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fuzzball wrote:In the first place, why "ō" was "ou"?

Toukyou – written using kana spelling: ō as ou or oo (depending on the kana) and ū as uu. That is sometimes called wāpuro style, as it is how text is entered into a Japanese word processor by using a keyboard with Roman characters. The method most accurately represents the way that vowels are written in kana by differentiating between おう (as in とうきょう（東京）, written Toukyou in this system) and おお (as in とおい（遠い）, written tooi in this system). However, using this method makes the pronunciation of ou become ambiguous, either a long o or two different vowels: o and u.

Unlike Kunrei and Hepburn, wāpuro style is based on a one-to-one transcription of the kana.[1] Wāpuro thus does not represent some distinctions observed in spoken Japanese, but not in writing, such as the difference between /oː/ (long vowel) and /oɯ/ (o+u). For example, in standard Japanese the kana おう can be pronounced in two different ways: as /oː/ meaning "king" (王),[2] and as /oɯ/ meaning "to chase" (追う).[3] Kunrei and Hepburn spell the two differently as ō and ou, because the former is a long vowel while the latter has a o that happens to be followed by a u; however, wāpuro style simply transcribes the kana and renders them both as ou.

fuzzball wrote:おとうさん (お父さん) = otōsan = otoosan
おおかみ (大神/狼) = ōkami = ookami

F1ReB4LL wrote:But as far as I understand, No-Intro uses "Ou" for these with the exception for things like "ōkami", which transcription isn't "オーカミ", but "オオカミ".

６  次のような語は，オ列の仮名に「お」を添えて書く。

例  おおかみ  おおせ(仰)  おおやけ(公)  こおり(氷・郡△)  こおろぎ  ほお(頬＊・朴△)  ほおずき  ほのお(炎)  とお(十)

いきどおる(憤)  おおう(覆)  こおる(凍)  しおおせる  とおる(通)  とどこおる(滞)  もよおす(催)

いとおしい  おおい(多)  おおきい(大)  とおい(遠)  おおむね  おおよそ

これらは，歴史的仮名遣いでオ列の仮名に「ほ」又は「を」が続くものであって，オ列の長音として発音されるか，オ・オ，コ・オのように発音されるかにかかわらず，オ列の仮名に「お」を添えて書くものである。

(５)  オ列の長音

オ列の仮名に「う」を添える。

例  おとうさん  とうだい(灯台)

わこうど(若人)  おうむ

かおう(買)  あそぼう(遊)  おはよう(早)

おうぎ(扇)  ほうる(抛＊)  とう(塔)

よいでしょう  はっぴょう(発表)

きょう(今日)  ちょうちょう(蝶＊々)

sarami wrote:That is to say, otōsan is otousan, ōkami is ookami.