced to
get a token with "sh" (or two tokens "s", "h") for the correct Hepburn
spelling "ashi". This constraint would sound unnatural for native Japanese
players, because し "shi" is kana symbol from the "s"-row.

In that sense, Kunrei-shiki looks more preferable in the sense that it
reproduces the logic of kana more orthogonally. On the other hand, it would be
worth adopting some features of Wapuro romanization, e. g. making long vowels
out of two short vowel signs (spelling "Tōkyō" as "Toukyou" or "Tookyoo").

If your game is a computer game, then you can easily implement tokens changing
depending on context, like "s" when it is shown alone, and "sh" when combined
with "i". If you develop a table game, then the token can be marked as "s
(sh)" to make it combinable with different vowels. These solutions may look
ugly, but I feel that it would be uglier to make different tokens "c" or "ch",
and "t", and maybe even "ts", for consonants from one kana row.




Hepburn would be the romanization of choice, which is used almost exclusively
in road signs, train stations, etc. That said, Hepburn uses ō (macron) for
long vowels (and Kunrei uses ô), which you'd have trouble implementing. You
could also allow more than just one system.

> Do you believe that a word game in romaji actually has potential?

If the game is to be played only by Japanese, then I think the concept is not
very sound. Why should Japanese play a game in Japanese, but use ローマ字 for the
words? It would make more sense, if either all languages are allowed
(including romanized Japanese), or if it is just a game for learning English.

