#1: The frequent use of loan words in Japanese is probably one of the most helpful aspects of the language for foreigners. The following picture contains a sign at self service gas station in Japan, and it can easily be read by English speakers as long as they are familiar with all the katakana symbols in Japanese. This is because English speakers can typically sound out Katakana symbols phonetically and connect them to the English words from which they were originally borrowed. (The method does not always work because Katakana words are borrowed from other foreign languages as well).
The following words are taken from the sign in the picture above.
レギュラー : regular
セルフ: self (service)
ハイオク : high octane
#2: Katakana can also be used for sound expressions. In the following example, you see the representations of the sound the dog makes when sleeping: Guuu, Guuu, Guuu... (グウー）
#3: Katakana words can also be used to replace very complex, and "difficult-to-write" kanji, such as very technical terminology in medicine. 皮膚科 (dermatology) is typically written as ヒフカ.
Katakana are quite nice for those of us trying to learn to speak Japanese. It is interesting that some of the more technical kanji get replaced by katakana words. I really wish i could find a good list of all (or at least a good number of) the Japanese sound expressions.
ReplyDeleteおもしろいぶんせきですね。
ReplyDelete#1
If these words are written in hiragana, English speakers have more difficulties to connect these words with the original English words?
#2
Why are they written in katakana instead of hiragana? Can ぐーぐー work as well?
#3
I agree that writing katakana is much easier than using difficult kanji. But again, why katakana? Why not hiragana?
That is a very interesting thought you posted on my blog. It would certainly make sense that since men wrote in Katakana and primarily men traveled, most letters would have foreign words written in Katakana and thus would be easy to incorporate into the revised Tokyo Japanese that we are learning.
ReplyDeleteAs for your analysis, it is very helpful to know that Katakana is used in place of complicated Kanji! But I agree with Hamada-sensei's comment above, why specifically Katakana? Perhaps this, too, can be related to your theory of why Katakana is used for foreign words.
Regarding #1, I thought ハイオク was particularly interesting because it's actually a contraction of "high octane". I've noticed that Japanese likes to take a number of foreign (particularly English) phrases and contract them by taking the first part/syllable of each word in the phrase and making a word out of it. For instance テレビ and パソコン are words we've studied that are contractions of "television" and "personal computer". However, by doing so, I feel that it actually makes it more difficult for foreign speakers to understand what the loanword's meaning is. I wonder if it's a colloquial thing or if there's a standard out there...
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