JAPANESE NAVAL TITLES WITH
ENGLISH EQUIVALENTS
| Note.— | a | is pronounced as | a in father. |
| ai | “ | i in idle. | |
| i | “ | e in feet, | |
| u | “ | ou, or as ue in clue. | |
| ei or e | “ | a in fate. | |
| Example: | taï-i is pronounced “ti-ēē.” | ||
To follow French pronunciation is a tolerably safe guide.
The system under which the Japanese name their deck officers is extremely simple. They are divided into three groups—big, medium, and little. For each of the three grades in these groups there are three similar prefixes—taï-, tchū-,[29] and shŏ-. The affix is the same for all grades in each group, -shō for the big, -sá for the medium, and -i for the lowest.
Thus they get:—
| Prefix. | Affix. | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. taï- |  | Big. -shŏ | Medium -sá | Little. -i |
| 2. tchū- | ||||
| 3. shŏ- | ||||
The various ranks, with the corresponding English equivalents, are as follows, working upwards:—
| Sho-i (Ko-hoshei) | = midshipman. |
| Sho-i | = 2nd class sub-lieutenant. |
| Tchu-i | = 1st class sub-lieutenant. |
| Taï-i | = lieutenant. |
| Sho-sá | = lieutenant-commander. |
| Tchu-sá | = commander. |
| Taï-sá | = captain. |
| Sho-sho | = rear-admiral. |
| Tchu-sho | = vice-admiral. |
| Taï-sho | = admiral. |
In addition, there are the following branches of lieutenant-commanders:—
| Ho-jūt-sho | = gunnery lieutenant, |
| Sui-ri-sho | = torpedo lieutenant, |
| Ko-ki-sho | = navigating lieutenant, |