The use of katakana

Mainly used in the following situations:

Loan words, foreign names/foreign place names and other proper nouns

Onomatopoeia and mimetic language

Japanese names of organisms and minerals (The Japanese government has recommended that scientific names of animals and plants in academic fields should be expressed in katakana, but personal usage habits are not included in the regulations. )

Formula documents before World War II (used together with Chinese characters)

Telegrams before August 1988·Computer systems that do not support double-bytes (use half-width Katakana)

Katakana (かたかな; katakana) is a type of phonetic symbols (syllabic characters) in Japanese. Together with Hiragana and Manyo Kana, it is collectively called Kana. The three characters "Katakana" can be expressed in Katakana as "カタカナ". When signing in kana, it is generally written in katakana.

The use of katakana

Mainly used in the following situations:

Loan words, foreign names/foreign place names and other proper nouns

Onomatopoeia and mimetic language

Japanese names of organisms and minerals (The Japanese government has recommended that scientific names of animals and plants in academic fields should be expressed in katakana, but personal usage habits are not included in the regulations. )

Formula documents before World War II (used together with Chinese characters)

Telegrams before August 1988·Computer systems that do not support double-bytes (use half-width Katakana)

Katakana list

あ道いsectionうsectionえsectionおsection

あ行アイウエオ

か行カキクケコ

さ行サシスセソ

た行タチツテト

な行ナニヌネノ

は行ハヒフヘホ

ま行マミムメモ

や行ヤユヨ

ら行ラリルレロ

わ行ワヰヱヲ

ン

「ヰ」「ヱ” is no longer used in modern Japanese.

The origin of katakana

Katakana is simplified from the regular script of Chinese characters by taking out a part of the kanji that matches the sound. It was invented in the early Heian period to teach Chinese reading. However, the current katakana form was determined during the Meiji period. Before that, one pronunciation often had multiple katakana corresponding to it.

Taiwan’s early textbooks claimed that katakana was created by Kibi Masabi, which is actually incorrect. The origin of kana is the simplification of Chinese characters agreed upon by many people, not the work of one person.