Everything about Katakana totally explained
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
transcription of words from foreign languages (called
gairaigo). For example, "television" is written . 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) or for short, which literally means "Rice Country").
Katakana are also used for
onomatopoeia, words used to represent sounds; for example, 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 (for example,
billboards). For example, it's 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
middle dot called or a space separating the words. However, in cases where it's assumed that the reader knows the separate gairaigo words in the phrase, the middle dot isn't used. For example, the phrase コンピュータゲーム ("konpyūta gēmu," or "computer game"), containing two very well-known gairaigo, isn't 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 mark is a short line following the direction of the text, horizontal in
yokogaki, or horizontal text, and vertical in
tategaki, or vertical text. However, it's more often used when writing foreign loanwords; long vowels in Japanese words written in katakana are usually written as they'd 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, which is represented in
rōmaji by doubling the following consonant. For example,
bed is written in katakana as ベッド (
beddo).
The
sokuon is sometimes used in places which have no equivalent in native sounds. For example, double-h in place of "ch" is common in German names. Bach, for example, comes out as バッハ (Bahha); Mach is マッハ (Mahha). The doubling of the "h" in Bach and Mach (via use of the underlying small tsu) is probably the kana that best fits those German names.
Related sounds in various languages are hard to express in Japanese, so Khrushchev becomes フルシチョフ (Furushichofu). Ali Khamenei is アリー・ハーメネイー (Arī Hāmeneī). The Japanese Wikipedia has references to both イツハク・パールマン (Itsuhaku Pāruman) and イツァーク・パールマン (Itsāku Pāruman),
Itzhak Perlman.
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 |
|
ユ yu |
|
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 |
|
ヱ we |
ヲ wo 1 |
|
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|
ン n |
|
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| 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
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» 1:
ヲ ("wo") sounds the same as
オ ("o"), but it's rarely used except when the corresponding
hiragana has to be represented in an all-katakana environment.
2: These katakana were introduced into the education system in the early
Meiji period, but never became widespread.
(External Link
) (External Link)
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.
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 and fullwidth . 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
(External Link):
| |
|
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
|
|
゠ |
ァ |
ア |
ィ |
イ |
ゥ |
ウ |
ェ |
エ |
ォ |
オ |
カ |
ガ |
キ |
ギ |
ク |
|
|
グ |
ケ |
ゲ |
コ |
ゴ |
サ |
ザ |
シ |
ジ |
ス |
ズ |
セ |
ゼ |
ソ |
ゾ |
タ |
|
|
ダ |
チ |
ヂ |
ッ |
ツ |
ヅ |
テ |
デ |
ト |
ド |
ナ |
ニ |
ヌ |
ネ |
ノ |
ハ |
|
|
バ |
パ |
ヒ |
ビ |
ピ |
フ |
ブ |
プ |
ヘ |
ベ |
ペ |
ホ |
ボ |
ポ |
マ |
ミ |
|
|
ム |
メ |
モ |
ャ |
ヤ |
ュ |
ユ |
ョ |
ヨ |
ラ |
リ |
ル |
レ |
ロ |
ヮ |
ワ |
|
|
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)
(External Link), 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 |
|
|
｠ |
｡ |
｢ |
｣ |
､ |
･ |
ｦ |
ｧ |
ｨ |
ｩ |
ｪ |
ｫ |
ｬ |
ｭ |
ｮ |
ｯ |
|
|
ｰ |
ｱ |
ｲ |
ｳ |
ｴ |
ｵ |
ｶ |
ｷ |
ｸ |
ｹ |
ｺ |
ｻ |
ｼ |
ｽ |
ｾ |
ｿ |
|
|
ﾀ |
ﾁ |
ﾂ |
ﾃ |
ﾄ |
ﾅ |
ﾆ |
ﾇ |
ﾈ |
ﾉ |
ﾊ |
ﾋ |
ﾌ |
ﾍ |
ﾎ |
ﾏ |
|
|
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. Note: A circled ン is missing
| |
|
0 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
9 |
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
|
|
㋐ |
㋑ |
㋒ |
㋓ |
㋔ |
㋕ |
㋖ |
㋗ |
㋘ |
㋙ |
㋚ |
㋛ |
㋜ |
㋝ |
㋞ |
㋟ |
|
|
㋠ |
㋡ |
㋢ |
㋣ |
㋤ |
㋥ |
㋦ |
㋧ |
㋨ |
㋩ |
㋪ |
㋫ |
㋬ |
㋭ |
㋮ |
㋯ |
|
|
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)
(External Link) 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 |
|
|
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 |
| ミネラル |
mineraru |
mineral |
| カルシウム |
karushiumu |
calcium |
| ホルモン |
horumon |
hormone |
Computing
| Katakana |
Rōmaji |
Source word |
Kanji and other words |
| マウス |
mausu |
mouse |
|
| キーボード |
kībōdo |
keyboard |
|
| ディスプレイ |
disupurei |
display |
画面 gamen |
| ポインタ |
pointa |
pointer |
|
| プログラミング |
puroguramingu |
programming |
|
| ソフトウェア |
sofutowea |
software |
|
| ハードウェア |
hādowea |
hardware |
|
| オペレーティング・システム |
operētingu shisutemu |
operating system |
基本ソフト kihonsofuto; OS ōesu |
| インターネット |
intānetto |
Internet |
|
| ウェブ |
webu |
Web |
|
Personal names
| Katakana |
Rōmaji |
Source name |
| ジョン |
jon |
John |
| ジョージ |
jōji |
George |
| マリー |
marī |
Marie |
| マイケル |
maikeru |
Michael |
| ピーター |
pītā |
Peter |
| Katakana |
Rōmaji |
Source name |
| マリア |
maria |
Maria |
| ミハエル, ミヒャエル |
mihaeru, mihyaeru |
Michael |
Regions
| Katakana |
Rōmaji |
Source name |
Kanji |
| アフリカ |
afurika |
Africa |
阿弗利加 Afurika |
| アメリカ |
amerika |
America |
亜米利加 Amerika |
| アジア |
ajia |
Asia |
亜細亜 Ajia |
| ヨーロッパ |
yōroppa |
Europa |
欧羅巴 Yōroppa
欧州 Ōshū |
| ラテンアメリカ |
raten amerika |
Latin America |
中南米 Chūnanbei |
| オセアニア |
oseania |
Oceania |
大洋州 Taiyōshū |
Nations
| Katakana |
Rōmaji |
Source name |
English name |
| アルゼンチン |
aruzenchin |
Argentina |
Argentina |
| ブラジル |
burajiru |
Brasil |
Brazil |
| ブルガリア |
burugaria |
България, Balgariya |
Bulgaria |
| カナダ |
kanada |
Canada |
Canada |
| チェコ |
cheko |
Česko |
Czech Republic |
| イギリス |
igirisu |
Inglês |
England |
| フィンランド |
finrando |
Finland |
Finland |
| フランス |
furansu |
France |
France |
| ドイツ |
doitsu |
Deutschland |
Germany |
| オランダ |
oranda |
Holanda |
Holland (The Netherlands) |
| インド |
indo |
India |
India |
| インドネシア |
indoneshia |
Indonesia |
Indonesia |
| アイルランド |
airurando |
Ireland |
Ireland |
| イタリア |
itaria |
Italia |
Italy |
| リトアニア |
ritoania |
Lithuania |
Lithuania |
| マレーシア |
marēshia |
Malaysia |
Malaysia |
| メキシコ |
mekishiko |
Mexico |
Mexico |
| フィリピン |
firipin |
Pilipinas |
Philippines |
| ポーランド |
pōrando |
Poland |
Poland |
| ポルトガル |
porutogaru |
Portugal |
Portugal |
| ルーマニア |
rūmania |
România |
Romania |
| ロシア |
roshia |
Росси́я, Rossiya |
Russia |
| シンガポール |
shingapōru |
Singapore |
Singapore |
Cities
| Katakana |
Rōmaji |
Source name |
English name |
| ベルファスト |
berufasuto |
Belfast |
Belfast |
| ベルリン |
berurin |
Berlin |
Berlin |
| ブエノスアイレス |
buenosu airesu |
Buenos Aires |
Buenos Aires |
| シカゴ |
shikago |
Chicago |
Chicago |
| ハノイ |
hanoi |
Hà Nội |
Hanoi |
| ホンコン |
honkon |
香港 |
Hong Kong |
| リスボン |
risubon |
Lisbon |
Lisbon |
| ロンドン |
rondon |
London |
London |
| ロサンゼルス |
rosanzerusu |
Los Angeles |
Los Angeles |
| マドリッド |
madoriddo |
Madrid |
Madrid |
| マニラ |
manira |
Manila |
Manila |
| モスクワ |
mosukuwa |
Москва, Moskva |
Moscow |
| ニューヨーク |
nyū yōku |
New York |
New York |
| パリ |
pari |
Paris |
Paris |
| プラハ |
puraha |
Praha |
Prague |
| ローマ |
rōma |
Roma |
Rome |
| サンフランシスコ |
sanfuranshisuko |
San Francisco |
San Francisco |
| シアトル |
shiatoru |
Seattle |
Seattle |
| シドニー |
shidonī |
Sydney |
Sydney |
| トロント |
toronto |
Toronto |
Toronto |
| ワシントン |
washinton |
Washington |
Washington |
Further Information
Get more info on 'Katakana'.
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External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://katakana.totallyexplained.com">Katakana Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
