Katakana

From UniLang Wiki

>> Languages >> Japanese >> Japanese writing systems
>> General resources >> Writing systems

Katakana is one of the systems used to write Japanese, along with Hiragana and Kanji. Katakana is an almost completely phonetic syllabary, consisting of 46 syllables. With the use of diacritics and special rules, a greater number of sounds can be represented.

Katakana originated from Chinese characters which were simplified until they became the forms curently in use. It consists of very simple characters, generally angular and not round as Hiragana.

The two main uses of Katakana are representing words of foreign origin borrowed into Japanese, and representing onomatopoeia, words that imitate sounds. Sometimes Katakana are also used for emphasis, like the use of italics or UPPERCASE in English.

Contents 1 Katakana syllables 2 Diacritics 3 Palatized consonants 4 Extra syllables 5 Double consonants and long vowels 6 Katakana reading practice

Katakana syllables

The table below lists the basic Katakana syllabary, consisting of 46 symbols:

	A	I	U	E	O
	ア	イ	ウ	エ	オ
K	カ	キ	ク	ケ	コ
S	サ	シ*	ス	セ	ソ
T	タ	チ*/ ティ	ツ*/ テゥ	テ	ト
N	ナ	ニ	ヌ	ネ	ノ
H	ハ	ヒ	フ*	ヘ	ホ
M	マ	ミ	ム	メ	モ
Y	ヤ		ユ	イェ	ヨ
R	ラ	リ	ル	レ	ロ
W	ワ	ヰ*/ ウィ		ヱ*/ ウェ	ヲ*/ ウォ
N	ン*

Notes:

• シ (si) is pronounced ɕi (and often written "shi" in roman letters).
• チ (ti) is pronounced tɕi (and often written "chi" in roman letters).
• ツ (tu) is pronounced tsɯ (and often written "tsu" in roman letters).
• フ (hu) is pronounced ɸɯ (and often written "fu" in roman letters).
• ヰ (wi), ヱ (we), and ヲ (wo) are quite rare and are pronounced just as one would pronounce the vowel by itself (i, e, and o, respectively).
• ン (n), despite its position in the table, does not represent "na", but rather the sound "n" alone. It does not appear the the beginning of words.

Diacritics

Two diacritics change allow other sounds. Here is the table of the syllables with diacritics:

	A	I	U	E	O
V	(ヷ)/ ヴァ	(ヸ)/ ヴィ	ヴ	(ヹ)/ ヴェ	(ヺ)/ ヴォ
G	ガ	ギ	グ	ゲ	ゴ
Z	ザ	ジ*	ズ*	ゼ	ゾ
D	ダ	ヂ*/ ディ	ヅ*/ デゥ	デ	ド
B	バ	ビ	ブ	ベ	ボ
P	パ	ピ	プ	ペ	ポ

As you may have noted, the two strokes ゛, called dakuten, tend to make the consonant voiced (except for "h", which becomes "b"). The circle ゜, called handakuten, is only applied to "h", and makes it change into "p".

Notes:

• The consonant v is pronounced β.
• ヷ (va), ヸ (vi), and ヺ (vo) are no longer used.
• Both ジ (zi) and ヂ (di) are pronounced ʑi (and often written "ji" in roman letters). ジ is much more common, but the symbols are not interchangeable.
• Similarly, both ズ (zu) and ヅ (du) are pronounced zɯ (and often written this way). ズ is much more common, but the symbols are not interchangeable.

Palatized consonants

To indicate a palatized consonant, a katakana of the "-i" series is used, followed by one of the "y-" series, written smaller. The following table shows this:

キャ kya	キュ kyu	キョ kyo
ギャ gya	ギュ gyu	ギョ gyo
シャ sha	シュ shu	ショ sho
ジャ ja	ジュ ju	ジョ jo
チャ cha	チュ chu	チョ cho
	テュ tyu
	ドュ dyu
ニャ nya	ニュ nyu	ニョ nyo
ヒャ hya	ヒュ hyu	ヒョ hyo
ピャ bya	ピュ byu	ピョ byo
ビャ pya	ビュ pyu	ビョ pyo
ミャ mya	ミュ myu	ミョ myo
リャ rya	リュ ryu	リョ ryo

Extra syllables

Katakana also has some other syllables used to express foreign sounds.

ヴャ vya	ヴュ vyu		ヴョ vyo
		シェ she
		ジェ je
		チェ che

Double consonants and long vowels

Double consonants are written with a small tsu (ッ) before the consonant. Thus, the word "beddo", which means "bed" and is a borrowing from English would be written as ベッド.

In katakana, long vowels are written with a dash like this ー after the syllable. (Compare with Hiragana.)

Katakana reading practice

You could practice reading katakana with this Wikipedia page on international country and city names in Japanese
If you need a bit of help you could look at the page through via rikai, just paste the above address into the form field.

---

>> Languages >> Japanese >> Japanese writing systems
>> General resources >> Writing systems