Project:Grammar
The following contains guidelines pertaining to grammar. For information regarding general edits, see General Guidelines.
American English
Articles should be written in American English. This includes American grammar and vocabulary.
Article naming
All articles should begin with an uppercase letter. Other words in the title should begin in lowercase, unless the title is a proper noun.
For example: Kokushi musou, not Kokushi Musou.
Japanese romanization
- Japanese should be transliterated following the Hepburn system[1]. E.g., jan, not jyan; tsuchi, not tuti.
- Vowels in katakana should be replaced as if they were standard hiragana vowels.
- Example: aa; ei; ii; ou; uu.
- Exception: Words requiring the use of "oo" in standard language.
- Compounds of 3 characters should remain together when possible, compounds of 4 or more should generally be split.
- Example: Tsuuiisou 「字一色」 and daisangen 「大三元」 versus nagashi mangan 「流し満貫」.
- Exception: Ikkitsuukan. The reason for this exception is that it is usually abbreviated as ittsuu.
- The use of hyphens to link elements of a compound is discouraged. E.g., "nagashi mangan"; not "nagashi-mangan".
- Exceptions: ari, nashi as either prefix or suffix; abbreviated tile names (7-pin).
- All Japanese text within the articles must use the kana template.
Japanese nouns as verbs
Tile calls may be expressed both as nouns and verbs. The terms of "to pon", "to kan", "to chii" have been accepted into the mahjong vocabulary. The past tenses of these verbs are respectively "ponned", "kanned", and "chiied". Declarations, wins and other actions also follow the same rule, that is noun form + (double final n / drop final e) + "ed". This would give "riichied", "tsumoed", "chomboed".
- Riichied can be pronounced "REE-cheed" or "REE-chd" (reached), but is always written the same.
- Most words cannot be adapted in this way. Faulty example: ryuukyokued (use "drew the hand" or a similar expression).
- The use of apostrophes in past tenses of neologisms is not recommended in sustained and formal writing (such as this wiki).
Japanese terminology vs English
Many Japanese terms are used in the game. However, neither readers or editors are required to know them all - new players especially should not stress about learning terminology right away.
So, this becomes a matter of how much romaji terminology is used vs using their direct English translation.
- Using romaji is more concise. In addition, it is more universal. For example, both "hand" and "round" are common terms for "kyoku". Using "hand" = "kyoku" may confuse players who are used to "round" = "kyoku" (and vice versa), so saying kyoku directly gets rid of that issue. However, romaji terms can be confusing to those who are unfamiliar.
- English terms are naturally easier to understand, but some romaji terms may lack an equivalent term, or the English translation may end up as wordy. For example, "ryanmen" has no clear translation - the closest thing, "open wait", is not intuitively understood like "triplet" is for koutsu. In addition, "ryanmen" is (possibly?) used more often than "open wait".
For now, discretion is required on whether to use terminology or translation. At this point, it becomes a balance between layman's terms and jargon.
Interchangeability
A number of terms can be used interchangeably between the Japanese term and its English equivalent, such as koutsu and triplet. English equivalents to Japanese terms are best consulted in either the primary terminology list or the translation list. Once again, discretion is advised here.
More "advanced" content may lean towards Japanese terminology, without concern for more "novice" readers.
Guidelines
The following list is a guideline of what terms are currently used in the wiki. These should not be treated as strict rules, but as rules of thumb:
- Yaku: Use romaji, like "pinfu" or "chiitoitsu", for all yaku. Using romaji for yaku is more often used in conversations, e.g. the term "pinfu" is more common than "all sequences"/"no fu"/"minimum fu".
- Scoring: Use romaji for "han", "fu", "oka"/"uma", honba, named scores like "mangan", and "dora".
- Tile types: Use "manzu", "pinzu", "souzu" for the numbered suits, and use "winds" and "dragons" for jihai. Use East/South/West/North for kazepai, but haku/hatsu/chun for the sangenpai. Jihai itself should be translated to "honors". "Terminals" refer to 1's and 9's; "middle" tiles refer to 4-6.
- Mentsu: Usually prefer translated terms. Use "tile groups" over mentsu. Prefer "sequences" and "triplets" over shuntsu and kotsu, respectively. Kantsu can be translated to "quad" or "kan". Toitsu are "pairs". Taatsu has no direct translation; "joints" is currently used.
- Machi: The term "machi" should be translated to "wait". However, each individual wait pattern should be in romaji, e.g. use "ryanmen" instead of "open wait"/
- Naki: Use romaji, e.g. leave "riichi", "chii", and ron as-is.
- Game rounds: Kyoku are "hands"; Ba are "wind rounds". Ryuukyoku is "exhaustive draw" and Tochuu ryuukyoku is "abortive draw". But hanchan and tonpuusen are used over their translations.
- Rules: "Ari" is "enabled"/"allowed", nashi is "disabled"/"not allowed", though "ari ari" is untranslated. Most rule names do not have easy English translations, so use romaji for them (e.g. atozuke, kuikae left in romaji). Rules that can be translated, such as kuitan = "open tanyao", should be translated.
Proper nouns
Article titles of proper nouns follow capitalization, similar to book titles. The first letter to each word is capitalized, with exception to "a", "an", or "the". Prepositions and conjunctions are also not capitalized, such as "on", "for", or "but".
Names of tournaments are proper nouns.
Yaku
It is established that the yaku are not to be treated as proper nouns. Therefore, proper noun capitalization does not apply to them.
Viewpoints
It is important to note for any Wiki that multiple users each have their own viewpoints. With regards to editing, users do their best to supplement as many readers and editors as possible. While agreement is ideal, dispute may be unavoidable. Individuals or groups of individuals should do their best arrive at some sort of compromise, in order to proceed with the editing process and ultimately produce a good referential product.
Gender neutral
It is important to note that players are a mix of both genders. Articles are best written to address both, by using gender neutrality.
Generalization
Articles and sections should be best written with generalizations in mind, though specific articles and sections may require specificity. This is particularly applicable pertaining to rule variations, where a multitude of different organizations have their own rules and approaches to the game.
Third person perspective
Articles are best written in third person. Third person applies game concepts with a more generalized viewpoint for everyone.
- The use of the word "I" may be viewed as arrogance in relation to article writing.
- The use of the word "you" may be viewed as condescending in relation to article writing.