Katakana

Katakana カタカナ
Script type	Syllabary
Time period	~800 A.D. to the present
Direction	Vertical right-to-left, left-to-right
Languages	Japanese, Okinawan, Ainu, Palauan
Related scripts
Parent systems	Oracle Bone Script Seal Script Clerical Script Regular script (Kanji) Man'yōgana Katakana カタカナ
Sister systems	Hiragana, Hentaigana
ISO 15924
ISO 15924	Kana (411), ​Katakana
Unicode
Unicode alias	Katakana
Unicode range	U+30A0–U+30FF

Katakana (片仮名, カタカナ or かたかな) is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet. The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji.

Katakana are characterized by short, straight strokes and angular corners, and are the simplest of the Japanese scripts.

There are two main systems of ordering katakana: the old-fashioned iroha ordering, and the more prevalent gojūon ordering.

Usage

In modern Japanese, katakana are most often used for transcription of words from foreign languages (called gairaigo). For example, "television" is written terebi (テレビ). Similarly, katakana is usually used for country names, foreign places, and personal names. For example, America is written アメリカ Amerika (America also has its own kanji (ateji) Amerika (亜米利加) or for short, Beikoku (米国), which literally means "Rice Country").

Katakana are also used for onomatopoeia, words used to represent sounds. For example, pinpon (ピンポン), the "ding-dong" sound of a doorbell, would usually be written in katakana. Also, katakana is used for words the writer wishes to emphasize.

Technical and scientific terms, such as the names of animal and plant species and minerals, are also commonly written in katakana. Homo sapiens (ja:ホモ・サピエンス), as a species, is written hito (ja:ヒト), rather than its kanji .

Katakana are also often, but not always, used for transcription of Japanese company names. For example Suzuki is written スズキ, and Toyota is written トヨタ. Katakana are also used for emphasis, especially on signs, advertisements, and hoardings (i.e., billboards). For example, it is common to see ココ koko ("here"), ゴミ gomi ("trash") or メガネ megane ("glasses"), and words to be emphasized in a sentence are also sometimes written in katakana, mirroring the European usage of italics.

Pre-World War II official documents mix katakana and kanji in the same way that hiragana and kanji are mixed in modern Japanese texts, that is, katakana were used for okurigana and particles such as wa or o.

Katakana were also used for telegrams in Japan before 1988, and for computer systems—before the introduction of multibyte characters—in the 1980s. Most computers in that era used katakana instead of kanji and/or hiragana for output.

Although words borrowed from ancient Chinese are usually written in kanji, loanwords from modern Chinese dialects which are borrowed directly rather than using the Sino-Japanese on'yomi readings, are often written in katakana. Examples include:

Japanese	Rōmaji	Meaning	Kanji	Romanization	Source language
マージャン	mājan	mahjong	麻雀	májiàng	Mandarin
ウーロン茶	ūroncha	Oolong tea	烏龍茶	wūlóngchá
チャーハン	chāhan	fried rice	炒飯	chǎofàn
チャーシュー	chāshū	barbecued pork	叉焼	cha siu	Cantonese
シューマイ	shūmai	a form of dim sum	焼売	siu maai

The very common Chinese loanword ラーメン rāmen is rarely written with its kanji (拉麺).

There are rare cases where the opposite has occurred, with kanji forms created from words originally written in katakana. An example of this is コーヒー kōhī, ("coffee"), which can be alternatively written as 珈琲. This kanji usage is occasionally employed by coffee manufacturers or coffee shops for novelty.

Katakana are sometimes used instead of hiragana as furigana to give the pronunciation of a word written in Roman characters, or for a foreign word, which is written as kanji for the meaning, but intended to be pronounced as the original.

Katakana are also sometimes used to indicate words being spoken in a foreign or otherwise unusual accent, by foreign characters, robots, etc. For example, in a manga, the speech of a foreign character or a robot may be represented by, for example, コンニチワ konnichiwa ("hello") instead of the more usual hiragana こんにちは konnichiwa.

Katakana are also used to indicate the on'yomi (Chinese-derived readings) of a kanji in a kanji dictionary.

Some Japanese personal names are written in katakana. This was more common in the past, hence elderly women often have katakana names.

It is very common to write words with difficult-to-read kanji in katakana. This phenomenon is often seen with medical terminology. For example, in the word 皮膚科 hifuka ("dermatology"), the second kanji, 膚, is considered difficult to read, and thus the word hifuka is commonly written 皮フ科 or ヒフ科, mixing kanji and katakana. Similarly, difficult-to-read kanji such as 癌 gan ('cancer') are often written in katakana or hiragana.

Katakana is also used for traditional musical notations, as in the Tozan-ryū of shakuhachi, and in sankyoku ensembles with koto, shamisen, and shakuhachi.

Orthography

Foreign phrases are sometimes transliterated with a space separating the words, called a nakaguro (中黒) (middle dot). When it is assumed that the reader knows the separate gairaigo words in the phrase, the middle dot is omitted. For example, the phrase コンピュータゲーム konpyūta gēmu ("computer game") contains two well-known gairaigo, and therefore is not written with a middle dot.

Katakana spelling differs slightly from hiragana. While hiragana spells long vowels with the addition of a second vowel kana, katakana usually uses a vowel extender mark called a chōon. This is a short line following the direction of the text, horizontal for yokogaki (horizontal text), and vertical for tategaki (vertical text). It is generally used in foreign loanwords; long vowels in katakana words of Japanese origin are usually spelled as they would be in hiragana. There are exceptions, such as ローソク(蝋燭 rōsoku "candle") or ケータイ(携帯 kētai "mobile phone").

A small tsu (ッ) called a sokuon indicates that the following consonant is geminate; this is represented in rōmaji by doubling the consonant that follows the tsu. For example, "bed" is represented in katakana as ベッド (beddo). The sokuon may also be used to approximate a non-native sound; Bach is written バッハ (Bahha); Mach as マッハ (Mahha).

Foreign sounds can be difficult to express in Japanese, resulting in spellings such as フルシチョフ Furushichofu (Khrushchev), アリー・ハーメネイー Arī Hāmeneī (Ali Khamenei) and イツハク・パールマン Itsuhaku Pāruman or イツァーク・パールマン Itsāku Pāruman (Itzhak Perlman).

How to write katakana

The following table shows how to write each katakana character. In contrast to the table in the next section, it is arranged in the traditional way, beginning top right and reading columns down. The little numbers and arrows indicate the stroke order and direction.

Table of katakana

This is a table of katakana together with their Hepburn romanization. Katakana with dakuten or handakuten follow the gojūon kana without them. Characters in red are obsolete, characters in green are modern additions used mainly to represent sounds from other languages. Learning to read katakana is often complicated by the similarities between different characters. For example, shi シ and tsu ツ , as well as so ソ and n ン , look very similar in print except for the slant and stroke shape. (These differences in slant and shape are more prominent when written with an ink brush.)

vowels					yōon
ア a	イ i	ウ u	エ e	オ o	ya	yu	yo
カ ka	キ ki	ク ku	ケ ke	コ ko	キャ kya	キュ kyu	キョ kyo
サ sa	シ shi	ス su	セ se	ソ so	シャ sha	シュ shu	ショ sho
タ ta	チ chi	ツ tsu	テ te	ト to	チャ cha	チュ chu	チョ cho
ナ na	ニ ni	ヌ nu	ネ ne	ノ no	ニャ nya	ニュ nyu	ニョ nyo
ハ ha	ヒ hi	フ fu	ヘ he	ホ ho	ヒャ hya	ヒュ hyu	ヒョ hyo
マ ma	ミ mi	ム mu	メ me	モ mo	ミャ mya	ミュ myu	ミョ myo
ヤ ya	yi1	ユ yu	ye1	ヨ yo
ラ ra	リ ri	ル ru	レ re	ロ ro	リャ rya	リュ ryu	リョ ryo
ワ wa	ヰ wi	wu1	ヱ we	ヲ wo 2	ヰャ wya	ヰュ wyu	ヰョ wyo
				ン n
ガ ga	ギ gi	グ gu	ゲ ge	ゴ go	ギャ gya	ギュ gyu	ギョ gyo
ザ za	ジ ji	ズ zu	ゼ ze	ゾ zo	ジャ ja	ジュ ju	ジョ jo
ダ da	ヂ (ji)	ヅ (dzu)	デ de	ド do	ヂャ (ja)	ヂュ (ju)	ヂョ (jo)
バ ba	ビ bi	ブ bu	ベ be	ボ bo	ビャ bya	ビュ byu	ビョ byo
パ pa	ピ pi	プ pu	ペ pe	ポ po	ピャ pya	ピュ pyu	ピョ pyo
	(ヰェ) イィ (yi)		(ユェ) イェ ye
(ヷ) ヴァ va	(ヸ) ヴィ vi	(゙) ヴ vu	(ヹ) ヴェ ve	(ヺ) ヴォ vo	ヴャ vya	ヴュ vyu	ヴョ vyo
			シェ she
			ジェ je
			チェ che
スァ swa	スィ si	スゥ swu	スェ swe	スォ swo	スャ sya	スュ syu	スョ syo
ズァ zwa	ズィ zi	ズゥ zwu	ズェ zwe	ズォ zwo	ズャ zya	ズュ zyu	ズョ zyo
ツァ tsa	ツィ tsi		ツェ tse	ツォ tso
テァ tha	ティ ti	テゥ thu	テェ tye	テォ tho	テャ tya	テュ tyu	テョ tyo
デァ dha	ディ di	デゥ dhu	デェ dye	デォ dho	デャ dya	デュ dyu	デョ dyo
トァ twa	トィ twi	トゥ tu	トェ twe	トォ two
ドァ dwa	ドィ dwi	ドゥ du	ドェ dwe	ドォ dwo
ファ fa	フィ fi	ホゥ hu	フェ fe	フォ fo	フャ fya	フュ fyu	フョ fyo
	リィ ryi		リェ rye
ウァ (wa)	ウィ wi	ウゥ (wu)	ウェ we	ウォ wo	ウャ wya	ウュ wyu	ウョ wyo
(クヮ) クァ kwa	クィ kwi	クゥ kwu	クェ kwe	クォ kwo
(グヮ) グァ gwa	グィ gwi	グゥ gwu	グェ gwe	グォ gwo
(ムヮ) ムァ mwa	ムィ mwi	ムゥ mwu	ムェ mwe	ムォ mwo
ヵ small ka			ヶ small ke3

¹ These now-obsolete katakana appeared in some textbooks as early as 1873 ( Meiji 6), but never became widespread.

² In modern times, ウォ ("wo") is used as the representation of a "wo" sound instead. The katakana version of the wo kana, ヲ, is primarily used, albeit rarely, to represent the particle を in katakana. The particle is commonly pronounced the same as the o kana.

³ Small ke (ヶ) is an abbreviated form of the kanji 箇, an old attributive particle, and is pronounced ga in place names such as 槍ヶ岳 Yari-ga take. Sometimes small ka (ヵ) is substituted.

History

Katakana was developed in the early Heian Period from parts of man'yōgana characters as a form of shorthand. For example, ka カ comes from the left side of ka 加 "increase". The table below shows the origins of each katakana: the red markings of the original Chinese character eventually became each corresponding symbol.

Japanese language instruction

Some instructors "introduce katakana after the students have learned to read and write sentences in hiragana without difficulty and know the rules." Most students who have learned hiragana "do not have great difficulty in memorizing" katakana as well.

Other instructors introduce the katakana first, because these are used with loanwords. This gives students a chance to practice reading and writing kana with meaningful words. This is the approach taken by Eleanor Harz Jorden.

Computer encoding

In addition to fonts intended for Japanese text and Unicode catch-all fonts (like Arial Unicode MS), many fonts intended for Chinese text also include katakana (such as MS Song).

Katakana have two forms of encoding, halfwidth hankaku (半角) and fullwidth zenkaku (全角). The halfwidth forms come from JIS X 0201 originally. This includes halfwidth katakana in right side area of ASCII. That is, most halfwidth katakana could be represented by one byte each. In the late 1970s, two-byte character sets such as JIS X 0208 were introduced to represent hiragana, kanji, and other characters. JIS_X_0208 has its own katakana area independently of one-byte character set such as JIS_X_0201. katakana of JIS_X_0208 takes two-byte (at least), so many (especially old) devices output these katakana as two-byte-width. This is why katakana of JIS_X_0201 is called halfwidth and JIS_X_0208, fullwidth. Therefore, most encodings have no halfwidth hiragana.

Although often said to be obsolete, in fact the halfwidth katakana are still used in many systems and encodings. For example, the titles of mini discs can only be entered in ASCII or halfwidth katakana, and halfwidth katakana were commonly used in computerized cash register displays, on shop receipts, and Japanese digital television and DVD subtitles. Several popular Japanese encodings such as EUC-JP, Unicode and Shift-JIS have halfwidth katakana code as well as fullwidth. By contrast, ISO-2022-JP has no halfwidth katakana, and is mainly used over SMTP and NNTP. Halfwidth katakana are commonly used to save memory space.

Unicode

In Unicode, fullwidth katakana occupy code points U+30A0 to U+30FF :

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

30A

゠

ァ

ア

ィ

イ

ゥ

ウ

ェ

エ

ォ

オ

カ

ガ

キ

ギ

ク

30B

グ

ケ

ゲ

コ

ゴ

サ

ザ

シ

ジ

ス

ズ

セ

ゼ

ソ

ゾ

タ

30C

ダ

チ

ヂ

ッ

ツ

ヅ

テ

デ

ト

ド

ナ

ニ

ヌ

ネ

ノ

ハ

30D

バ

パ

ヒ

ビ

ピ

フ

ブ

プ

ヘ

ベ

ペ

ホ

ボ

ポ

マ

ミ

30E

ム

メ

モ

ャ

ヤ

ュ

ユ

ョ

ヨ

ラ

リ

ル

レ

ロ

ヮ

ワ

30F

ヰ

ヱ

ヲ

ン

ヴ

ヵ

ヶ

ヷ

ヸ

ヹ

ヺ

・

ー

ヽ

ヾ

ヿ

Encoded in this block along with the katakana are the nakaguro word separation middle dot, the chōon vowel extender, the katakana iteration marks, and a ligature of コト sometimes used in vertical writing.

Halfwidth equivalents to the fullwidth katakana also exist. These are encoded within the Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms block (U+FF00–U+FFEF) , starting at U+FF65 and ending at U+FF9F (characters U+FF61–U+FF64 are halfwidth punctuation marks):

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

FF6

｠

｡

｢

｣

､

･

ｦ

ｧ

ｨ

ｩ

ｪ

ｫ

ｬ

ｭ

ｮ

ｯ

FF7

ｰ

ｱ

ｲ

ｳ

ｴ

ｵ

ｶ

ｷ

ｸ

ｹ

ｺ

ｻ

ｼ

ｽ

ｾ

ｿ

FF8

ﾀ

ﾁ

ﾂ

ﾃ

ﾄ

ﾅ

ﾆ

ﾇ

ﾈ

ﾉ

ﾊ

ﾋ

ﾌ

ﾍ

ﾎ

ﾏ

FF9

ﾐ

ﾑ

ﾒ

ﾓ

ﾔ

ﾕ

ﾖ

ﾗ

ﾘ

ﾙ

ﾚ

ﾛ

ﾜ

ﾝ

ﾞ

ﾟ

This block also includes the halfwidth dakuten and handakuten. The fullwidth versions of these characters are found in the hiragana block.

Code points 32D0 to 32FE list circled katakana. A circled ン (n) is not included.

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

32D

㋐

㋑

㋒

㋓

㋔

㋕

㋖

㋗

㋘

㋙

㋚

㋛

㋜

㋝

㋞

㋟

32E

㋠

㋡

㋢

㋣

㋤

㋥

㋦

㋧

㋨

㋩

㋪

㋫

㋬

㋭

㋮

㋯

32F

㋰

㋱

㋲

㋳

㋴

㋵

㋶

㋷

㋸

㋹

㋺

㋻

㋼

㋽

㋾

Katakana uses in non-Japanese languages

Ainu

Main article: Ainu language § Writing

Katakana is sometimes used to write the Ainu language. In Ainu language katakana usage, the consonant that comes at the end of a syllable is represented by a small version of a katakana that corresponds to that final consonant and with an arbitrary vowel. For instance "up" is represented by ウㇷ゚ (ウ_プ—u followed by small pu). Ainu also requires three additional sounds, represented by セ゜ ([tse]), ツ゜ ([tu̜]) and ト゜ ([tu̜]). In Unicode, the Katakana Phonetic Extensions block (U+31F0–U+31FF) exists for Ainu language support. These characters are used mainly for the Ainu language only:

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

A

B

C

D

E

F

31F

ㇰ(ク)

ㇱ(シ)

ㇲ(ス)

ㇳ(ト)

ㇴ(ヌ)

ㇵ(ハ)

ㇶ(ヒ)

ㇷ(フ)

ㇸ(ヘ)

ㇹ(ホ)

ㇺ(ム)

ㇻ(ラ)

ㇼ(リ)

ㇽ(ル)

ㇾ(レ)

ㇿ(ロ)

Taiwanese

Main article: Taiwanese kana

Taiwanese kana (タイ ヲァヌ ギイ カア ビェン) is a katakana-based writing system once used to write Holo Taiwanese, when Taiwan was ruled by Japan. It functioned as a phonetic guide to hanzi, much like furigana in Japanese or Zhuyin fuhao in Chinese. There were similar systems for other languages in Taiwan as well, including Hakka and Formosan languages.

Unlike Japanese or Ainu, Taiwanese kana are used similarly to the Zhùyīn fúhào characters, with kana serving as initials, vowel medials and consonant finals, marked with tonal marks. A dot below the initial kana represented aspirated consonants, and チ, ツ, サ, セ, ソ, ウ and オ with a superpositional bar represented sounds found only in Taiwanese.

See also

• Japanese phonology
• Hiragana
• Historical kana usage
• Rōmaji
• Taiwanese kana

External links

• Katakana Unicode chart
• Template:Dmoz