Hiragana and Katakana in one word?

[Akira Sakuma]

I was watching Azumanga Daioh the other week and noticed a weird panda drawing in a notebook and it said: "ポたト" (po-ta-to). How come there is Hiragana in the middle of it? Shouldn't it be: "ポタト"?

/me tries not to look stupid.

[Gaijinian]

good show;)

[Akira Sakuma]

*facepalms* Oh thank you for answering my question. Someone please?

[Harisenbon]

It should be, but words (or parts of words) are often put into katakana to show emphasis, much like italics are used in English.

Conversely, katakana words can sometimes be put into hiragana to show emphasis.

[Akira Sakuma]

Can you give me some samples and explanations?B)

[Supergrunch]

Was it referring to the plant potato?- because I remember seeing that written as　ポテト, which is a better approximation of the English word.

[ryuubu]

Maybe he's just a dumb panda.

You see Katakana and Hiragana together in slang verbs like タクる which (more so around kansai) means to take a taxi.

Also えーと often uses the 長音 mark which is usually used only with katakana.

[Mukade]

The panda is probably just "misspelling" the word because, well, he's a PANDA!

It's like the ads they had in the States where the cows are trying to get you to go to Chick-fil-a, and they're painting "Ete mor chiken" (with the "k" backwards) on billboards.

[Kates]

Akira: The real way to write potato in katakana is POTETO (ポテト), as SuperGrunch said. Perhaps it's some sort of word play--but I'm not sure what potato could mean/imply in Japanese. =/

Reading manga, I come across a lot of words that are written in katakana when they are normally written in hiragana. Especially words like "NANI" and "OMAE," words that are often spoken with emphasis.

I have also seen a few words written in both hira- and katakana, which was your original question, right? ^^ The one I see most often (and almost ALWAYS written this way) is:
BARERU (バレる) - "to come out/be discovered/found out"
My dictionary has it as: ばれる (with no kanji root)--but every time I see it in this manga I read, it is always バレた (I've been found out). I suppose it's just adding some emphasis to the word.

[InsanityRanch]

As many have said, when a verb or adjective is written in katakana, the root is often written in katakana and the okurigana in hiragana. e.g., バレた

Another use I've seen katakana put to (in manga particularly) is to write a word that could be written in kanji but that the author prefers not to write that way. Or at least that was how I interpreted it, but I don't remember examples.

Also, Imperial declarations used to use katakana for particles for some reason.

In general, how to write a word can be a major puzzle for foreigners. JWPCE (Breen's dictionary) provides kanji, often several possible sets of kanji, for many words that are generally written in hiragana, so it's great for looking up weird forms you come across but not so great for figuring out standard usage. And individual authors hae quirks -- they like odd spellings sometimes. I tend to go by the reibun in my electronic dictionary because that is the best guide I have to "standard" spelling.

As for ポたト

I'd guess it's a small joke, but I have no idea what makes it funny...

Shira