Kawazu Library For C#

Kawazu is a C# library for converting Japanese sentence to Hiragana, Katakana or Romaji with furigana and okurigana modes supported. Inspired by project Kuroshiro.

Package	NuGet ID	NuGet Status
Kawazu	Kawazu

Features

• Japanese Sentence => Hiragana, Katakana or Romaji
• Furigana and okurigana supported
• Multiple romanization systems supported
• Useful Japanese utilities

Usage

Install

The package can be installed by NuGet:

Install-Package Kawazu

Or reference it in your project:

<PackageReference Include="Kawazu" Version="1.1.4" />

The package size is over 50MB for it contains dictionary file, please take this in to account when you are building a size-sensitive project.

Quick Start

First, import the Kawazu namespace by:

using Kawazu;

Then initiate the converter:

var converter = new KawazuConverter();

Or specify a custom dictionary path:

var converter = new KawazuConverter(path);

Finally you will get the result by:

var result = await converter.Convert("今晩は", To.Romaji, Mode.Okurigana, RomajiSystem.Hepburn, "(", ")");

For the “Convert” method is an async method, you probably need to make the outer method async too:

private static async Task Main(string[] args)
{
    // Your code ...
    var converter = new KawazuConverter();
    var result = await converter.Convert("今晩は", To.Romaji, Mode.Okurigana, RomajiSystem.Hepburn, "(", ")");
    // Your code ...
}

See the demo Kawazu-Cli for more details.

Advanced Usage

KawazuConverter Class

Method “Convert” accepts six parameters, the last five of which are optional. The first parameter is the original Japanese string, the second one is the target form of the sentence, the third one is the presentation method of the result, the forth one is the writing systems of romaji and the last two are delimiters. It will return the result string as a async task.

Method “GetDivisions” accepts exactly the same six parameters as “Convert”, but returns the raw result from the word Separator.

Division Class

Represents the division from the word separator.

JapaneseElement Class

A single reading element in a Japanese sentence. For example, in sentence "今日の映画は面白かった。" "今日","の","映画","は","面白","か","っ","た" are all JapaneseElement in this condition. For each of them represents a unit of pronunciation.

Utilities Class

Provides several useful Japanese utilities.

Typical Usage

The code below shows the typical usage of Kawazu converter in a command line application.

C# language level: 8

private static async Task Main(string[] args)
        {
            Console.WriteLine("Kawazu-Cli Japanese Converter Version 1.0.0");
            Console.WriteLine("Type 'exit' to quit");
            Console.WriteLine();
            
            var converter = new KawazuConverter();

            while (true)
            {
                Console.WriteLine("Original Japanese Sentence:");
                Console.Write("> ");
                var str = Console.ReadLine();
                if (string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(str))
                {
                    continue;
                }

                if (str == "exit")
                {
                    return;
                }
                
                Console.WriteLine("Target form ('1':Romaji '2':Hiragana '3':Katakana Default:Hiragana):");
                Console.Write("> ");
                var toStr = Console.ReadLine();
                var to = toStr switch
                {
                    "1" => To.Romaji,
                    "2" => To.Hiragana,
                    "3" => To.Katakana,
                    _ => To.Hiragana
                };
                
                Console.WriteLine("Presentation mode ('1':Normal '2':Spaced '3':Okurigana '4':Furigana Default:Okurigana):");
                Console.Write("> ");
                var modeStr = Console.ReadLine();
                var mode = modeStr switch
                {
                    "1" => Mode.Normal,
                    "2" => Mode.Spaced,
                    "3" => Mode.Okurigana,
                    "4" => Mode.Furigana,
                    _ => Mode.Okurigana
                };

                var system = RomajiSystem.Hepburn;
                if (to == To.Romaji)
                {
                    Console.WriteLine("Romaji system ('1':Nippon '2':Passport '3':Hepburn Default:Hepburn):");
                    Console.Write("> ");
                    var systemStr = Console.ReadLine();
                    system = systemStr switch
                    {
                        "1" => RomajiSystem.Nippon,
                        "2" => RomajiSystem.Passport,
                        "3" => RomajiSystem.Hepburn,
                        _ => RomajiSystem.Hepburn
                    };
                }
                var result = await converter.Convert(str, to, mode, system, "(", ")");
                Console.WriteLine(result);
                Console.WriteLine();
            }
        }