I have posted the Katakana words I found in the last post. There are a lot of them are insteresting. It actually fun that the moment you figure out which words it is just by keeping pronouncing or staring at each katakana character. But it can be painful in the quiz too I guess...
Anyway, during those words I found most of them are loanwords. たとえば, ミルク is milk, ソフトキャンデー is soft candy, ディズニーリソート is Disney Resort, コーヒーパウダ is coffee powder and so on. Of course, there is onoatopoeia, like ピカピカ as shinny, フワフワ as fluffy. For the third group, katakana for emphasis. I am not really sure about that. It is kind of hard to tell whether it belongs to loanwords or emphasis categories , and sometimes it counts for both. So I guess when Katakana words are written in large font or in bright color, such as on a poster (ハンコック -- Hankock) or magazine. The purpose is probably to emphasize, and of course it can be loanwords or onoatopoeia at the same time.
Two words I found most interesting are ディズニーリソート(Disney Resort) and ソフトキャンデー ( soft candy). One of them is on my 携帯(けいたい)ストラプ(strap) and the other one is from the 「北海道(ほうっかいどう)」candy bag. The reason why ディズニーリソート is written in Katakana, I think Disney is a place mostly for kids and Katakana are pretty simple, it's all about straight lines. Therefore, if it is written in Katakana, it will be easy to read and memorize(only for Janpanese I guess...They all look the same for me...) other than written in Hiragana, Kanji or English. Same reason for the other word ソフトキャンデー ( soft candy) written in Katakana first it is an English word and then for emphasis too. They are trying to let their customers notice that how ソフト their candy is and how much ミルク they put in too, so that customers like me will buy it.
Different textbooks introduce katakana in different ways. It might because the way to use Katakana is flexiable. It depends on people who use it. However, most of the textbooks have covered that the biggest use of katakana is for foreign words. For its other uses, I guess I'll just figure out as I am learning more and more Japanese.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Katakana Analysis
Posted by Jade at 10:20 AM
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5 comments:
I do not see any holes in your analysis... Obviously, you did your homework.
As you mentioned, Disney Land, which is written in Katakana (with straight lines, etc), is easy for children to read. Indeed, that is likely the most important reason!
Another (perhaps secondary) reason would be that given it is a foreign (German?) family name, it does not have any relevant translation into the native Japanese language or its Kanji system.
Ultimately, I am really impressed with your Katakana analysis. You do such fine work, ジュデイーさん.
Also, it was a pleasure to receive your kind comments last week...
あの。。。
グレグさん。。。
わたしは。。。ジェイドです
( ̄へ ̄)
Hehe。。。でもありがとう!
Wow Jade-san. I really like your analysis. I like the idea that Disney Resort is in Katakana because it's straight lines are memorable for kids. Good point. Also, the fact that word in katakana can belong to two categories is true. I had trouble trying to figure out which category it more belongs to, but I guess I can just say both like you did.
Good job!
さよなら!
Jade-san,
Wonderful photos of candies!!! I enjoyed looking at the pictures you posted... Indeed, katakana is everywhere!!
The only thing I wanted to point out is that the reason why "Disney Land Resort" is written in katakana is most likely not because of children.
If I saw "Disney Land Resort" in hiragana, it would probably be VERY intentional. And I don't think it's plausible that "Disney Land Resort" could be written in kanji (it's of course technically possible, but) and easily understood by the audience (let alone children but also adults). And that is simply because "Disney Land Resort" are loan words...
For the other examples you mentioned(ソフトキャンデー, ミルク)、I agree with your analysis...!!
The use of katakana is very interesting, and I hope you'll enjoy as you learn more!
Best,
M.N.
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