katakana
1
8.8
- noun
- /kɑːtəˈkɑːnə/
- Specialized
- However, unlike the Discover Japan campaign, which had been written in the Roman alphabet, Exotic Japan was transcribed in the katakana script.
- hiragana and katakana
Examples
-
Not only was the phrase English, it was not printed in the katakana script normally used for foreign words and phrases that enter Japanese.
Academic text (1997) -
These include katakana, hiragana, and kanji.
Blog text (9) -
I have to learn how to read kanji, hiragana and katakana from zero all by myself.
-
Also, the word PlayStation 3, for example, is generally written in Katakana and uses the Roman letter 3 and not the Japanese Kanji character.
Blog text (11) -
Modern Japanese is written in a combination of Kanji, Hiragana, and Katakana characters.
Fiction book (1993) -
Katakana, another moraic alphabet, is mainly used for words of foreign origin other than Chinese and for onomatopoeia.
Academic text (2006) -
All three modes of representation—Kanji, hiragana, and katakana—are ordinarily combined and used to write a sentence.
Academic text (2006) -
In contrast to the Chinese writing system in which only Chinese logographic characters are used, the Japanese writing system combines both logographic (Kanji) and phonographic (hiragana and katakana) systems.
Academic text (2006) -
In Japanese, the word 'computer' is written in katakana as コンピュータ.
-
Many foreign names are transcribed into katakana to fit the phonetic needs of the Japanese language.
Surface Forms
Etymology
Katakana comes from two Japanese parts: kata meaning 'part' or 'fragment' and kana meaning 'syllable sign'. Long ago, writers made these letters from small parts of Chinese characters, so katakana are like 'part-letters' and are now used to write foreign words, names, and sound words.