Ramblings of a Crowe

カタカナ：Ｋａｔａｋａｎａ (Revisited)

Like I said, I would talk about my arch nemisis, Katakana if I had the time. Well, I have a bit of time, so I'll go over a bit of it for those who are curious.

Firstly, there are three 'systems' for writing in Japan:

ひらがな　（Ｈｉｒａｇａｎａ）
カタカナ　（Ｋａｔａｋａｎａ）
漢字　（Ｋａｎｊｉ）

Hiragana are used usually for particals and word endings (such as for verbs and adjectives). Katakana, as I said before used for "borrowed words or foreign words" or to add emphasis to something. However, I've been told by a friend in Japan, that katakana is becoming more popular and it's not uncommon for younger people to use it for all kinds of words, Japanese and foriegn. Kanji are the complicated characters that most people assosicate with Japanese writing. Kanji were borrowed from China incooporated into their writing system. Kanji make up the "body" of the word, as I like to think. Each kanji has a particular meaning or meanings and when combined with other kanji creates new words.

Kanji usually have two different "readings" the KUN reading, which is used for the Japanese meaning(s) and the ON reading with is the Chinese "sound" of the kanji. It sounds complicated, but it's not.

For example, lets look at the Kanji for "person": 人

Alone, this character reads "hito" (ひと）; that would be the "KUN" reading for this particular Kanji. The "ON" readings (the readings based on the Chinese sounds) are "jin" (ジン) and "nin"(ニン). This readings are used to create "compound" words (or kanji) such as:
人間(ningen) "man/human/people"
日本人(nihonjin) Person from Japan
遊び人 (asobinin) playboy

A sentance would look like this:
KUN reading: あの人は誰ですか?　(Ano hito wa dare desu ka?) Who is that person?
ON Reading: 人間は奇妙な創造物です。 (Ningen wa kimyou souzoubutsu desu.) Humans are strange creatures.

I happen to like kanji. Most people are terrified of them, but the only thing that makes them scary are the number of readings possible and the number of Kanji in use. That's why god made dictionaries...and Kanji cards...

Hiragana is fairly easy to memorize. If you remember from above, hiragana is used primarily for word endings and particals. Common particals found in Japanese are as such は(wa)、の(no)、と(to)、か(ka)、を(wo)、え(e)、に(ni)、で(de)、etc. These are written in hiragana. Some examples of endings in hiragana are:
開けましょう (akemashou) shall I open...
答えなさい (kotaenasai) please answer...

In bold are the verb endings written in hiragana.

Katakana is very similar to hiragana, which would make it appear to be easy to use them. They are basically the same "sounds" written with a different kana (symbol). Example:

と (to) in hiragana
ト (to) in katakana

つ (tsu) in hiragana　
ツ (tsu) in katakana

However, I personally find Katakana to be the most daunting of all the kana. Many of them look so much a like, it's very hard to remeber which is which.
Examples:　(katakana is written first/ hiragana is last)

ソ（Ｓｏ） in hiragana (そ）
ノ（Ｎｏ）　in hiragana （の）
ン（Ｎ） in hiragana （ん）
シ（Ｓｈｉ） in hiragana (し）
ツ（Ｔｓｕ） in hiragana (つ）
ジ（Ｊｉ）　in hiragana (じ）
ジ（Ｚｉ） in hiragana （じ）
ケ（Ｋｅ） in hiragana （け）
ク（Ｋｕ）　in hiragana （く）
タ（Ｔａ）　in hiragana （た）
ネ（Ｎｅ）　in hiragana （ね）
ラ（Ｒａ） in hiragana （ら）
ワ（Ｗａ） in hiragana　（わ）
フ（Ｆｕ） in hiragana （ふ）
ヲ（Ｗｏ）　in hiragana （を）
ウ（Ｕ） in hiragana （う）

There are more, but those are the ones that give me the most trouble. As you can see, many of them are practically identical, which makes them a major pain in the ass to memorize. There are 46 basic kana to memorize in both hiragana and katakana. These kana are then combined to create words, word endings, particals, or more complicated kana such as みょ (myo)、びゅ(byo)、しゃ(sha)、しょ(sho)、ちゅ(chu) etc. Katakana takes things a bit further, since they are used mostly for loan words from other countries and we see combinations of ファ（Ｆａ），フィ（Ｆｉ），ヴァ（Ｖａ），ヴィ（Ｖｉ），フォ（Ｆｏ），ヴォ（Ｖｏ）、ティ（Ｔｉ）、トゥ（Ｔｕ）、フェ（Ｆｅ），ヴェ（Ｖｅ），etc. Long vowels in Katakana are written as such:
アー(aa)
エー(ee)
イー(ii)
オー(oo)
ウー(uu)

In hiragana they often look like this:
ああ(aa)
ええ(ee)
いい(ii)
おお(oo)
うう(uu)

Now lets take a look at some words written in Katakana. There are all sorts of words borrowed from different countries lurking in the Japanese language! This is the fun part of Katakana, though it can be a bit tedious if you happen upon a buggar of a word. Remember, there is no "L" sound in Japanese. Often times, the "R" sound will sound like and "L". If you say the word out loud or write it down in "Romanji" (roman letters used to write the kana sounds), you should be able to figure it out (Unless you are an otaku who takes everything and face value and has no clue about the Japanese language other than a few catchy words you've picked up from watching cartoons.)

Words in Katakana:

フライト　（Ｆｕｒａｉｔｏ）: Flight
プレーボーイー　（Ｐｕｒｅｂｏｉ）: Playboy
プレーグールー　（Ｐｕｒｅｇｕｒｕ）: Playgirl
ニュースフラツシュ（Ｎｙｕｓｕ　Ｆｕｒａｓｓｈｕ）: News Flash
クロロホルム　（Ｋｕｒｏｒｏｈｏｒｕｍｕ）: Chlorophorm
フェテイツシュ　（Ｆｅｔｉｓｓｈｕ）: Fetish
ライタ　（Ｒａｉｔａ）: Lighter
アルベル　（Ａｒｕｂｅｒｕ）: Albel
フェイト　（Ｆｅｉｔｏ）：　Ｆａｔｅ　（Ｆａｙｔ）
プルトニウム　（Ｐｕｒｕｔｏｎｉｕｍｕ）：　Ｐｌｕｔｏｎｉｕｍ
ラブ　（Ｒａｂｕ）：　Ｌｏｖｅ
ローラーコースター　（Ｒｏｒａｋｏｓｕｔａ）：Ｒｏｌｌｅｒｃｏａｓｔｅｒ
スキムミルク（Ｓｕｋｉｍｕ　ｍｉｒｕｋｕ）：　Ｓｋｉｍ　Ｍｉｌｋ
アンパイア　（Ａｎｐａｉａ）：　Ｕｍｐｉｒｅ
エスニック　（Ｅｓｕｎｉｋｋｕ）：　Ｅｔｈｎｉｃ
ホモ　（Ｈｏｍｏ）：　Ｇａｙ
デリカテッセン　（Ｄｅｒｉｋａｔｅｓｓｅｎ）：　Ｄｅｌｉｃａｔｅｓｓｉｏｎ
ヘリ　（Ｈｅｒｉ）：　Ｈｅｌｉｃｏｐｔｏｒ
ヘルメット　（Ｈｅｒｕｍｅｔｔｏ）：　Ｈｅｌｍｅｔ
フォア　（Ｆｏａ）：Ｆｌｏｏｒ

And the list goes on...and on...and on...

I'm hardly fluent in Japanese...far, far from it. I make a gazillion mistakes, but that's part of the learning process. I was happy when Ayaka told me the other day that my Japanese has gotten better...though I still see myself as struggling. *shrug* At anyrate, I'll continue to study and learn from those who are willing to help and from my books, tapes, and internet. The point is, at least I'm taking the time to try and understand the language. Unlike these silly otaku who think thier tiny vocabluaries are "cool" and make them "important", I love the Japanese language. I find it beautiful and very interesting. My friends in Japan are fun and caring people, who I adore talking to, and I want nothing more than to be able to communicate with them in their own language and help them learn mine.

I just don't understand the logic behind not translating names in video games, cartoons or comics. Sure, I don't agree with totally changing Francois to Bob, but I mean, leaving Aruberu is just stupid. I wonder if these elitists run around saying things like "Oh I got a chiketto for the shi-a-ta- for my detto with Jimu Sumisu tonight! I really rabu him!" How rediculous...a name is just another word...don't treat it any differently...Doing so makes you appear pertentious and ....well...stupid...

ゲロゲロおたくだねぇよ。。。

There are TONS of online dictionaries and learning tools for those who REALLY want to learn Japanese. Get some work books, text books, Tuttle Kanji cards, computer software and listening tapes/cd's. Study, study study...find a penpal who's learning English...help each other. Have fun...Learning a new language...and I mean TRUELY learning is an eye opening and wonderful expirenece.

じゃまたね！　ばいばい！

(apologizes for all the spelling errors...I've been up since 1am and I think I've reached the end of my rope...)
おやすみなさい

Posted by Zoso at September 15, 2004 09:03 PM