Examples
Loan Words
Ice Cream アイスクリーム
Bus バス
Pizza ぴざ->ピザ
Premium butter croissant
プレミアムバタークロワッサン
Interesting example : Ramen ラㅡメン
Even though Ramen is Japanese term, the origin of "Ramen” is derived from Chinese.
拉 (Pull) 麺 (Flour)
hii (ヒー), meaning "sigh" (onomatopoeia)
Emphasizing expression
すごいですね。-> スゴイですね。(O)
The Japanese language is generally written with three different types of characters : Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana. In modern Japanese, Romaji (The Latin Alphabet) is also used for company names and logos, advertising, and when inputting Japanese into a computer.
Generally Katakana is used for loan words, onomatopoeia, (letters used to represent sounds),and emphasis.
Using Katakana is to classify loan words.
(ex: Ice Cream, bus, RAMEN)
Interestingly, when I asked some Japanese friends, they couldn’t answer specifically, but just knew when it’s used. I personally think that this is because it's mutual understanding in Japan.
A few days ago, The Japan Golf Association announced that from this year, they will use Katakana for Korean golfer's names. Usually Korean athletes’ names were used to be written in Kanji, but many people made complaints about pronunciation of the names.
Compared to Katakana, Hiragana has a lot of strokes(more used for handwriting), and Kanji is more complicated to read.
Because of this reason, Katakana is more easily recognized than Hiragana and Kanji in Japan: maybe this is also why signs or company names (for emphasis) are usually written in Katakana.
Dear Sophy.
ReplyDeleteIt is very interesting to know that now the Korean golfers' names are transcribed in the カタカナ letters. But do you think カタカナ is only used for entities that are brought into the Japanese culture? Sometimes Japanese terms such as ごみ-ゴミ 'trash', and おやじ-オヤジ 'old man' are written in カタカナ too. What kind of mentality do you think is put behind the use of カタカナ in these cases? What are some other functions or connotations that the use the カタカナ letters carries?
TA
I think that your example about the Korean golfers' names is very interesting. I find it interesting that カタカナ will make their names easier to pronounce.
ReplyDeleteGOLF! I personally enjoy golf and I did not know that the Korean golfers' names would be written in カタカナ instead of kanji!
ReplyDeleteI honestly do believe it would be easier to pronounce because all the different characters have different sounds so it would be more distinct and clear.
I find it very interesting how Japanese incorporates katakana into their tv shows or game shows, not just in subtitles. It's so common to see スゴイ! pop up out of nowhere. Can you imagine how annoying American tv shows will be if it emphasized "LOL" or "WOW!" every time something happens?
ReplyDeleteマーギ
Hi, I'm from Nazikian-sensei's 4th year class. You're right on with カタカナ's role in emphasis. カタカナ is seen as a rougher and generally more masculine script (ひらがな was actually first developed by women of the imperial court, while men were still writing in all 漢字 (ack!)), so people use it to express strong emotions.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that カタカナ is more rough-hewn perhaps explains why it is used for foreign loan words or names. Because they represent unfamiliar sounds, they can seem rougher and more jarring to Japanese listeners. Unfortunately, sometimes anything a foreigner says in Japanese will be represented by カタカナ. For instance, when an American baseball coach's team won a Japanese championship he shouted out "I can't believe it!" (信じられない！) in perfect Japanese, but the newspapers quoted him as saying ”シンジラレナイ！” Many foreigners in Japan feel insulted when people "dumb down" their Japanese by quoting it all in カタカナ. See: Mr. James
http://www.japanprobe.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/nippongo.jpg