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In another question, I mentioned using Kana to represent the GPS coordinates for:

N 43° 09.725' W 077° 26.688'

I used:

キタ シジュウ サン ジスウ ク チョボ ナナヒャク ニジュウ ゴ フン
kita shijuu san jisuu ku chobo nanahyaku nijuu go fun

ニシ ナナジュウ シチ ジスウ ニジュウ ロコ チョボ ロッピャク キュウジュウ ハチ フン
nishi nanajuu shichi jisuu nijuu roku chobo roppyaku kyuujuu hachi fun

Are the terms that I used for north, west, degree, decimal, and minutes correct in the context that I'm using them?

  • north | kita | キタ
  • west | nishi | ニシ
  • degrees | jisuu | ジスウ
  • decimal | chobo | チョボ
  • minutes | fun | フン
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GeoGriffin
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    Where did you get チョボ from? I've never heard it before, but maybe it's seafarer lingo or something? – dainichi Feb 09 '12 at 14:14
  • With your level of knowledge about Japanese, you will not be able to produce something at a satisfactory level. You may want to learn from the "all your base are belong to us"-incident. –  Feb 09 '12 at 16:36
  • As @sawa pointed out, my level of knowledge is very limited. My technique for finding these words was to look at an online dictionary and search for the English words and then plug the Japanese words back into the translation to complete the round trip. I selected words that seemed most like what I was looking for. – GeoGriffin Feb 09 '12 at 21:06
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    “N 43° 09.725' W 077° 26.688'” is read as 北緯43度9.725分西経77度26.688分 (ほくいよんじゅうさんどきゅうてんななにごふん せいけいななじゅうななどにじゅうろくてんろくはちはちふん). – Tsuyoshi Ito Feb 09 '12 at 22:40
  • @TsuyoshiIto So the last digit after the decimal does not undergo sound modification by the counter? I'll delete that from my answer... – Hyperworm Feb 09 '12 at 23:19
  • @Hyperworm: ～はっぷん may be correct. Somehow I have a habit of reading 8 as はち when everyone else reads はっ (and this happens only with 8). – Tsuyoshi Ito Feb 10 '12 at 03:29
  • @TsuyoshiIto I'm going around looking at comment-answers. Would you like to post your comment as an answer instead? – Flaw Dec 05 '15 at 05:01

1 Answers1

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次数 (jisuu) seems to be "degree" in the graph theory sense, not as in angles. I've never heard ちょぼ used for "decimal point", but perhaps I'm ignorant here.

The terms I would use are 度 (do) and 点 (ten) respectively. コンマ (comma) is also heard as a decimal point separator (even when the symbol , is not used).

Note that, as in English, numbers after a decimal point should be spelled out individually, not using a place system:

English: .688 is read e.g. point six eight eight not point six hundred and eighty eight.
Japanese: .688 is read e.g. てん ろく　はち　はち not てん　ろっぴゃく　はちじゅう　はち.

Hyperworm
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