It bothers me so much when people romanize vowel combinations like おう or いい with a - above one vowel instead of writing both vowels. Especially with おう and おお. I can't think of any possible good reason to do this, and there's so many problems,
1, If it's ou or oo writing it that way gives no way to know what kana it actually is,
2, No one copying it actually keeps the -, so it just ends up representing only one kana which could make it look like an entirely different word,
3, Just why? It's not like it makes it that much easier to write, it just seems like a product of extreme laziness, in fact I don't even know why a lazy person would do it I can't figure out the motive behind it at all.
The treatment of long vowels is one of the major drawbacks of romaji. The problem is that English pronunciation has shifted, so when English speakers see “oo” they think “foot” or “boot,” and for “ou” they get everything from “tough” to “uncouth.” I assume it was for this reason that official Japanese standards for romanization mandated the use of diacritics, originally the circumflex “ô,” and later the macron “ō.” But as you note, English language publishers routinely drop these, creating all kinds of confusion among people who actually care about how things are pronounced.
Aaah, I thought the reason I was frustrated about -る endings was that my vocabulary is so limited! Thank you, I feel better now.
Re: long vowels marked with the macron above: oh, they bug me so. And I was forced to use them while translating a whole book once, because the editor said "it's the publishing house's policy, it's either macrons or nothing". Btw, Giles Milton's Samurai William may be interesting if you like history and want to know about the real person who inspired (gasp) Shōgun.
Another pet (elephant) peeve: the (thankfully disappearing) practice of using "m" for ん. I feel fairly sure a small kitten dies somewhere each time I read "shimbun".
I saw a piece on NHK World in which they explained about the misreading of 硫黄島 as Iwo Jima. Forget peeves, that must have been simply traumatic for the locals. On top of everything else.
Speaking of NHK World, it's so frustrating that they use neither macrons nor long vowels, even on their website. I blame them for my misremembering a lot of words related to 大相撲.
I'm going to be a bit snarky and say armies who come to, erm, visit places don't exactly have a history of paying attention to the meaning of names or history of places they, uh, visit. That, and it was maybe shorter to rattle off over the radio.
Trying to imagine an American of that time pronouncing the actual reading of 硫黄島. Aye-woe-toe?
Aaah, I thought the reason I was frustrated about -る endings was that my vocabulary is so limited! Thank you, I feel better now.
Re: long vowels marked with the macron above: oh, they bug me so. And I was forced to use them while translating a whole book once, because the editor said "it's the publishing house's policy, it's either macrons or nothing". Btw, Giles Milton's Samurai William may be interesting if you like history and want to know about the real person who inspired (gasp) Shōgun.
Another pet (elephant) peeve: the (thankfully disappearing) practice of using "m" for ん. I feel fairly sure a small kitten dies somewhere each time I read "shimbun".
may i introduce to you! 1. ***TEMPURA***
2. oh god oh god uhm.. ルール NO ルーム NO るす NO るいじ NO ルイジアナ？ NO るい NO ルース NAH ルーズ NOPE HAHA GOOD LUCK
2. I don't have problems with る words, but I'm not sharing my secrets
Not sure if this counts as a pet peeve, but when people use よくできました not realising how patronising it sounds. It's what a teacher would say to a little kid who just finished colouring inside the lines XD
That and people thinking おかしい！ means "funny" (with zero context I mean)
(I get that it's juts learners, It's not a big deal)
any others you guys can think of?
