katanaka

[appleraja]

hey i was wonderin since hiragana and katakana have the same sounds wuts the point of having katanaka? they just have different characters but they all sound the same right? so why cant u right foreign words in hiragana?

[Kates]

Katakana is used to help distinguish it from native Japanese words. It just makes it easier when reading Japanese. When you read a word in katakana, BECAUSE it is in katakana, you already have an understanding that it is either a foreign word or a sound (the two most likely situations, though there are more).

Perhaps, too, and this is just speculation... but the Japanese seem to like to differentiate themselves from other cultures--especially in the past, when Japan closed its borders to outsiders. Perhaps katakana was used to differentiate native words from foreign.

[appleraja]

ic, japan seems to want to be culturally mixed with others because i know that japanese value english and many of them want to learn english, yet at the same time they seem to want to distinguish themselves from everyone else

[Harisenbon]

Well, you have to understand that Japan’s insterest in internation exchange has come about in the last 30-50 years, while katakana has been around for some hundreds of years.

Like kates said, katakana was created as a means to keep track of which words were loan words, and which words were true Japanese words. It works pretty well too.

[Kates]

It works so well that now, when I see loan words in hiragana... I do double-takes. >_> What's a ぱそこん？　X_x Or the other way around... Like the first time I read "バレた" or something. Why does Japanese tease me so?! DX

Kata-hira mix-n-match drives me nutz!

[appleraja]

ah ya i forgot katanaka was created hundreds of yrs ago maybe not hundreds but u long ago

[Harisenbon]

Kates, as an addition to what you said,

changing the writing type has the same effect as writing the word in italics does in english, serving as a stressor.

so when you see バレた, it's really stressing the fact that you were found out.

Also, a weird little trivia, Katakana is actually older than Hiragana. Old japaense texts (REALLY OLD) used to be written in Katakana and kanji, not hiragana.

[Kates]

Yeah, I've grown accustomed to that, now. ^_^ I probably just read too much manga. ): It surprised and confused me at first, but it really makes sense, actually. ^^;

[Supergrunch]

I remember reading somewhere that the origins of katakana was as men's writing and hiragana women's.