Re: shimaDzu

aesthete8@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
Ben Monroe wrote:

As I recall, ズ was written "zu" while ヅ was "zzu".

Concerning "zzu", could it have been preceded by a small 'tsu'?

I am not sure what you asking.
"zzu" is the romanization that the Portuguese at the end of the 16th
century used to write Japanese /du/ (づ・ヅ).
Proceeded by a small tsu? "っつ" is certainly possible in modern
Japanese.
But I do not have access to 16th century lexicon at the moment to
search.
Look for a copy of Rodriguez's 日本大文典 at a library.
He makes some comments about how some regions do not distinguish or
confuse ズ and ヅ.

In other words, could shimaDzu actually be shimattsu?

No. It represents しまづ.
Writing it as 島津 should make that clear.
The above historical Portuguese romanization system has nothing to do
with the spelling "shimadzu".

Ben Monroe
Tokyo, Japan

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