This post is about katakana usage in Japan. Like in the above linked video, katakana is occasionally used in Japanese to express various things.
My katakana findings are listed here.
In my search for katakana phrases, I've examined various Japanese media and came to the conclusion that katakana are used primarily for these purposes:
- Sound Effects, onomatopoeia
- Foreign words or phrases
- Names
- Emphasis
However, I've found that katakana is not very commonly used in Japanese, and understandably so. Japanese media will be about Japanese content and thus not contain many foreign words will appear, and names are typically written with Kanji or hiragana.
Here are the katakana examples I've found in several Japanese media:
Manga:
This page is an excerpt from the manga Melty Blood Act 2. The katakana used here are for sound effects: バカツ and ヒュ～～ツ. バカツ is used to describe the sound of the trap door opening. The size of the characters attribute to the opening of the door not being loud most likely, but being a big surprise and should have a large impact on the characters and the reader. ヒュツ is used to describe the two characters falling down the hole. It is probably not describing the sound their bodies make from falling, be it from wind resistance or other cause, but rather the concept of them falling a long way down. I think it might be akin to how a whistle plays when Wile E Coyote falls off a cliff, like in this video clip.Here is another manga example:
This page is from the manga Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu. In this scene, the girl, Haruhi, had just declared a bold and shocking statement on the previous page, and thus the boy in front of her turns and is in amazement of her. The katakana ドン is used for dramatic effect as the boy stares up at the girl who made such a proclamation.So in these manga examples, katakana is used to put emphasis on sounds and effects that occur to enhance the overall image presented. Katakana is good for this role, I think, because it is simple to read which reflects the simple effects they add, and it is angular and dramatic as opposed to flowing curvy hiragana.
In the vein of reading material, katakana is also used in magazines:
This is the cover of a magazine called Newtype. Katakana is used a fair amount here. Upon further inspection they are mostly names, anime titles, or English phrases. Some are as follows:ガンダム００ － Gundam 00
コドギアス反逆のルルーシュR2 （反逆＝はんぎゃく） － Code Geass: Lelouche of the Rebellion R2
マクロスF － Macross F
シャングリ-ラ － Shangri-la
フェスティバル － Festival
カスタマイズCDジャケット － Customize(able) CD Jacket
サプライズ － Surprise
オリジナルラジオCD － Original Radio CD
Here is an article from Newtype:
This article is about the life size Gundam made in Odaiba. The article, like the cover, has various names or English phrases in katakana, like ガンダム, Gundam, and プロジェクト, project. However the bulk of the article is in kanji and hiragana, describing the unveiling of the Gundam.Katakana is very useful for writing names and foreign phrases because until hiragana, katakana has special character combinations to form sounds that are not native to Japanese, like the "feh" in festival. Since such sounds don't exist in traditional Japanese, there is no corresponding kanji to represent the meaning of the word. Also, maybe foreign words are written in katakana to differentiate them Japanese words. And then titles in general might be written in katakana to place emphasis on them over normal words.
Katakana is also sometimes used in product names and advertisements:
This is a box of ななみチップス, Nanami Chips. They are フィッシュバーガー味（あじ）, fish burger flavor. Also written in katakana is the name of the anime that the character, Nanami, is from: カオス;ヘッド（Chaos;HEAd). Similar to the magazines, katakana is used for foreign words and sounds, chips and the "fi" in fish. On the other hand, hiragana is used to spell Nanami since it is a Japanese name, and flavor is written in kanji because there is exists a single kanji that has that definition.Katakana is also used in maps and signs, like these subway maps:
Here is a map of Kounai station:
Some of the place names used:ラーメン － ramen stand
コンビニ － convenience store
ベーカリー － bakery
コンコース － concourse
レストラン － restaurant
カレー － curry stand
レンタカー － car rental
コインロッカー － coin locker
エレベータ － elevator
In the case of this map, certain things are written in katakana, while others in hiragana, like うどん (udon noodles stand) and のりば (place for boarding vehicles) and most of the rest written in kanji. In this case, I don't really understand why certain places are labeled using katakana instead of with hiragana or kanji, because I would imagine there is a way to say those things in Japanese. However, since Japan is known for borrowing and adapting other cultures, some of them might not have a Japanese equivalent, or maybe certain names have just become widely accepted despite not having Japanese origin, or maybe it is done to appear more modern.
Here is subway map of Kyoto in 3D:
Pretty complicated, eh? There are some other katakana words here, like:トイレ － restroom
エスカレーター － escalator
バス － bus stop
タクシー － taxi stop
One last thing I'd like to go into is katakana usage in songs.
This song is called motto Hade ni ne! by Tomatsu Haruka. It is the opening theme song to the anime Kannagi:
This is the full version of the song, and here are the lyrics to the song:
Some notable katakana usage are:スピード － speed
キッス － kiss
ドリフト － drift
ハート － heart
What is interesting, is that in this song, katakana is not used just for English words. There are some French word, too:
ズボン － French: jupon - trousers
アン,ドゥ,トロワ － French: un, deux, trois - one, two, three
And even some Japanese words are spelled out in katakana:
ナカミ － なかみ － nakami - interior
ホント － ほんと － honto - reality, truth
ココロ － こころ － kokoro - mind, heart, spirit
In the cases of these Japanese words, the katakana is probably used to emphasize those words.
Another interesting thing about this song is that actual English words and phrases are used in it, such as "babyface", "driving", and "hard day's night game", as opposed to using katakana.
Katakana has so many functions so it is understandable that different text books will explain its usage differently. For those just starting out, it might be good to have a simple explanation of katakana being "used for writing loanwords and foreign names." However the more detailed version is also useful because generalizing katakana usage to just those criteria doesn't do justice to how it truly is used.
こんにちは、スチーヴさん。
ReplyDeleteあなたのポストはとてもいいです！ It's really detailed and I love how many different sources you chose for it! そして, I really like how you also have all of the media in your post directly!
On another topic, I'm so sad Newtype isn't being published anymore :( Do you know of any other あにめのざっし that are like Newtype USA?
じゃまた！
ーオラ
That map of きょうとうえき really doesn't do justice to just how complicated that station is. I have pictures somewhere, I'll post them if I get a chance (meaning I remember). While looking through the map I noticed several interesting things. 1. コンビニ: I thought this was "company" at first, but it turns out it is a convenience store (thanks Denshi Jisho).
ReplyDelete2. The big thing I noticed, which might be discussion worthy, is just how much Roma-ji is used even in this map intended for Japanese speakers. For example, the AED machines were notated as "AED". My experience in Japan (keeping in mind this was large urban areas) was that almost everyone knew english anyway. It kind of reminded me of Germany, in that many signs at railway stations or places where foreigners go, are written additionally in English, and sometimes exclusively in English. Most Germans of the postwar generations can read, if not speak, decent English. I can imagine this being similar in Japan. Just imagine if the signs at Penn Station were written only in Spanish, there'd be a riot.
Yo, Ola~ ありがとう! I worked oddly hard on this assignment. And yeah, it's a shame that Newtype USA got discontinued. I just learned about that when I was looking for scans for the project. As for other anime magazines... I know of Comptiq, but that one is more pc game related and printed in Japanese. I don't really read magazines at all, so I don't know, sorry. =/
ReplyDeleteHey, Simon! Oh wow, really? That's kind of outrageous. I thought the map was pretty intimidating, but I guess it's not surprising that the real thing is far more so. I look forward to seeing your pictures. Yeah that's a good point about the romaji usage. I was once told that English isn't that prevalent in Japan, but after seeing so much English used, be it in katakana phrases or plain out English characters, I kind of wonder how much English Japan has incorporated into its culture. And if anime is any indicator of real life (read: not really), apparently some schools teach English in Japan, like how schools in America typically teach Spanish or French. But geez, that's a frightening thought, signs being written predominantly in Spanish. I'd rage.
Hello there! My name's Zach; I'm a third-year university student studying abroad in Kyoto right now, and my せんせい requested that all of us comment on your class' blogs :).
ReplyDeleteSo! Your analysis is really quite deep, so I'll just add my two cents from having lived in Japan for these past few months. After posting the map of one of the subway stations, you mentioned that you "don't really understand why certain places are labeled using katakana instead of with hiragana or kanji," because you expect that there'd be a Japanese equivalent to some of the katakana labels. This stood out to me, because from the first semester I started learning Japanese, I thought (and sometimes still think...!) the same thing. However, sometimes it comes down to a matter of not inherent foreignness but original foreignness. Even though Japan is filled with certain things now (rental car places, elevators, escalators), they certainly didn't originate here, so they don't invent their own words for them. For example, I know you didn't post about it, but take the word ドア. This means "door," and for the longest time I considered it ridiculous. "Come on, Japan, you don't have your own word for DOOR?" But really, they do--they have plenty of words for all types of doors, but ドア itself is used to connote the "western-style" door as opposed to something traditionally Japanese (ie, sliding doors, shouji doors). So even though just about every building in the country has "western-style doors," and therefore they're not at all a foreign occurance, they're still called "ドア."
Also, just a comment on your comment about the amount of English used in Japan (I'm nosy and read all your comments, too...!). Most schools if not all but a handful teach English. It's pretty much the national second language, quite in the same vein as Spanish is taught in a huge number of schools across the US. However, most people forget all the English that they know, until they only have the most minimal working knowledge of it. Otherwise, most people who might know English well enough to understand you might be too embarrassed to try to speak back, because their pronunciation is generally quite poor.
Best of luck with your continued studies :)!
がんばって、
Zachary Spence
Hi Zach!
ReplyDeleteThanks for you comment, it was very enlightening! I did think that there are a decent number of words that don't exist in the Japanese language, so instead they're written in Katakana that mimics the original sound, but I didn't realize that it was to such an extent. Thinking about it from your explaination, though, there really are a lot of modern things that didn't originate in Japan like computers or elevators. I guess Japan adapts to these new things by just adding them to the Japanese vocabulary instead of making up new words for them.
That's also very interesting to know that English is so widespread in Japan, and yet at the same time not very pronounced. But it just makes sense that if you stop learning it after high school and you don't use it everyday you would forget a lot (that happened with me and Spanish).
Good luck to you, too!
Stephen Chao
Indeed. Most of English words quickly become "日本語" when written in katakana. So I think Japanese people actually have quite a lot of English vocaburaries. But, because those words are only used in a word level instead of a sentence level (with Japanese pronunciation as well!), their English won't easily become functional...I wonder how many Spanish words became (have become) part of American English lexicon.
ReplyDeleteHello, I'm a student at Bunkyo University in Japan. I read your analysis about katakana.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your analysis. Japanese use katakana when we write onomatopoeia.In animation, we often use onomatopoeia bucause I think onomatopoeia in katakana can impace to us. And, it is spreaded by media. But, sometimes media say different things, so please take care.
Hey Aki! Thanks for the comment. Yeah, I was starting to think that maybe most Japanese people have a fairly large English vocabulary, with so many katakana phrases floating around. But like you said, they're mostly for single words so it wouldn't really help with speaking English fluently. That's a good question about Spanish words becoming apart of American vocabulary. Though, as a friend pointed out to me, English phrases in Japanese is more Japanese assimilating English things, while Spanish usage in America such as on signs or labels is more accommodating people who don't speak English. I think that Americans who don't speak Spanish typically don't use Spanish phrases.
ReplyDeleteYo Raai, thanks for commenting. That's interesting to note about onomatopoeia usage. As I read someone write, writing something in katakana similar to using bold in English.