Learning Japanese: Katakana/ カタカナ

So aside from the Hiragana which I have discussed previously in Learning Japanese: Hiragana/ひらがな we also have Katakana as part of the Kana system.

Basically it has the same phonetic sounds as Hiragana, it's just that the characters that represent them are all different. Katakana has sharp edges while Hiragana has rounded characters. Katakana is only used to represent words from a foreign language.

For example:

グラフ

gurafu

(graph)

ゴルフ

gorufu

(golf)

アメリカ

Amerika

(America)

Since Katakana characters are very limited, foreign words do not sound equally the same in Japanese. So katakana will surely be a challenge for us foreigners of the Japanese language. I sometimes cannot understand how those words ended up like that. lol

Let's go through first the Katakana characters:


As usual I've learned katakana in the order I'm used to which is a-e-i-o-u and not the usual a-i-u-e-o. 

アエイオウ

a e i o u


カケキコク

ka ke ki ko ku


サセシソス

sa se shi so su


タテチトツ

ta te chi to tsu


ナネニノヌ

na ne ni no nu


ハヘヒホフ

ha he hi ho fu


マメミモム

ma me mi mo mu


ヤ＿＿ヨユ

ya _ _ yo yu


ラレリロル

ra re ri ro ru


ワヱヰヲウ

wa we wi o u

The ヲ characters is seldomly used/obsolete is some sense. Because "o" is just used as particle and is always in Hiragana. So we might not bump into this often.

Same as Hiragana, Katakana characters such as ye and yi, we and wi are also obsolete/not often used.

I honestly got difficulty in familiarizing the shi （シ）and tsu （ツ）as well as the so （ソ）and n （ン） because they look almost alike! This is where the stroke order comes as very important. If you're having difficulty just like me on that portion you might want to try familiarizing the stroke order coz they would help a LOT! 

Same as Hiragana, we will just repeat the カ、サ、タ、ハ　add ゛dakuten/tenten and  ゜handakuten.

ガゲギゴグ

ga ge gi go gu


ザゼジゾズ

za ze ji zo zu


ダデジドズ

da de ji do zu


バベビボブ

ba be bi bo bu


パペピポプ

pa pe pi po pu

The N in english alphabet is equivalent to ん　in Hiragana character, but in Katakana it's:

ン

n

Katakana characters have also the two compound Kana:

キャキョキュ

kya kyo kyu


シャシシュ

sha sho shu


チャチョチュ

cha cho chu


ニャニョニュ

nya nyo nyu


ヒャヒョヒュ

hya hyo hyu


ミャミョミュ

mya myo myu


リャリョリュ

rya ryo ryu


ギャギョギュ

gya gyo gyu


ジャジョジュ

ja jo ju


ビャビョビュ

bya byo byu


ピャピョピュ

pya pyo pyu

In terms of stroke order, you may refer to image below. 

Table from Duolingo

Take note also that just like in Hiragana, it has the same thing as double consonant sound and elongation of vowel sound. Example:

Double Consonant (using of small sukuon/ small tsu)

カップ

kappu

(cup)

ベッド

beddo

(bed)

ロボット

robotto

(robot)

Elongation of vowel sound: In katakana we put dash (ー）to mean that we are elongating the vowel sound before it.

ケーキ

(cake)



ゲーム

（game)


ギター

（guitar)

Just like what I've mentioned earlier on this post, Katakana is used to convert Foreign words into Japanese. However due to limited katakana characters, it is impossible to make the original word and the katakana word similar in how they are pronounced. 

So in Katakana they have added a few characters that may help a bit but definitely does not resolve the differences. So the best way to actually learn Katakana words is to forget how they are originally pronounced/read when studying/listening/talking Japanese. 

Small vowels:  ァェィォゥ

To transform "V' words into Japanese word (katakana), they use this character: ヴ　and added small アエイオウ. Like in the word vodka it's  ヴォッカ、however in the case of Japanese they have difficulty in pronouncing this "v" so they come of this character. However this is not often used and just stayed with　ウォッカ　（wokka). 

Additional sounds are in red characters.

ヴァ ヴェ ヴィ ヴォ ヴ

va  ve  vi  vo  vu

ワ  ウェ ウィ ウォ ウ

wa  we  wi  wo  wu

ファ フェ フィ フォ フ

fa  fe  fi  fo  fu

チャ チェ チ チョ チュ

cha che chi cho chu

ダ　デ　ディ　ド　ドゥ

da  de  di  do  du

タ  テ ティ ト トゥ

ta  te  ti  to  tu

ジャ ジェ ジ ジョ ジュ

ja  je  ji  jo  ju

シャ シェシ ショ シュ

sha she shi sho shu

Some other examples having these additional sounds are:  

ハロウィーン

Halloween

パーティー

(Party)

I'll probably create another post to provide more examples just for us to be familiar with it. Well in terms of Katakana, we'll probably need more exposure to learn more especially how a native japanese would pronounce other foreign words right. So yeah! Good luck to us!

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