Romanization of ぢand づ confusion
 

Hello,

I am a little confused about the romanization of ぢand づ. Currently I am using the Genki textbooks to learn Japanese, and it tells me that ぢand づ are pronounced as 'ji' and 'zu' just like じ　and ず　, but I found many resources that tell me that they are pronounced as 'di' and 'du'
:confused: Help please? What is the correct pronunciation of them?

じ, ず and ぢ,づ are the same as far as I know. I have never come across ぢ or づ in use though, only じ and ず.

In all the parts of Japan that matter to foreigners (gross oversimplification, I know—see link below), じ＝ぢ、ず＝づ. Here's a Wikipedia article discussing exactly this issue: Yotsugana - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

They are not as widely used, but some common words use those like for example 続（つづ）く continue and 鼻血（はなぢ） nose bleed.

Setting the pronunciation aside, I guess it is worth notice that ぢ and づ must be typed as "di and "du" when typing with IME (some typing program like NJStar also use "dji" and "dzu"), and certain words like 身近 or 続く are fairly common.

The reason you will sometimes see them written as du and di is as above- that's what you type to get ぢ and づ to come up on the computer. They are definitely not pronounced with a "d" sound though.

For the same reason you sometimes see "Sinjyuku" for Shinjuku and "Kitijyoji" for Kichijoji- it's an alternative way of romanising Japanese, but it's one that doesn't reflect the pronunciation well in my opinion.

My husband is Japanese, and his family name has a づ in it, but we always have to point that out to people when they write down the name as otherwise they would write ず.

When you speak, pronunciations of じ & ぢ are exactly same. And the same goes for ず & づ.
A pronunciation of じ & ぢ should be "ji ", and "zu" for ず & づ. ( I said "should be", because I am not confident about how native English speakers pronounce "ji" and "zu") "Di" and "du" are both out of the question.

On the other hand, we use them properly when we write or type.
If we write 鼻血 in hiragana, we always write はなぢ, not はなじ.
If we write 人民 in hiragana, we always write じんみん, never ぢんみん.

Then, for what "di" "du" are ? That has already been said in sarasi's post above.
I would recommend you to use "Kana input method" instead of "Romaji input method"... just joking.

@sarasi
I also come across such a situation once in a while, since I have "ず " in my first name. And have to say “すにてんてん”. :)

@KyleGoetz
Thank you for the link, the article is so interesting and very informative.
In the sentence above, I have done away with a consideration of dialects or of historical transition on this issue ( I knew almost nothing about those in the first place, though), for OP's simple question.
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At last, let me show you a picture which always pops up in our minds, when we see a single hiragana letter " ぢ ". :p

And they said there was no spelling in Japanese ;)

Also would like to point out that 小包（こづつみ） is a beginners word with づ (or at least it was taught to ME when I was first starting...)

You'll find that almost all づ／ぢ occur as rendaku (the voicing of つ／ぢ) rather than just out of nowhere.

Well thanks to all of you who replied. I really appreciate it that you helped me clarify the correct pronunciation :)