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Katakana
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T. Ape View Drop Down
Janissary
Janissary
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Joined: 21-Mar-2007
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Posts: 27 		  Quote T. Ape Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Topic: Katakana
    Posted: 25-Mar-2007 at 22:52

 For those of you who know Japanese, you will be familiar with Katakana. It is one of the three lettering systems that the Japanese use in their writings. Specifically, Katakana is used to spell out any foreign words. These can range from foreign names, like John or Charles, or any foreign words that has been incorporated into the language, such as computer or hotdog.

(Interestingly, Korean and Chinese words are not written in Katakana.)

 

I was wondering if anybody knew how this alphabet came about, or any of the other history behind it.

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Cywr View Drop Down
King
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Posts: 6003 		  Quote Cywr Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03-Apr-2007 at 12:03
Hmm, modern loans from Chinese languages/dialects are often written in Katakana AFAIK. Its the classical Chinese influence that gets the Kanji treatment.
There are exceptions from other languages too, with some foodstuff names adopted and written in kanji.

Its also apparently used in the way that italics are used in Latin script (or Romaji, to keep with the spirit of the thread).
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jayeshks View Drop Down
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Posts: 281 		  Quote jayeshks Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19-Apr-2007 at 17:03
I think katakana is also used for interjections and for emphasis (like Cywr mentioned) and also apparently for swear words.  An interesting thing I found out in the East Asia section was that surnames of foreign nationals, even those from China etc., are always written in katakana even though the appropriate kanji is available, to distinguish 'outsiders'. 

IIRC katakana means 'side script' (and hiragana 'women's script') and came about because of the difficult fit between the Japanese language and Chinese characters.  Initial kanji use sometimes devolved into the use of two characters for each word.  The 'root' kanji would be the same as the Chinese and would indicate the meaning and then a 'side' kanji diacritic or symbol would be used to indicate pronunciation and case.  Eventually the all the 'side' symbols and radicals were simplified and codified as katakana.


Edited by jayeshks - 19-Apr-2007 at 17:04
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