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.