カタカナ Final

The very origins of the Katakana alphabet is fascinating just to say a little. Since I have great devotion to the Buddha and his teaching as I practice Vipassana Meditation it makes me happy to know that the system of the Katakana alphabet was invented by Buddhist scholars in the 9th century. The Katakana symbols are derivatives of the Chinese Kanji. As the monks had trouble keeping up with the writing of the Chinese Kanji they started to write just a part of each symbol, hence derivatives of Kanji.

It is widely thought throughout the world that the Katakana characters are used just as a marker for foreign words. It is very well true that Katakana is used when writing loan words from English and also from other languages. In fact, I was sort of disappointed when I realized that I had to write my own name in Katakana ヤコブ and not being able to use Hiragana or Kanji. This disappointment quickly disappeared once I understood that Katakana characters are now an integrated piece of the Japanese language system on other levels as well.

Katakana is often used when one wants to emphasize something in ones writing even if it is not a non-Japanese word. If there is something in particular that you want the reader to pay attention to then it is not at all uncommon for newspapers and magazines to use Katakana for Japanese words. I picked up a couple of free magazines at Sunrise Mart (a Japanese grocery store) near Astor Place and I found words such as キレー (きれい) and ヤスイ (やすい). These words are not foreign words but regular Japanese words that could easily be written with Hiragana and Kanji, but in these advertisements, the writer chose the more unexpected way of writing these words. It clearly stands out dropping these words spelled out in Katakana unexpectedly and it's a great business idea.

This brings me to the next point. When I was talking to a Japanese friend that I have from my time in Italy, he said that this is one of the reasons why Japanese companies spell their names in Katakana. ホンダ, and ミツビシ are easier on the eye and easier detected by the consumer in the ocean of advertisements than if it were to be written in Hiragana or Kanji. He explained to me that this is a marketing strategy. It should be added as well that the company in question also wants to keep an international label and therefore the natural choice is Katakana.

Another field where Katakana appears frequently is in science. As a mathematics major I have the opportunity to study a language that is not subject to interpretation and that means the same all over the world. This is exactly one of the important points when applying Katakana to sciences. It makes sense to use Katakana for diseases and other scientific just because they are very difficult to write and read in Kanji. An example is ガン (cancer) sometimes an even more anglified version shows up, カンサー. Another term in the medical field in which Katakana is used is ヒフカ (dermatology). I mean, which one do you prefer, ヒフカ or 皮膚科? I get a headache just by looking at the second one :)

I think this catches the essence of Katakana. I have learned to appreciate them more by studying them and understanding them.