'OSS', 'OUS', or 'OSU'? 押忍！

In the world of social media, most people must type out what they would normally say. So many speak well but are terrible spellers and have atrocious grammar. That said, there is a great divide among martial artists to acknowledge something with a strong ‘OSS!’, 'OUS!', or ‘OSU!’ Which spelling is correct? The biggest problem is that Japanese words are not ‘spelled’; each kanji character or katakana or hiragana represents a sound or word, not individual letters making up that sound or word. Many ‘experts’ have their opinions, but with a little research, here are my findings:

America and other countries sent fleets to Japan in the 1850s, opening Japan up to the Western world. Language was a major problem, as Japanese could not be read or written in the modern Roman alphabet. Dr. James Curtis Hepburn published a Romanization system in 1887 at the urging of the Romanjikai (Romanization Club) in 1885. Hepburn, an American, recognized that the majority of languages using the modern Roman alphabet do not pronounce their vowels: A, E, I, O, and U, rather AH, EH, EE, OH, and OO. The system translates words en español, ou en français, not in English. All Japanese words end in a vowel EXCEPT for the letter N. If you doubt this, go ask your ShihaN in ShotokaN, or any good SaN DaN can tell you. ‘OSS’ and 'OUS' end in an ‘S’, which is incorrect according to Hepburn’s system. Though partially swallowed up, there is a soft ‘U’ sound at the end of the word pronouncing it more like 'OSu'. It seems that ‘U’s frequently get swallowed up. Look at the word ‘shuto’ (sword hand). It’s not pronounced ‘Shoo-Toe’, but ‘SHuTO’. Strange concept? Not really. Look at words like ‘didn’t’, where the second ‘D’ gets swallowed up and we say ‘di-nt’, or 'bottle', with it's glottal stop we say 'bo-le'.

‘Oss’, 'Ous', and ‘Osu’ are all recognized as acknowledgement, but technically ‘Osu’ is more correct. As martial artists, we strive to be as technically correct as possible. If you agree, respond with a strong ‘Osu!’