Things Japanese: Goroawase

Goroawase is a Japanese idea used to bridge the gap between digits and language.

Primarily used as a mnemonic device, goroawase can be used to remember strings of numbers by assigning each digit a syllable from the Japanese syllabary¹ in order to spell out a name, word or phrase. For instance, in order to remember the number 385, a Japanese-speaking individual may elect to think of the name "Miyako", a common Japanese girls' name. In this system, "mi" is conected to the digit 3, "ya" to 8, and "ko" to 5.

In the days before cell phones and 'texting', it was very common for goroawase to be used in reverse. Young girls and women took to communicating through pagers and leaving messages in digits to represent words. "0840" would be read as "o-ha-yo-o" or "ohayo" ("good morning"). This technique was known as "poke-beru² ango" (pocket-bell code) or "poke-kotoba" (pocket words).

Though pagers are gone, goroawase is still very much in use today. In the very popular manga/anime series Keroro Gunsou (Sgt. Frog), the number 723 is prominently displayed on many of Natsumi's clothes, due to the fact that 723 can be read as "na-tsu-mi".

SOME common goroawase readings are:
0: O
1: I, HI
2: NI, FU, TSU
3: MI
4: SHI, YO, HO
5: GO, KO
6: RO, MU
7: NA
8: HA, YA
9: KYU, KU
10: TO

¹ A syllabary is like an alphabet, but each character represents a syllable rather than a consonant or vowel sound.
² "Poke-beru" or "pocket-bell" is the Japanese term for a pager.