Katakana
Encyclopedia
is a Japanese
syllabary
, one component of the Japanese writing system
along with hiragana
, kanji
, and in some cases the Latin alphabet
(rōmaji). The word katakana means "fragmentary kana
", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora
. Each kana is either a vowel such as "a" (ア); a consonant followed by a vowel such as "ka" (カ); or "n" (ン), a nasal
sonorant
which, depending on the context, sounds either like English m, n, or ng (ŋ), or like the nasal vowel
s of French
.
Unlike the hiragana
syllabary which is used for Japanese language words and grammatical inflections which kanji
does not cover, the katakana syllabary is primarily used for transcription
of foreign language words into Japanese and the writing of loan words (collectively gairaigo
), as well as to represent onomatopoeia, technical and scientific terms, and the names of plants, animals, and minerals. Names of Japanese companies as well as certain Japanese language words are also written in katakana rather than the other systems.
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.
These basic characters can be modified in various ways. By adding a dakuten
marker ( ゛), a voiceless consonant is turned into a voiced consonant: k→g, s→z, t→d, and h→b. Katakana beginning with an h can also add a handakuten marker ( ゜) changing the h to a p.
A small version of the katakana for ya, yu or yo (ャ, ュ, or ョ respectively) may be added to katakana ending in i. This changes the i vowel sound to a glide (palatalization
) to a, u or o. Addition of the small y kana is called yōon
. ヲ wo, whose hiragana
form を is used as a particle
, is rarely used in katakana, is also included (although pronounced the same as vowel オ o, [o]).
A small tsu ッ, called a sokuon
, indicates that the following consonant is geminated (doubled). For example, compare サカ saka "hill" with サッカ sakka "author". It also sometimes appears at the end of utterances, where it denotes a glottal stop
. However, it cannot be used to double the na, ni, nu, ne, no syllables' consonants – to double them, the singular n (ン) is added in front of the syllable.
To signify long vowels, the chōonpu
(long vowel mark) (ー) is used. For example, メール mēru is the gairaigo for e-mail
taken from the English word "mail"; the ー lengthens the e. Small versions of the five vowel kana are sometimes used to represent trailing off sounds (ハァ haa, ネェ nee), but in Katakana they are more often used in yōon-like digraphs which allow for phoneme
s not present in Japanese; examples include チェンジ chenji ("change") and ウィキペディア Wikipedia
. Standard and voiced iteration marks are written in katakana as ヽ and ヾ respectively.
of words from foreign languages except Chinese (called gairaigo
). For example, "television" is written . Similarly, katakana is usually used for country names, foreign places, and foreign personal names. For example, the United States is usually referred to as Amerika, rather than in its ateji
kanji
spelling of Amerika.
Katakana are also used for onomatopoeia, words used to represent sounds – for example, , the "ding-dong" sound of a doorbell.
Technical and scientific terms, such as the names of animal and plant species
and minerals, are also commonly written in katakana. , as a species, is written , 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., billboard
s). For example, it is common to see koko ("here"), gomi ("trash"), or megane ("glasses"). Words the writer wishes to emphasize 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 or hiragana for output.
Although words borrowed from ancient Chinese
are usually written in kanji, loanwords from modern Chinese dialects which are borrowed directly use katakana rather than the Sino-Japanese on'yomi readings. Examples include:
The very common Chinese loanword rāmen
, written in katakana as in Japanese, is rarely written with its kanji .
There are rare instances where the opposite has occurred, with kanji forms created from words originally written in katakana. An example of this is kōhī, ("coffee
"), which can be alternatively written as . This kanji usage is occasionally employed by coffee manufacturers or coffee shops for novelty.
Katakana are used to indicate the on'yomi (Chinese-derived readings) of a kanji in a kanji dictionary. For instance, the kanji 人 has a Japanese pronunciation, written in hiragana as hito (person), as well as a Chinese derived pronunciation, written in katakana as jin (used to denote groups of people). 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 konnichiwa ("hello") instead of the more typical hiragana . 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 hifuka ("dermatology
"), the second kanji, , is considered difficult to read, and thus the word hifuka is commonly written or , mixing kanji and katakana. Similarly, the difficult-to-read kanji such as 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.
"). When it is assumed that the reader knows the separate gairaigo
words in the phrase, the middle dot is omitted. For example, the phrase konpyūtā 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 usually 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 or .
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 (Bahha); Mach as (Mahha).
Foreign sounds can be difficult to express in Japanese, resulting in spellings such as Furushichofu (Khrushchev
), Arī Hāmeneī (Ali Khamenei
) and Itsuhaku Pāruman or Itsāku Pāruman (Itzhak Perlman
).
and IPA
transcription. Katakana with dakuten
or handakuten follow the gojūon
kana without them. Characters in gray are obsolete and rarely used now. Modern additions are used mainly to represent sounds from other languages. shi シ and tsu ツ, and 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
.)
In the extended katakana table, orange shading indicates general kana combinations used for loanwords or foreign place names or personal names, and blue shading indicates combinations used for more accurate transliteration of foreign sounds, both set forth by the Japanese government
's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Beige shading indicates suggestions by the American National Standards Institute
and the British Standards Institution as possible uses. The purple shading indicates the combinations that appear on the 1974 version of the Hyōjun-shiki formatting.
A possible archaic variant of e/we e can be found in Unicode's Kana Supplement as 𛀀.
by Buddhist monks 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.
Recent findings by Yoshinori Kobayashi
, professor of Japanese at Tokushima Bunri University
suggest the possibility that the kana system may have been originated in the eighth century on the Korean Peninsula and introduced to Japan through Buddhist texts. However this hypothesis is questioned by other scholars.
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 was the approach taken by the influential American linguistics scholar Eleanor Harz Jorden in Japanese: The Written Language (parallel to Japanese: The Spoken Language
).
and direction respectively.
), many fonts intended for Chinese (such as MS Song) and Korean (such as Batang) also include katakana.
encoding, though their display form is not specified in the standard. Their display forms were designed to fit into the same rectangle of pixels as Roman letters to enable easy implementation on the computer equipment of the day. This space is narrower than the square space traditionally occupied by Japanese characters, hence the name "half-width". In this scheme, diacritics (dakuten
and handakuten) are separate characters. When originally devised, the half-width katakana were represented by a single byte each, as in JIS X 0201, again in line with the capabilities of contemporary computer technology.
In the late 1970s, two-byte character sets such as JIS X 0208
were introduced to support the full range of Japanese characters, including katakana, hiragana and kanji. Their display forms were designed to fit into an approximately square array of pixels, hence the name "full-width". For backwards compatibility, separate support for half-width katakana has continued to be available in modern multi-byte encoding schemes such as Unicode, by having two separate blocks of characters – one displayed as usual (full-width) katakana, the other displayed as half-width katakana.
Although often said to be obsolete, in fact the half-width katakana are still used in many systems and encodings. For example, the titles of mini discs can only be entered in ASCII or half-width katakana, and half-width katakana are 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 half-width katakana code as well as full-width. By contrast, ISO-2022-JP
has no half-width katakana, and is mainly used over SMTP and NNTP.
Standard in October, 1991 with the release of version 1.0.
The Unicode block for (full-width) katakana is U+30A0 ... U+30FF.
Encoded in this block along with the katakana are the nakaguro word separation middle dot, the chōon vowel extender, the katakana iteration mark
s, and a ligature of コト
sometimes used in vertical writing.
Half-width equivalents to the usual full-width katakana also exist in Unicode. These are encoded within the Halfwidth and Fullwidth forms
block (U+FF00–U+FFEF) (which also includes full-width forms of Latin characters, for instance), starting at U+FF65 and ending at U+FF9F (characters U+FF61–U+FF64 are half-width punctuation marks). This block also includes the half-width dakuten and handakuten. The full-width versions of these characters are found in the Hiragana block.
Circled katakana are code points U+32D0 to U+32FE in the Enclosed CJK Letters and Months block (U+3200 - U+32FF). A circled ン (n) is not included.
Extensions to Katakana for phonetic transcription of Ainu and other languages were added to the Unicode
Standard in March, 2002 with the release of version 3.2.
The Unicode block for Katakana Phonetic Extensions is U+31F0 ... U+31FF:
Historic and variant forms of Japanese kana characters were added to the Unicode
Standard in October, 2010 with the release of version 6.0.
The Unicode block for Kana Supplement is U+1B000 ... U+1B0FF. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points:
by Japanese linguists. 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.
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 under Japanese control
. It functioned as a phonetic guide for Chinese characters, 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.
, unlike the various other systems to represent Okinawan, which use hiragana with extensions. The system was devised by the Okinawa Center of Language Study of the University of the Ryukyus
. It uses many extensions and yōon to show the many non-Japanese sounds of Okinawan.
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
syllabary
Syllabary
A syllabary is a set of written symbols that represent syllables, which make up words. In a syllabary, there is no systematic similarity between the symbols which represent syllables with the same consonant or vowel...
, one component of the Japanese writing system
Japanese writing system
The modern Japanese writing system uses three main scripts:*Kanji, adopted Chinese characters*Kana, a pair of syllabaries , consisting of:...
along with hiragana
Hiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
, kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
, and in some cases the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
(rōmaji). The word katakana means "fragmentary kana
Kana
Kana are the syllabic Japanese scripts, as opposed to the logographic Chinese characters known in Japan as kanji and the Roman alphabet known as rōmaji...
", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora
Mora (linguistics)
Mora is a unit in phonology that determines syllable weight, which in some languages determines stress or timing. As with many technical linguistic terms, the definition of a mora varies. Perhaps the most succinct working definition was provided by the American linguist James D...
. Each kana is either a vowel such as "a" (ア); a consonant followed by a vowel such as "ka" (カ); or "n" (ン), a nasal
Nasal consonant
A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :...
sonorant
Sonorant
In phonetics and phonology, a sonorant is a speech sound that is produced without turbulent airflow in the vocal tract; fricatives and plosives are not sonorants. Vowels are sonorants, as are consonants like and . Other consonants, like or , restrict the airflow enough to cause turbulence, and...
which, depending on the context, sounds either like English m, n, or ng (ŋ), or like the nasal vowel
Nasal vowel
A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the velum so that air escapes both through nose as well as the mouth. By contrast, oral vowels are ordinary vowels without this nasalisation...
s of French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
.
Unlike the hiragana
Hiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
syllabary which is used for Japanese language words and grammatical inflections which kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
does not cover, the katakana syllabary is primarily used for transcription
Transcription (linguistics)
Transcription in the linguistic sense is the systematic representation of language in written form. The source can either be utterances or preexisting text in another writing system, although some linguists only consider the former as transcription.Transcription should not be confused with...
of foreign language words into Japanese and the writing of loan words (collectively gairaigo
Gairaigo
Gairaigo is Japanese for "loan word" or "borrowed word", and indicates a transliteration into Japanese. In particular, the word usually refers to a Japanese word of foreign origin that was not borrowed from Chinese, primarily from English. Japanese also has a large number of loan words from...
), as well as to represent onomatopoeia, technical and scientific terms, and the names of plants, animals, and minerals. Names of Japanese companies as well as certain Japanese language words are also written in katakana rather than the other systems.
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
Iroha
The is a Japanese poem, probably written in the Heian era . Originally the poem was attributed to the founder of the Shingon Esoteric sect of Buddhism in Japan, Kūkai, but more modern research has found the date of composition to be later in the Heian Period. The first record of its existence...
ordering, and the more prevalent gojūon
Gojuon
The is a Japanese ordering of kana.It is named for the 5×10 grid in which the characters are displayed, but the grid is not completely filled, and, further, there is an extra character added outside the grid at the end: with 5 gaps and 1 extra character, the current number of distinct kana in a...
ordering.
Writing system
The complete katakana syllabary consists of 48 characters:- 39 distinct consonant-vowel unions
- 5 singular vowels
- 1 singular consonant
- 1 particle that is pronounced as a vowel in modern Japanese
- 2 consonant-vowel unions that are pronounced as vowels in modern Japanese and are therefore obsolete
- 3 other consonant-vowel unions never became widespread and are not present at all in modern Japanese
These basic characters can be modified in various ways. By adding a dakuten
Dakuten
, colloquially ten-ten , is a diacritic sign most often used in the Japanese kana syllabaries to indicate that the consonant of a syllable should be pronounced voiced. Handakuten , colloquially maru , is a diacritic used with the kana for syllables starting with h to indicate that they should...
marker ( ゛), a voiceless consonant is turned into a voiced consonant: k→g, s→z, t→d, and h→b. Katakana beginning with an h can also add a handakuten marker ( ゜) changing the h to a p.
A small version of the katakana for ya, yu or yo (ャ, ュ, or ョ respectively) may be added to katakana ending in i. This changes the i vowel sound to a glide (palatalization
Palatalization
In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
) to a, u or o. Addition of the small y kana is called yōon
Yoon
is a feature of the Japanese language in which a mora is formed with an added sound.Yōon are represented in hiragana using a kana ending in i, such as き , plus a smaller-than-usual version of one of the three y kana, ya, yu or yo. For example kyō, "today", is written きょう, using a small version of...
. ヲ wo, whose hiragana
Hiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
form を is used as a particle
Japanese particles
Japanese particles, or , are suffixes or short words in Japanese grammar that immediately follow the modified noun, verb, adjective, or sentence. Their grammatical range can indicate various meanings and functions, such as speaker affect and assertiveness....
, is rarely used in katakana, is also included (although pronounced the same as vowel オ o, [o]).
A small tsu ッ, called a sokuon
Sokuon
The is a Japanese symbol consisting of a small hiragana or katakana tsu. In less formal language it is called or , meaning "little tsu". Compare to a full-sized tsu:The sokuon is used for various purposes...
, indicates that the following consonant is geminated (doubled). For example, compare サカ saka "hill" with サッカ sakka "author". It also sometimes appears at the end of utterances, where it denotes a glottal stop
Glottal stop
The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...
. However, it cannot be used to double the na, ni, nu, ne, no syllables' consonants – to double them, the singular n (ン) is added in front of the syllable.
To signify long vowels, the chōonpu
Chōonpu
The , also known as ', ', or Katakana-Hiragana Prolonged Sound Mark by the Unicode Consortium, is a Japanese symbol which indicates a chōon, or a long vowel of two morae in length. Its form is a horizontal or vertical line in the center of the text with the width of one kanji or kana character...
(long vowel mark) (ー) is used. For example, メール mēru is the gairaigo for e-mail
E-mail
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
taken from the English word "mail"; the ー lengthens the e. Small versions of the five vowel kana are sometimes used to represent trailing off sounds (ハァ haa, ネェ nee), but in Katakana they are more often used in yōon-like digraphs which allow for phoneme
Phoneme
In a language or dialect, a phoneme is the smallest segmental unit of sound employed to form meaningful contrasts between utterances....
s not present in Japanese; examples include チェンジ chenji ("change") and ウィキペディア Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
. Standard and voiced iteration marks are written in katakana as ヽ and ヾ respectively.
Usage
In modern Japanese, katakana is most often used for transcriptionTranscription (linguistics)
Transcription in the linguistic sense is the systematic representation of language in written form. The source can either be utterances or preexisting text in another writing system, although some linguists only consider the former as transcription.Transcription should not be confused with...
of words from foreign languages except Chinese (called gairaigo
Gairaigo
Gairaigo is Japanese for "loan word" or "borrowed word", and indicates a transliteration into Japanese. In particular, the word usually refers to a Japanese word of foreign origin that was not borrowed from Chinese, primarily from English. Japanese also has a large number of loan words from...
). For example, "television" is written . Similarly, katakana is usually used for country names, foreign places, and foreign personal names. For example, the United States is usually referred to as Amerika, rather than in its ateji
Ateji
In modern Japanese, primarily refers to kanji used phonetically to represent native or borrowed words, without regard to the meaning of the underlying characters. This is analogous to man'yōgana in pre-modern Japanese...
kanji
Kanji
Kanji are the adopted logographic Chinese characters hanzi that are used in the modern Japanese writing system along with hiragana , katakana , Indo Arabic numerals, and the occasional use of the Latin alphabet...
spelling of Amerika.
Katakana are also used for onomatopoeia, words used to represent sounds – for example, , the "ding-dong" sound of a doorbell.
Technical and scientific terms, such as the names of animal and plant species
Species
In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are...
and minerals, are also commonly written in katakana. , as a species, is written , rather than its kanji .
Katakana are also often, but not always, used for transcription of Japanese company names. For example Suzuki
Suzuki
is a Japanese multinational corporation headquartered in Hamamatsu, Japan that specializes in manufacturing compact automobiles and 4x4 vehicles, a full range of motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles , outboard marine engines, wheelchairs and a variety of other small internal combustion engines...
is written スズキ, and Toyota is written トヨタ. Katakana are also used for emphasis
Emphasis (typography)
In typography, emphasis is the exaggeration of words in a text with a font in a different style from the rest of the text—to emphasize them.- Methods and use :...
, especially on signs, advertisements, and hoardings (i.e., billboard
Billboard (advertising)
A billboard is a large outdoor advertising structure , typically found in high traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertisements to passing pedestrians and drivers...
s). For example, it is common to see koko ("here"), gomi ("trash"), or megane ("glasses"). Words the writer wishes to emphasize in a sentence are also sometimes written in katakana, mirroring the European usage of italics.
Pre-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
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
Okurigana
are kana suffixes following kanji stems in Japanese written words. They serve two purposes: to inflect adjectives and verbs, and to disambiguate kanji with multiple readings...
and particles
Japanese particles
Japanese particles, or , are suffixes or short words in Japanese grammar that immediately follow the modified noun, verb, adjective, or sentence. Their grammatical range can indicate various meanings and functions, such as speaker affect and assertiveness....
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 or hiragana for output.
Although words borrowed from ancient Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
are usually written in kanji, loanwords from modern Chinese dialects which are borrowed directly use katakana rather than the Sino-Japanese on'yomi readings. Examples include:
| Japanese | Rōmaji | Meaning | Kanji | Romanization | Source language |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| マージャン | mājan | mahjong Mahjong Mahjong, sometimes spelled Mah Jongg, is a game that originated in China, commonly played by four players... |
麻將 | májiàng | Mandarin |
| ウーロン茶 | ūroncha | Oolong Oolong Oolong is a traditional Chinese tea produced through a unique process including withering under the strong sun and oxidation before curling and twisting. Most oolong teas, especially those of fine quality, involve unique tea plant cultivars that are exclusively used for particular varieties... tea |
烏龍茶 | wūlóngchá | |
| チャーハン | chāhan | fried rice Fried rice Fried rice is a popular component of Asian cuisine, especially Chinese food. It is made from steamed rice stir-fried in a wok, often with other ingredients such as eggs, vegetables, and meat. It is sometimes served as the penultimate dish in Chinese banquets... |
炒飯 | chǎofàn | |
| チャーシュー | chāshū | barbecued pork | 叉焼 | cha siu Char siu Char siu , otherwise known as barbecued meat in China or Chinese-flavored barbecued meat outside China, is a popular way to flavor and prepare pork in Cantonese cuisine. It is classified as a type of siu mei, Cantonese roasted meat... |
Cantonese |
| シューマイ | shūmai | a form of dim sum Dim sum Dim sum refers to a style of Chinese food prepared as small bite-sized or individual portions of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates... |
焼売 | siu maai |
The very common Chinese loanword rāmen
Ramen
is a Japanese noodle dish. It consists of Chinese-style wheat noodles served in a meat- or fish-based broth, often flavored with soy sauce or miso, and uses toppings such as , , kamaboko, green onions, and occasionally corn...
, written in katakana as in Japanese, is rarely written with its kanji .
There are rare instances where the opposite has occurred, with kanji forms created from words originally written in katakana. An example of this is kōhī, ("coffee
Coffee
Coffee is a brewed beverage with a dark,init brooo acidic flavor prepared from the roasted seeds of the coffee plant, colloquially called coffee beans. The beans are found in coffee cherries, which grow on trees cultivated in over 70 countries, primarily in equatorial Latin America, Southeast Asia,...
"), which can be alternatively written as . This kanji usage is occasionally employed by coffee manufacturers or coffee shops for novelty.
Katakana are used to indicate the on'yomi (Chinese-derived readings) of a kanji in a kanji dictionary. For instance, the kanji 人 has a Japanese pronunciation, written in hiragana as hito (person), as well as a Chinese derived pronunciation, written in katakana as jin (used to denote groups of people). Katakana are sometimes used instead of hiragana
Hiragana
is a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
as furigana
Furigana
is a Japanese reading aid, consisting of smaller kana, or syllabic characters, printed next to a kanji or other character to indicate its pronunciation. In horizontal text, yokogaki, they are placed above the line of text, while in vertical text, tategaki, they are placed to the right of the line...
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
Manga
Manga is the Japanese word for "comics" and consists of comics and print cartoons . In the West, the term "manga" has been appropriated to refer specifically to comics created in Japan, or by Japanese authors, in the Japanese language and conforming to the style developed in Japan in the late 19th...
, the speech of a foreign character or a robot may be represented by konnichiwa ("hello") instead of the more typical hiragana . 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
Medical terminology
Medical terminology is a vocabulary for accurately describing the human body and associated components, conditions, processes and process in a science-based manner. Some examples are: R.I.C.E., trapezius, and latissimus dorsi. It is to be used in the medical and nursing fields...
. For example, in the word hifuka ("dermatology
Dermatology
Dermatology is the branch of medicine dealing with the skin and its diseases, a unique specialty with both medical and surgical aspects. A dermatologist takes care of diseases, in the widest sense, and some cosmetic problems of the skin, scalp, hair, and nails....
"), the second kanji, , is considered difficult to read, and thus the word hifuka is commonly written or , mixing kanji and katakana. Similarly, the difficult-to-read kanji such as gan ("cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
") are often written in katakana or hiragana.
Katakana is also used for traditional musical notations, as in the Tozan-ryū
Ryu (school)
A Ryū , or ryūha , is a Japanese word referring to a school of thought in any discipline...
of shakuhachi
Shakuhachi
The is a Japanese end-blown flute. It is traditionally made of bamboo, but versions now exist in ABS and hardwoods. It was used by the monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism in the practice of...
, and in sankyoku
Sankyoku
Sankyoku is a form of Japanese chamber music played on the koto, shamisen, and shakuhachi, often with a vocal accompaniment .-See also:*Music of Japan*Koto *Shakuhachi*Shamisen*Kokyu...
ensembles with koto
Koto (musical instrument)
The koto is a traditional Japanese stringed musical instrument, similar to the Chinese guzheng, the Mongolian yatga, the Korean gayageum and the Vietnamese đàn tranh. The koto is the national instrument of Japan. Koto are about length, and made from kiri wood...
, shamisen
Shamisen
The , also called is a three-stringed, Japanese musical instrument played with a plectrum called a bachi. The Japanese pronunciation is usually "shamisen" but sometimes "jamisen" when used as a suffix . -Construction:The shamisen is a plucked stringed instrument...
, and shakuhachi.
Orthography
Foreign phrases and names are sometimes transliterated with a space separating the words, called a ; for example, ("Bill GatesBill Gates
William Henry "Bill" Gates III is an American business magnate, investor, philanthropist, and author. Gates is the former CEO and current chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen...
"). When it is assumed that the reader knows the separate gairaigo
Gairaigo
Gairaigo is Japanese for "loan word" or "borrowed word", and indicates a transliteration into Japanese. In particular, the word usually refers to a Japanese word of foreign origin that was not borrowed from Chinese, primarily from English. Japanese also has a large number of loan words from...
words in the phrase, the middle dot is omitted. For example, the phrase konpyūtā 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 usually spells long vowels with the addition of a second vowel kana, katakana usually uses a vowel extender mark called a chōon
Choon
The , also known as ', ', or Katakana-Hiragana Prolonged Sound Mark by the Unicode Consortium, is a Japanese symbol which indicates a chōon, or a long vowel of two morae in length. Its form is a horizontal or vertical line in the center of the text with the width of one kanji or kana character...
. 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 or .
A small tsu (ッ) called a sokuon
Sokuon
The is a Japanese symbol consisting of a small hiragana or katakana tsu. In less formal language it is called or , meaning "little tsu". Compare to a full-sized tsu:The sokuon is used for various purposes...
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 (Bahha); Mach as (Mahha).
Foreign sounds can be difficult to express in Japanese, resulting in spellings such as Furushichofu (Khrushchev
Nikita Khrushchev
Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev led the Soviet Union during part of the Cold War. He served as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, and as Chairman of the Council of Ministers, or Premier, from 1958 to 1964...
), Arī Hāmeneī (Ali Khamenei
Ali Khamenei
Ayatollah Seyed Ali Hoseyni Khāmene’i is the Supreme Leader of Iran and the figurative head of the Muslim conservative establishment in Iran and Twelver Shi'a marja...
) and Itsuhaku Pāruman or Itsāku Pāruman (Itzhak Perlman
Itzhak Perlman
Itzhak Perlman is an Israeli-born violinist, conductor, and instructor of master classes. He is regarded as one of the pre-eminent violinists of the 20th and early-21st centuries.-Early life:...
).
Table of katakana
This is a table of katakana together with their Hepburn romanizationHepburn romanization
The is named after James Curtis Hepburn, who used it to transcribe the sounds of the Japanese language into the Latin alphabet in the third edition of his Japanese–English dictionary, published in 1887. The system was originally proposed by the in 1885...
and IPA
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
transcription. Katakana with dakuten
Dakuten
, colloquially ten-ten , is a diacritic sign most often used in the Japanese kana syllabaries to indicate that the consonant of a syllable should be pronounced voiced. Handakuten , colloquially maru , is a diacritic used with the kana for syllables starting with h to indicate that they should...
or handakuten follow the gojūon
Gojuon
The is a Japanese ordering of kana.It is named for the 5×10 grid in which the characters are displayed, but the grid is not completely filled, and, further, there is an extra character added outside the grid at the end: with 5 gaps and 1 extra character, the current number of distinct kana in a...
kana without them. Characters in gray are obsolete and rarely used now. Modern additions are used mainly to represent sounds from other languages. shi シ and tsu ツ, and 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
Ink brush
Ink brushes are used in Chinese calligraphy. They are also used in Chinese painting and descendant brush painting styles. The ink brush was invented in China, believed to be around 300BCE...
.)
In the extended katakana table, orange shading indicates general kana combinations used for loanwords or foreign place names or personal names, and blue shading indicates combinations used for more accurate transliteration of foreign sounds, both set forth by the Japanese government
Government of Japan
The government of Japan is a constitutional monarchy where the power of the Emperor is very limited. As a ceremonial figurehead, he is defined by the 1947 constitution as "the symbol of the state and of the unity of the people". Power is held chiefly by the Prime Minister of Japan and other elected...
's Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Beige shading indicates suggestions by the American National Standards Institute
American National Standards Institute
The American National Standards Institute is a private non-profit organization that oversees the development of voluntary consensus standards for products, services, processes, systems, and personnel in the United States. The organization also coordinates U.S. standards with international...
and the British Standards Institution as possible uses. The purple shading indicates the combinations that appear on the 1974 version of the Hyōjun-shiki formatting.
| Monographs (gojūon Gojuon The is a Japanese ordering of kana.It is named for the 5×10 grid in which the characters are displayed, but the grid is not completely filled, and, further, there is an extra character added outside the grid at the end: with 5 gaps and 1 extra character, the current number of distinct kana in a... ) |
Digraphs (yōon Yoon is a feature of the Japanese language in which a mora is formed with an added sound.Yōon are represented in hiragana using a kana ending in i, such as き , plus a smaller-than-usual version of one of the three y kana, ya, yu or yo. For example kyō, "today", is written きょう, using a small version of... ) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| a | i | u | e | o | ya | yu | yo | |
| ∅ | ア A (kana) あ in hiragana or ア in katakana is one of the Japanese kana that each represent one mora. あ is based on the sōsho style of kanji 安, and ア is from the radical of kanji 阿. In the modern Japanese system of alphabetical order, it occupies the first position of the alphabet, before い. Additionally, it... a a |
イ I (kana) い in hiragana or イ in katakana is one of the Japanese kana each of which represents one mora. い is based on the sōsho style of the kanji character 以, and イ is from the radical of the kanji character 伊. In the modern Japanese system of alphabetical order, it occupies the second position of the... i i |
ウ U (kana) う in hiragana or ウ in katakana is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. In the modern Japanese system of alphabetical order, they occupy the third place in the modern Gojūon system of collating kana. In the Iroha, they occupied the 24th position, between む and ゐ... u u͍ |
エ E (kana) In Japanese writing, the kana え and エ occupy the fourth place, between う and お, in the modern Gojūon system of collating kana. In the Iroha, they occupy the 34th, between こ and て. In the table at right , え lies in the first column and the fourth row... e e |
オ O (kana) In Japanese writing, the kana お and オ occupy the fifth place, between え and か, in the modern Gojūon system of collating kana. In the Iroha, they occupy the 27th, between の and く. In the table at right , お lies in the first column and the fifth row... o o |
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| K | カ Ka (kana) か, in hiragana, or カ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both represent . The shapes of these kana both originate from 加.... ka ka |
キ Ki (kana) き, in hiragana, キ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both represent and are derived from a simplification of the 幾 kanji... ki ki |
ク Ku (kana) く, in hiragana, or ク in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both represent , and their shapes come from the kanji 久.... ku ku͍ |
ケ Ke (kana) け, in hiragana, or ケ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both represent . The shape of these kana come from the kanji 計 and 介, respectively.... ke ke |
コ Ko (kana) こ, in hiragana, or コ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both represent . The shape of these kana comes from the kanji 己.... ko ko |
キャ kya kʲa |
キュ kyu kʲu͍ |
キョ kyo kʲo |
| S | サ Sa (kana) さ, in hiragana, or サ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both represent . The shapes of these kana originate from 左 and 散, respectively.... sa sa |
シ Shi (kana) し, in hiragana, or シ in katakana, and the variant form ㋛, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both represent the phoneme although for phonological reasons, the actual pronunciation is . The shapes of these kana have origins in the character 之... shi ɕi |
ス Su (kana) す, in hiragana, or ス in katakana is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Their shapes come from the kanji 寸 and 須, respectively. Both kana represent the sound )... su su͍ |
セ Se (kana) せ, in hiragana, or セ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both represent the sound , and when written with dakuten represent the sound [ze]... se se |
ソ So (kana) そ, in hiragana, or ソ, in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both represent .-Stroke order:-Alternative form:... so so |
シャ sha ɕa |
シュ shu ɕu͍ |
ショ sho ɕo |
| T | タ Ta (kana) た, in hiragana, or タ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both represent . た originates from the Chinese character 太, while タ originates from 多.-Stroke order:... ta ta |
チ Chi (kana) ち, in hiragana, or チ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both are phonemically although for phonological reasons, the actual pronunciation is .... chi t͡ɕi |
ツ Tsu (kana) つ, in hiragana, or ツ in katakana, and the variant form ㋡, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both are phonemically although for phonological reasons, the actual pronunciation is... tsu t͡su͍ |
テ Te (kana) て, in hiragana, or テ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both represent .-Stroke order:... te te |
ト To (kana) と, in hiragana, or ト in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both represent the sound , and when written with dakuten represent the sound... to to |
チャ cha t͡ɕa |
チュ chu t͡ɕu͍ |
チョ cho t͡ɕo |
| N | ナ Na (kana) な, in hiragana, or ナ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. The hiragana な is made in four strokes, the katakana ナ two. Both represent . な and ナ originate from the man'yōgana 奈. な is used as part of the okurigana for the plain negative forms of Japanese verbs, and... na na |
ニ Ni (kana) に, in hiragana, or ニ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. The hiragana is written in three strokes, while the katakana in two... ni nʲi |
ヌ Nu (kana) Nu, ぬ in hiragana, or ヌ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana each representing one mora. Both hiragana and katakana are made in two strokes and represent . They are both derived from the Chinese character 奴... nu nu͍ |
ネ Ne (kana) ね, in hiragana, or ネ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. The hiragana is made in two strokes, while the katakana is made in four... ne ne |
ノ No (kana) の, in hiragana, or ノ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. In the gojūon system of ordering of Japanese syllables, it occupies the 25th position, between ね and は . It occupies the 26th position in the iroha ordering... no no |
ニャ nya ɲa |
ニュ nyu ɲu͍ |
ニョ nyo ɲo |
| H | ハ Ha (kana) は, in hiragana, or ハ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represent one mora. Both represent ). They are also used as a grammatical particle and serve as the topic marker of the sentence... ha ha |
ヒ Hi (kana) ひ, in hiragana, or ヒ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both can be written in two strokes, sometimes one for hiragana, and both are phonemically although for phonological reasons, the actual pronunciation is... hi çi |
フ Fu (kana) ふ, in hiragana, or フ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. The hiragana is made in four strokes, while the katakana in one. It represents the phoneme , although for phonological reasons, the actual pronunciation is , which is why it is romanized fu in Hepburn... fu ɸu͍ |
ヘ He (kana) へ, in hiragana, or ヘ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which represents one mora. The two ways of writing this mora are almost identical. Each is written in one stroke and represents . In the Sakhalin dialect of the Ainu language, ヘ can be written as small ㇸ to represent a final h after an... he he |
ホ Ho (kana) ほ, in hiragana, or ホ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both are made in four strokes and both represent . In the Sakhalin dialect of the Ainu language, ホ can be written as small ㇹ to represent a final h sound after an o sound .-Stroke order:... ho ho |
ヒャ hya ça |
ヒュ hyu çu͍ |
ヒョ hyo ço |
| M | マ Ma (kana) ま, in hiragana, or マ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. The hiragana is made in three strokes, while the katakana in two... ma ma |
ミ Mi (kana) み, in hiragana, or ミ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. The hiragana is written in two strokes, while the katakana is made in three. Both represent .-Stroke order:... mi mi |
ム Mu (kana) む, in hiragana, or ム in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both hiragana and katakana are made with three strokes, they represent . The kanji 無, read "mu", represents "none", nothingness, or the state of oblivion upon death, if written alone.In the Ainu language,... mu mu͍ |
メ Me (kana) め, in hiragana, or メ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both versions are written in two strokes and represent .-Stroke order:... me me |
モ Mo (kana) も, in hiragana, or モ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both are made in three strokes and both represent .モー is sometimes used as the onomatopœia for cows.-Stroke order:... mo mo |
ミャ mya mʲa |
ミュ myu mʲu͍ |
ミョ myo mʲo |
| Y | ヤ Ya (kana) や, in hiragana, or ヤ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Hiragana is written in three strokes, while the katakana is written in two. Both represent... ya ja |
 (yi) |
ユ Yu (kana) ゆ, in hiragana, or ユ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both are written in two strokes and represent .... yu ju͍ |
 (ye) |
ヨ Yo (kana) よ, in hiragana, or ヨ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. The hiragana is made in two strokes, while the katakana in three. Both represent .... yo jo |
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| R | ラ Ra (kana) ら, in hiragana, or ラ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both versions are written with two strokes and have origins in the character 良; both characters represent In the Ainu language, Japanese linguists developed a small katakana ㇻ that is used to represent... ra ɽa |
リ Ri (kana) り, in hiragana, or リ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represent one mora. Both are written with two strokes and both represent the sound . Both originate from the character 利... ri ɽi |
ル Ru (kana) る, in hiragana, or ル in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represent one mora. The hiragana is written in one stroke; the katakana in two. Both represent the sound... ru ɽu͍ |
レ Re (kana) れ, in hiragana, or レ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. The hiragana is written in two strokes, while katakana in one. Both represent the sound... re ɽe |
ロ Ro (kana) ろ, in hiragana, or ロ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. The hiragana is written in one stroke, katakana in three. Both represent the sound and both have origins from the Chinese character 呂... ro ɽo |
リャ rya ɽʲa |
リュ ryu ɽʲu͍ |
リョ ryo ɽʲo |
| W | ワ Wa (kana) わ, in hiragana, or ワ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. It represents and has origins in the character 和. There is also a small ゎ/ヮ, that is used to write the morae /kwa/ and /gwa/ , which are obsolete in contemporary standard Japanese but still exist in the... wa wa |
[Wi (kana)|ヰ]] i/wi ʷi |
 (wu) |
[We (kana)|ヱ]] e/we ʷe |
ヲ Wo (kana) を, in hiragana, or ヲ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represent one mora.-Modern usage:In Japanese, this kana is used almost exclusively for a particle; therefore, the katakana form is fairly uncommon in everyday language — mostly used as a stand-in for its hiragana... o/wo ʷo |
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| * | ン N (kana) ん, in hiragana, or ン in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. ん is the only kana that does not end in a vowel sound . The kana for mu, む/ム, was originally used for the n sound as well, while ん was originally a hentaigana used for both n and mu... n n m ŋ before stop consonants; n ɴ ũ͍ ĩ elsewhere |
ッ Sokuon The is a Japanese symbol consisting of a small hiragana or katakana tsu. In less formal language it is called or , meaning "little tsu". Compare to a full-sized tsu:The sokuon is used for various purposes... (indicates a geminate consonant) |
ー Chōonpu The , also known as ', ', or Katakana-Hiragana Prolonged Sound Mark by the Unicode Consortium, is a Japanese symbol which indicates a chōon, or a long vowel of two morae in length. Its form is a horizontal or vertical line in the center of the text with the width of one kanji or kana character... (exemplifies a long vowel) |
ヽ (reduplicates and unvoices syllable) |
ヾ (reduplicates and voices syllable) |
|||
| Diacritics (gojūon Gojuon The is a Japanese ordering of kana.It is named for the 5×10 grid in which the characters are displayed, but the grid is not completely filled, and, further, there is an extra character added outside the grid at the end: with 5 gaps and 1 extra character, the current number of distinct kana in a... with (han)dakuten Dakuten , colloquially ten-ten , is a diacritic sign most often used in the Japanese kana syllabaries to indicate that the consonant of a syllable should be pronounced voiced. Handakuten , colloquially maru , is a diacritic used with the kana for syllables starting with h to indicate that they should... ) |
Digraphs with diacritics (yōon Yoon is a feature of the Japanese language in which a mora is formed with an added sound.Yōon are represented in hiragana using a kana ending in i, such as き , plus a smaller-than-usual version of one of the three y kana, ya, yu or yo. For example kyō, "today", is written きょう, using a small version of... with (han)dakuten Dakuten , colloquially ten-ten , is a diacritic sign most often used in the Japanese kana syllabaries to indicate that the consonant of a syllable should be pronounced voiced. Handakuten , colloquially maru , is a diacritic used with the kana for syllables starting with h to indicate that they should... ) |
|||||||
| a | i | u | e | o | ya | yu | yo | |
| G | ガ ga ɡa |
ギ gi ɡi |
グ gu ɡu͍ |
ゲ ge ɡe |
ゴ go ɡo |
ギャ gya ɡʲa |
ギュ gyu ɡʲu͍ |
ギョ gyo ɡʲo |
| Z | ザ za za |
ジ ji d͡ʑi |
ズ zu zu͍ |
ゼ ze ze |
ゾ zo zo |
ジャ ja d͡ʑa |
ジュ ju d͡ʑu͍ |
ジョ jo d͡ʑo |
| D | ダ da da |
big style="color:#808080">ヂ ji d͡ʑi |
big style="color:#808080">ヅ zu zu͍ |
デ de de |
ド do do |
ヂャ ja d͡ʑa |
ヂュ ju d͡ʑu͍ |
ヂョ jo d͡ʑo |
| B | バ ba ba |
ビ bi bi |
ブ bu bu͍ |
ベ be be |
ボ bo bo |
ビャ bya bʲa |
ビュ byu bʲu͍ |
ビョ byo bʲo |
| P | パ pa pa |
ピ pi pi |
プ pu pu͍ |
ペ pe pe |
ポ po po |
ピャ pya pʲa |
ピュ pyu pʲu͍ |
ピョ pyo pʲo |
| Extended katakana | ||||||||
| a | i | u | e | o | ya | yu | yo | |
| Y | イィ yi ji |
イェ ye je |
||||||
| W | big style="color:#808080">ウァ wa wa |
ウィ wi wi |
ウゥ wu wu͍ |
ウェ we we |
ウォ wo wo |
ウュ wyu wʲu͍ |
||
| V | big style="color:#808080">(ヷ) ヴァ va va |
big style="color:#808080">(ヸ) ヴィ vi vi |
ヴ vu vu͍ |
big style="color:#808080">(ヹ) ヴェ ve ve |
big style="color:#808080">(ヺ) ヴォ vo vo |
ヴャ vya vʲa |
ヴュ vyu vʲu͍ |
ヴョ vyo vʲo |
| Vy | ヴィェ vye vʲe |
|||||||
| Ky | キェ kye kʲe |
|||||||
| Gy | ギェ gye ɡʲe |
|||||||
| Kw | big style="color:#808080">(クヮ) クァ kwa kʷa |
クィ kwi kʷi |
クェ kwe kʷe |
クォ kwo kʷo |
||||
| Gw | big style="color:#808080">(グヮ) グァ gwa ɡʷa |
グィ gwi ɡʷi |
グェ gwe ɡʷe |
グォ gwo ɡʷo |
||||
| Sh | シェ she ɕe |
|||||||
| J | ジェ je d͡ʑe |
|||||||
| S | スィ si si |
|||||||
| Z | ズィ zi zi |
|||||||
| Ch | チェ che t͡ɕe |
|||||||
| Ts | ツァ tsa t͡sa |
ツィ tsi t͡si |
ツェ tse t͡se |
ツォ tso t͡so |
ツュ tsyu t͡sʲu͍ |
|||
| T | ティ ti ti |
トゥ tu tu͍ |
テュ tyu tʲu͍ |
|||||
| D | ディ di di |
ドゥ du du͍ |
デュ dyu dʲu͍ |
|||||
| Ny | ニェ nye ɲe |
|||||||
| Hy | ヒェ hye çe |
|||||||
| By | ビェ bye bʲe |
|||||||
| Py | ピェ pye pʲe |
|||||||
| F | ファ fa ɸa |
フィ fi ɸi |
フェ fe ɸe |
フォ fo ɸo |
フャ fya ɸʲa |
フュ fyu ɸʲu͍ |
フョ fyo ɸʲo |
|
| Fy | フィェ fye ɸʲe |
|||||||
| H | ホゥ hu hu͍ |
|||||||
| My | ミェ mye mʲe |
|||||||
| Ry | リェ rye ɽʲe |
|||||||
| L | big style="color:#808080">ラ゜ la la |
big style="color:#808080">リ゜ li li |
big style="color:#808080">ル゜ lu lu͍ |
big style="color:#808080">レ゜ le le |
big style="color:#808080">ロ゜ lo lo |
|||
A possible archaic variant of e/we e can be found in Unicode's Kana Supplement as 𛀀.
History
Katakana was developed in the early Heian PeriodHeian period
The is the last division of classical Japanese history, running from 794 to 1185. The period is named after the capital city of Heian-kyō, or modern Kyōto. It is the period in Japanese history when Buddhism, Taoism and other Chinese influences were at their height...
by Buddhist monks 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
Chinese character
Chinese characters are logograms used in the writing of Chinese and Japanese , less frequently Korean , formerly Vietnamese , or other languages...
eventually became each corresponding symbol.
Recent findings by Yoshinori Kobayashi
Yoshinori Kobayashi
Yoshinori Kobayashi is a bestselling Japanese author and manga artist...
, professor of Japanese at Tokushima Bunri University
Tokushima Bunri University
is a private university in Tokushima, Japan.- History :In 1895, Sai Murasaki founded a private vocational school. In 1966, "Tokushima Women's University" was founded...
suggest the possibility that the kana system may have been originated in the eighth century on the Korean Peninsula and introduced to Japan through Buddhist texts. However this hypothesis is questioned by other scholars.
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 was the approach taken by the influential American linguistics scholar Eleanor Harz Jorden in Japanese: The Written Language (parallel to Japanese: The Spoken Language
Japanese: The Spoken Language
Japanese: The Spoken Language is an introductory textbook series for learning Japanese. JSL was written by Eleanor Harz Jorden in collaboration with Mari Noda. Part 1 was published in 1987 by Yale Language Press, Part 2 in 1988, and Part 3 in 1990...
).
Stroke order
The following table shows the method for writing each katakana character. It is arranged in the traditional way, beginning top right and reading columns down. The numbers and arrows indicate the stroke orderStroke order
Stroke order refers to the order in which the strokes of a Chinese character are written. A stroke is a movement of a writing instrument on a writing surface. Chinese characters are used in various forms in Chinese, Japanese, and in Korean...
and direction respectively.
Computer encoding
In addition to fonts intended for Japanese text and Unicode catch-all fonts (like Arial Unicode MSArial Unicode MS
In digital typography, the TrueType font Arial Unicode MS is an extended version of the font Arial. Compared to Arial, it includes higher line height, omits kerning pairs and adds enough glyphs to cover a large subset of Unicode 2.1—thus supporting most Microsoft code pages, but also requiring much...
), many fonts intended for Chinese (such as MS Song) and Korean (such as Batang) also include katakana.
Half-width kana
In addition to the usual display forms of characters, katakana has a second form, – there are no half-width hiragana or kanji. The half-width forms were originally associated with the JIS X 0201JIS X 0201
JIS X 0201, a Japanese Industrial Standard developed in 1969 , was the first Japanese character set to become widely used. It is either 7-bit encoding or 8-bit encoding, although 8-bit encoding is dominant for modern use...
encoding, though their display form is not specified in the standard. Their display forms were designed to fit into the same rectangle of pixels as Roman letters to enable easy implementation on the computer equipment of the day. This space is narrower than the square space traditionally occupied by Japanese characters, hence the name "half-width". In this scheme, diacritics (dakuten
Dakuten
, colloquially ten-ten , is a diacritic sign most often used in the Japanese kana syllabaries to indicate that the consonant of a syllable should be pronounced voiced. Handakuten , colloquially maru , is a diacritic used with the kana for syllables starting with h to indicate that they should...
and handakuten) are separate characters. When originally devised, the half-width katakana were represented by a single byte each, as in JIS X 0201, again in line with the capabilities of contemporary computer technology.
In the late 1970s, two-byte character sets such as JIS X 0208
JIS X 0208
JIS X 0208 is a 2-byte character set specified as a Japanese Industrial Standard, containing 6879 graphic characters suitable for writing text, place names, personal names, and so forth in the Japanese language. The official title of the current standard is...
were introduced to support the full range of Japanese characters, including katakana, hiragana and kanji. Their display forms were designed to fit into an approximately square array of pixels, hence the name "full-width". For backwards compatibility, separate support for half-width katakana has continued to be available in modern multi-byte encoding schemes such as Unicode, by having two separate blocks of characters – one displayed as usual (full-width) katakana, the other displayed as half-width katakana.
Although often said to be obsolete, in fact the half-width katakana are still used in many systems and encodings. For example, the titles of mini discs can only be entered in ASCII or half-width katakana, and half-width katakana are 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
Extended Unix Code
Extended Unix Code is a multibyte character encoding system used primarily for Japanese, Korean, and simplified Chinese.The structure of EUC is based on the ISO-2022 standard, which specifies a way to represent character sets containing a maximum of 94 characters, or 8836 characters, or 830584 ...
, Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
and Shift-JIS
Shift-JIS
Shift JIS is a character encoding for the Japanese language originally developed by a Japanese company called ASCII Corporation in conjunction with Microsoft and standardized as JIS X 0208 Appendix 1...
have half-width katakana code as well as full-width. By contrast, ISO-2022-JP
ISO/IEC 2022
ISO/IEC 2022 Information technology—Character code structure and extension techniques, is an ISO standard specifying...
has no half-width katakana, and is mainly used over SMTP and NNTP.
Unicode
Katakana was added to the UnicodeUnicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
Standard in October, 1991 with the release of version 1.0.
The Unicode block for (full-width) katakana is U+30A0 ... U+30FF.
Encoded in this block along with the katakana are the nakaguro word separation middle dot, the chōon vowel extender, the katakana iteration mark
Iteration mark
Iteration marks are characters or punctuation marks that represent a duplicated character or word.-Chinese:In Chinese, 二 or 々 is used in casual writing to represent a doubled character, but it is never used in formal writing or printed matter...
s, and a ligature of コト
Koto (kana)
, read as koto, is a typographic ligature in the Japanese language, consisting of a combination of the katakana graphs of and , and thus represents their combined sound, コト . It is drawn with one stroke. It is uncommon and used only in vertical writing....
sometimes used in vertical writing.
Half-width equivalents to the usual full-width katakana also exist in Unicode. These are encoded within the Halfwidth and Fullwidth forms
Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms
In CJK computing, graphic characters are traditionally classed into fullwidth and halfwidth characters...
block (U+FF00–U+FFEF) (which also includes full-width forms of Latin characters, for instance), starting at U+FF65 and ending at U+FF9F (characters U+FF61–U+FF64 are half-width punctuation marks). This block also includes the half-width dakuten and handakuten. The full-width versions of these characters are found in the Hiragana block.
| Segment of Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms Unicode.org chart (PDF) |
||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+FF6x | ｠ | ｡ | ｢ | ｣ | ､ | ･ | ｦ | ｧ | ｨ | ｩ | ｪ | ｫ | ｬ | ｭ | ｮ | ｯ |
| U+FF7x | ｰ | ｱ | ｲ | ｳ | ｴ | ｵ | ｶ | ｷ | ｸ | ｹ | ｺ | ｻ | ｼ | ｽ | ｾ | ｿ |
| U+FF8x | ﾀ | ﾁ | ﾂ | ﾃ | ﾄ | ﾅ | ﾆ | ﾇ | ﾈ | ﾉ | ﾊ | ﾋ | ﾌ | ﾍ | ﾎ | ﾏ |
| U+FF9x | ﾐ | ﾑ | ﾒ | ﾓ | ﾔ | ﾕ | ﾖ | ﾗ | ﾘ | ﾙ | ﾚ | ﾛ | ﾜ | ﾝ |ﾞ |ﾟ |
||
Circled katakana are code points U+32D0 to U+32FE in the Enclosed CJK Letters and Months block (U+3200 - U+32FF). A circled ン (n) is not included.
| Segment of Enclosed CJK Letters and Months Unicode.org chart (PDF) |
||||||||||||||||
| 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | |
| U+32Dx | ㋐ | ㋑ | ㋒ | ㋓ | ㋔ | ㋕ | ㋖ | ㋗ | ㋘ | ㋙ | ㋚ | ㋛ | ㋜ | ㋝ | ㋞ | ㋟ |
| U+32Ex | ㋠ | ㋡ | ㋢ | ㋣ | ㋤ | ㋥ | ㋦ | ㋧ | ㋨ | ㋩ | ㋪ | ㋫ | ㋬ | ㋭ | ㋮ | ㋯ |
| U+32Fx | ㋰ | ㋱ | ㋲ | ㋳ | ㋴ | ㋵ | ㋶ | ㋷ | ㋸ | ㋹ | ㋺ | ㋻ | ㋼ | ㋽ | ㋾ | |
Extensions to Katakana for phonetic transcription of Ainu and other languages were added to the Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
Standard in March, 2002 with the release of version 3.2.
The Unicode block for Katakana Phonetic Extensions is U+31F0 ... U+31FF:
Historic and variant forms of Japanese kana characters were added to the Unicode
Unicode
Unicode is a computing industry standard for the consistent encoding, representation and handling of text expressed in most of the world's writing systems...
Standard in October, 2010 with the release of version 6.0.
The Unicode block for Kana Supplement is U+1B000 ... U+1B0FF. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points:
Ainu
Katakana is commonly used to write the Ainu languageAinu language
Ainu is one of the Ainu languages, spoken by members of the Ainu ethnic group on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaidō....
by Japanese linguists. 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.
Taiwanese
Taiwanese kana (タイ ヲァヌ ギイ カア ビェン) is a katakana-based writing systemWriting system
A writing system is a symbolic system used to represent elements or statements expressible in language.-General properties:Writing systems are distinguished from other possible symbolic communication systems in that the reader must usually understand something of the associated spoken language to...
once used to write Holo Taiwanese, when Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
was under Japanese control
Taiwan under Japanese rule
Between 1895 and 1945, Taiwan was a dependency of the Empire of Japan. The expansion into Taiwan was a part of Imperial Japan's general policy of southward expansion during the late 19th century....
. It functioned as a phonetic guide for Chinese characters, much like furigana
Furigana
is a Japanese reading aid, consisting of smaller kana, or syllabic characters, printed next to a kanji or other character to indicate its pronunciation. In horizontal text, yokogaki, they are placed above the line of text, while in vertical text, tategaki, they are placed to the right of the line...
in Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
or Zhuyin fuhao in Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
. There were similar systems for other languages in Taiwan as well, including Hakka and Formosan languages
Formosan languages
The Formosan languages are the languages of the indigenous peoples of Taiwan. Taiwanese aborigines currently comprise about 2% of the island's population. However, far fewer can still speak their ancestral language, after centuries of language shift...
.
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.
Okinawan
Katakana is used as a phonetic guide for the Okinawan languageOkinawan language
Central Okinawan, or simply Okinawan , is a Northern Ryukyuan language spoken primarily in the southern half of the island of Okinawa, as well as in the surrounding islands of Kerama, Kumejima, Tonaki, Aguni, and a number of smaller peripheral islands...
, unlike the various other systems to represent Okinawan, which use hiragana with extensions. The system was devised by the Okinawa Center of Language Study of the University of the Ryukyus
University of the Ryukyus
The , abbreviated to Ryūdai , is a national university of Japan. It is located in the town of Nishihara on Okinawa Honto in Okinawa Prefecture. There are also campuses in Nakagusuku and Ginowan. It is the westernmost national university of Japan and the largest public university in Okinawa Prefecture...
. It uses many extensions and yōon to show the many non-Japanese sounds of Okinawan.
See also
- Japanese phonologyJapanese phonologyThis article deals with the phonology of the Japanese language.-Consonants:The Japanese vowels are pronounced as monophthongs, unlike in English; except for , they are similar to their Spanish or Italian counterparts....
- HiraganaHiraganais a Japanese syllabary, one basic component of the Japanese writing system, along with katakana, kanji, and the Latin alphabet . Hiragana and katakana are both kana systems, in which each character represents one mora...
- Historical kana usageHistorical kana usageThe , or , refers to the in general use until orthographic reforms after World War II; the current orthography was adopted by Cabinet order in 1946. By that point the historical orthography was no longer in accord with Japanese pronunciation...
- Rōmaji
- Taiwanese kanaTaiwanese kanaTaiwanese kana 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...
- GugyeolGugyeolGugyeol is a system for rendering texts written in Classical Chinese into understandable Korean. It was chiefly used during the Joseon Dynasty, when readings of the Chinese classics were of paramount social importance...
- Tōdaiji FujumonkōTōdaiji Fujumonkōis an early ninth century Buddhist text. It is best known as a valuable resource for Japanese historical linguistics as well as Buddhist history.-Manuscript:...
, oldest example of kanji text with katakana annotations.