katakana is most often used for transcription of words from English: such as コーヒー(coffee),"television"( テレビ ); sometimes transcription from Mandarin, such as マージャン(麻將; mahiong), チャーハン(炒飯; fried rice); sometimes even from Cantonese, such as チャーシュー(叉焼chāshū),シューマイ(焼賣;a form of dim su).Katakana are also used to represent sounds, such as ピンポン (pinpon).
In many cases, it can also represent the names for county (such as アメリカAmerica), scientific terms(such as ホモ・サピエンスHomo sapiens ), movie or human names (such as ハリーポッターHarry Potter).
Similar to the Capital Letters in English, Katakana can also be used for emphasis,such asココ("here"), ゴミ gomi ("trash").
Then, how do you explain this usage?
回复删除たなかさんが、「ギャーッ!!!」と言いました。
ごはんを パクパク 食べました。
I agree with you! However, I believe that there are more uses for katakana than those you have listed. Look out for them as you encounter more and more Japanese :)
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删除シミンさん、ありがとうございます！
回复删除I like the idea of thinking of katakana in some situations as capital letters. And I hadn't thought about it as being used for imported words from Mandarin and Cantonese. That seems a bit strange, since almost every kanji has a Chinese-based reading. I guess it is used more for modern words and longer phrases?
回复删除You say that it is "sometimes" used for transcription from Mandarin and Cantonese, but do you have any criteria for when they typically choose to do that instead of using kanji? The poster above suggests "modern words and longer phrases", but they actually have a kanji for mahjong and just choose not to use it most of the time, even though mahjong was only introduced to Japan in like, 1924. It'd be interesting if, later in the project, you could find out more about those kinds of questions.
回复删除Hmm, I would be interested in finding more about the capital letter usage. It seems like "Here" and "Trash" are things you might see on street signs or something, where one needs to get people's attention? Is there a selective filter for when to use katakana or hiragana in these cases?
回复删除The kanji script is typically much more complex than the katakana script, so when a word that should conventionally be written in kanji is reduced to the simple katakana script, it seems to reduce the serious, burdening look of the original word. This is another usage that I thought was interesting!
回复删除I like that you listed several uses for katakana. When I was in Japan I thought it was interesting that katakana was often used on posters and ads. Do you think the purpose here would be fore emphasis?
回复删除You know, I used to think ラーメン was Chinese, then I found out this year that it's actually Japanese. The conventional way to write it is in katakana, though nowadays hiragana is pretty common too.
回复删除You're absolutely right about the transcriptions. What about when two words refer to the same thing, like チーズ and フロマージュ (from French), or 化粧室 (another word for bathroom, literally "make-up room") and トイレ? Putting a word in katakana can change its connotations - e.g. ここ vs ココ, because the latter can take on less innocent connotations!
What do you think the reactions of Japanese people would be if someone "incorrectly" used hiragana for a katakana phrase? How about vice versa?
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