There are several uses for カタカナ.
1. Emphasis for words
2. Loan words for foreign words
3. Onomatopia (buzz, swish, etc. )
These words can appear anywhere. For example, the following picture:
This picture is an example of loan word use katakana as well as emphasis. The katakana is used because is stands out in advertising and it also comes from English origin. Although katakana may be used for singluar uses, they may also be jointly used for two of the above reasons as well.
An example of pure loan word is the following:
This t-shirt is using katakana to write the name Obama because it is of English origin.
Katakana can also be found in the following cartoon strip:
Katakana is used in here for onomatopeia. The little kid is saying "マツ" as a sign of surprise. This is just a sound and not an actual word, so the katakana is used instead of hiragana.
はじめまして。プリンストン大学の三年生です。マーガレットといいます。よろしくね。＾＿＾
ReplyDelete”These words can appear anywhere.”そうですね。カタカナはどこでもありますね。
オバマシャツが好きです。"Coca-Cola" and "Obama" are definitely good examples of loan words written in katakana.
Also, good catch on finding the onomatopoeia in the comic strip! But "ワッ” (Wa!) might be closer to what he's saying than "マツ" (Matsu!) is. Sometimes katakana words can be very stylized and much harder to read than textbook katakana.
がんばってくださいね！
Yes, I think the last one should be ワッ, the smaller tsu indicate a sudden pause here.
ReplyDeleteI think it's really interesting how you demonstrated that katakana can serve two purposes simultaneously in the same context.
ReplyDeleteI liked the example of Coke because I remember from when I used to take Mandarin that Coke in Chinese is called ke ko ke le (my favorite Chinese word!), which sounds a lot like Coca Cola and the Japanese ko ka kou ra. It's interesting that both Chinese and Japanese adapted their sounds to try and say these foreign words, but the Chinese still use their own characters to write those words, while the Japanese made a whole new alphabet for them.
ReplyDeleteYou can find many samples of loan words and onimatopeia in Katanaka, but there are also many samples of words originated in Japan written in katakana as well. It might be interesting to collect those samples and analyze to see if there are consistency or rules for those use.
ReplyDeleteFor example, the work ’おやじ’can be found written in Katanaka ('オヤジ’) often. What do you think is the intension behine of use of katakana for this word?
カタカナは むずかしいですね！
TA
Katakana can definitely be found everywhere, especially as sound effects in manga and for ads for different kinds of products. It's really interesting to note that katakana is even used a lot for words that are Japanese, like names and slang words, to give them a 'cool' look and sound. For example, a lot of times the words "kakkoii," which means "cool," and "meccha," which is slang for "very" or "really." It'd be interesting to look further into how Japanese people, especially the younger generations, use katakana...
ReplyDeleteがんばって!