Rupert Atkinson

I still stand by what I said, but accept that locals may tend to produce both versions. Think of the word - often - how do you say it? I am from the UK and pronounce the 't', but accept that not everyone in the UK does. However, I have yet to meet an American who pronounces the 't'. But that is pure pronunciation - we don't have any particular rules about it. Japanese romanisation, on the other hand, follows rules that non-natives follow (if they know them), whereas natives could not care less about such rules. I learned to write 'n' to match the Japanese 'n', and 'm' to follow the Japanese 'm' - writing is writing, after all. Pronunciation is something else, so 'n' followed by 'b' in the spoken form changes to 'm'. But as some natives ignore it, so may you.