Katakana
| Katakana カタカナ | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Script type | |
Time period | ~800 A.D. to the present |
| Direction | Vertical right-to-left, left-to-right  |
| Languages | Japanese, Okinawan and Ainu |
| Related scripts | |
Parent systems | |
Sister systems | Hiragana, Hentaigana |
| ISO 15924 | |
| ISO 15924 | Kana (411), Katakana |
| Unicode | |
Unicode alias | Katakana |
| 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,[1] 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.[2]
There are two main systems of ordering katakana: the old-fashioned iroha ordering, and the more prevalent gojūon ordering.
Usage
 |
| Japanese writing |
|---|
| Components |
| Uses |
| Transliteration |
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.
Technical and scientific terms, such as the names of animal and plant species and minerals, are also commonly written in katakana.
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:
- マージャン (麻將/麻雀), mājan (mahjong); in Mandarin májiàng
- ウーロン茶 (烏龍茶), ūroncha (Oolong tea), from Mandarin wūlóng
- チャーハン (炒飯), chāhan (fried rice)
- チャーシュー (叉焼), chāshū (barbecued pork), from Cantonese cha siu
- シューマイ (焼売), shūmai (a kind of dim sum), from Cantonese 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, meaning "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 as 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, or a middle dot called nakaguro (中黒). When it is assumed that the reader knows the separate gairaigo words in the phrase, the middle dot is not used. 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 spelt 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 a geminate consonant, represented in rōmaji by the doubling of the following consonant. 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 may be challenging to express in Japanese, resulting in spellings such as Khrushchev (フルシチョフ Furushichofu), Ali Khamenei (アリー・ハーメネイー Arī Hāmeneī) or Itzhak Perlman (イツハク・パールマン Itsuhaku Pāruman or イツァーク・パールマン Itsāku Pāruman).
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, and 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 (zu) | 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 |
| (ユェ) イェ ye | |||||||
| ヴァ va | ヴィ vi | ヴ vu | ヴェ ve | ヴォ vo | ヴャ vya | ヴュ vyu | ヴョ vyo |
| シェ she | |||||||
| ジェ je | |||||||
| チェ che | |||||||
| スィ si | セャ sya | セュ syu | セョ syo | ||||
| ズィ zi | ゼャ zya | ゼュ zyu | ゼョ zyo | ||||
| ティ ti | トゥ tu | テャ tya | テュ tyu | テョ tyo | |||
| ディ di | ドゥ du | デャ dya | デュ dyu | デョ dyo | |||
| ツァ tsa | ツィ tsi | ツェ tse | ツォ tso | ||||
| ファ fa | フィ fi | ホゥ hu | フェ fe | フォ fo | フャ fya | フュ fyu | フョ fyo |
| リェ rye | |||||||
| ウァ wa | ウィ wi | 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 | |||
- 1: These now-obsolete katakana appeared in some textbooks as early as 1873 ( Meiji 6), but never became widespread. [1] [2]
- 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.
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."[3] Most students who have learned hiragana "do not have great difficulty in memorizing" katakana as well.[4]
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 [3]:
| 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) [4], 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 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
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) [5] 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
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.
Example transcriptions of katakana and foreign languages
Medicine
| Katakana | Rōmaji | Source word |
|---|---|---|
| ビタミン | bitamin | vitamin Template:Languageicon |
| ミネラル | mineraru | mineral Template:Languageicon |
| カルシウム | karushiumu | calcium Template:Languageicon |
| ホルモン | horumon | hormone Template:Languageicon |
Computing
| Katakana | Rōmaji | Source word | Kanji and other words |
|---|---|---|---|
| マウス | mausu | mouse Template:Languageicon | |
| キーボード | kībōdo | keyboard Template:Languageicon | |
| ディスプレイ | disupurei | display Template:Languageicon | 画面 gamen |
| ポインタ | pointa | pointer Template:Languageicon | |
| プログラミング | puroguramingu | programming Template:Languageicon | |
| ソフトウェア | sofutowea | software Template:Languageicon | |
| ハードウェア | hādowea | hardware Template:Languageicon | |
| オペレーティング・システム | operētingu shisutemu | operating system Template:Languageicon | 基本ソフト kihonsofuto; OS ōesu |
| インターネット | intānetto | Internet Template:Languageicon | |
| ウェブ | webu | Web Template:Languageicon |
Personal names
| Katakana | Rōmaji | Source name |
|---|---|---|
| ジョン | jon | John Template:Languageicon |
| ジョージ | jōji | George Template:Languageicon |
| メアリー or メリー | mearī, merī | Mary Template:Languageicon |
| マイケル | maikeru | Michael Template:Languageicon |
| ピーター | pītā | Peter Template:Languageicon |
| スコット | sukotto | Scott Template:Languageicon |
| Katakana | Rōmaji | Source name |
|---|---|---|
| マリー | marī | Marie Template:Languageicon |
| ミシェル | misheru | Michel Template:Languageicon |
| Katakana | Rōmaji | Source name |
|---|---|---|
| マリア | maria | Maria Template:Languageicon |
| ミハエル, ミヒャエル | mihaeru, mihyaeru | Michael Template:Languageicon |
Regions
| Katakana | Rōmaji | Source name | Kanji |
|---|---|---|---|
| アフリカ | afurika | Africa Template:Languageicon | 阿弗利加 Afurika |
| アメリカ | amerika | America Template:Languageicon | 亜米利加 Amerika |
| アジア | ajia | Asia Template:Languageicon | 亜細亜 Ajia |
| ヨーロッパ | yōroppa | Europa Template:Languageicon | 欧羅巴 Yōroppa 欧州 Ōshū |
| ラテンアメリカ | raten amerika | Latin America Template:Languageicon | 中南米 Chūnanbei |
| オセアニア | oseania | Oceania Template:Languageicon | 大洋州 Taiyōshū |
Nations
| Katakana | Rōmaji | Source name | English name |
|---|---|---|---|
| アルゼンチン | aruzenchin | Argentina Template:Languageicon | Argentina |
| ブラジル | burajiru | Brasil Template:Languageicon | Brazil |
| ブルガリア | burugaria | България, Balgariya Template:Languageicon | Bulgaria |
| カナダ | kanada | Canada Template:Languageicon | Canada |
| チェコ | cheko | Česko Template:Languageicon | Czech Republic |
| イギリス | igirisu | Inglês Template:Languageicon | England |
| フィンランド | finrando | Finland Template:Languageicon | Finland |
| フランス | furansu | France Template:Languageicon | France |
| ドイツ | doitsu | Deutschland Template:Languageicon | Germany |
| オランダ | oranda | Holanda Template:Languageicon | Holland (The Netherlands) |
| インド | indo | India Template:Languageicon | India |
| インドネシア | indoneshia | Indonesia Template:Languageicon | Indonesia |
| アイルランド | airurando | Ireland Template:Languageicon | Ireland |
| イタリア | itaria | Italia Template:Languageicon | Italy |
| リトアニア | ritoania | Lithuania Template:Languageicon | Lithuania |
| マレーシア | marēshia | Malaysia Template:Languageicon | Malaysia |
| メキシコ | mekishiko | Mexico Template:Languageicon | Mexico |
| フィリピン | firipin | Filipinas Template:Languageicon | Philippines |
| ポーランド | pōrando | Poland Template:Languageicon | Poland |
| ポルトガル | porutogaru | Portugal Template:Languageicon | Portugal |
| ルーマニア | rūmania | România Template:Languageicon | Romania |
| ロシア | roshia | Росси́я, Rossiya Template:Languageicon | Russia |
| シンガポール | shingapōru | Singapore Template:Languageicon | Singapore |
Cities
| Katakana | Rōmaji | Source name | English name |
|---|---|---|---|
| ベルファスト | berufasuto | Belfast Template:Languageicon | Belfast |
| ベルリン | berurin | Berlin Template:Languageicon | Berlin |
| ブカレスト | bukaresuto | Bucharest Template:Languageicon | Bucharest |
| ブエノスアイレス | buenosu airesu | Buenos Aires Template:Languageicon | Buenos Aires |
| シカゴ | shikago | Chicago Template:Languageicon | Chicago |
| ハノイ | hanoi | Hà Nội Template:Languageicon | Hanoi |
| ホンコン | honkon | 香港 Template:Languageicon | Hong Kong |
| リスボン | risubon | Lisbon Template:Languageicon | Lisbon |
| ロンドン | rondon | London Template:Languageicon | London |
| ロサンゼルス | rosanzerusu | Los Angeles Template:Languageicon | Los Angeles |
| マドリッド | madoriddo | Madrid Template:Languageicon | Madrid |
| マニラ | manira | Manila Template:Languageicon | Manila |
| モスクワ | mosukuwa | Москва, Moskva Template:Languageicon | Moscow |
| ニューヨーク | nyū yōku | New York Template:Languageicon | New York |
| パリ | pari | Paris Template:Languageicon | Paris |
| プラハ | puraha | Praha Template:Languageicon | Prague |
| ローマ | rōma | Roma Template:Languageicon | Rome |
| サンフランシスコ | sanfuranshisuko | San Francisco Template:Languageicon | San Francisco |
| シアトル | shiatoru | Seattle Template:Languageicon | Seattle |
| シドニー | shidonī | Sydney Template:Languageicon | Sydney |
| トロント | Toronto | Toronto Template:Languageicon | Toronto |
| ワシントン | washinton | Washington Template:Languageicon | Washington |
References
- ^ Roy Andrew Miller, A Japanese Reader: Graded Lessons in the Modern Language, Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company, Tokyo, Japan (1966), p. 28, Lesson 7 : Katakana : a—no. "Side by side with hiragana, modern Japanese writing makes use of another complete set of similar symbols called the katakana."
- ^ Miller, p. 28. "The katana symbols, rather simpler, more angular and abrupt in their line than the hiragana..."
- ^ Mutsuko Endo Simon, A Practical Guide for Teachers of Elementary Japanese, Center for Japanese Studies, the University of Michigan (1984) p. 36, 3.3 Katakana
- ^ Simon, p. 36
See also
External links
