36846
I have been looking into the different types of Japanese (hiragana, katakana,
kanji, romaji) and am unclear which would be the best choice for a nonfiction
novel to be translated into. The original text is in English, with an
occasional word or phrase from a different language, like Hindi, Cherokee, and
Hebrew. It is around 85,000 words, and is a spirituality/self-help type of
book, if either of those points make any sort of difference.

Because I can't read, write or understand any Japanese, are there other things
that would he helpful for me to know in overseeing this translation process?
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-21T10:41:33.577
36842
2016-07-21T11:08:41.323
16215
question
translation english-to-japanese
What kind of Japanese is used for a nonfiction book translation?
I think you have a basic misunderstanding about how Japanese is written. What
you listed are not "types of Japanese", but several writing systems used in
combination to serve different purposes within written Japanese (with the
exception of romaji, which is not commonly used in written Japanese). A
typical Japanese sentence can contain all three scripts (kanji, hiragana, and
katakana).

> 彼はアメリカ人です。

彼、人: kanji

は、です: hiragana

アメリカ: katakana

So ultimately, your question is based on a false premise. There is no other
practical type of Japanese that your non-fiction book could be translated to
other than standard written Japanese.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-07-21T11:08:41.323
36846
2016-07-21T11:08:41.323
36842
answer