File:Japanese_Katakana_kyokashotai_KA.svg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

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katakana

Also known as kana, katakama

is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji).

AI overview

Katakana is one of the four writing systems used in Japanese, alongside hiragana, kanji, and sometimes Latin letters. It's a syllabary, meaning each character represents a sound rather than a meaning, and it plays a specific role in the overall Japanese writing system.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Key facts

Writing system.name: Katakana
Writing system.type: Syllabary
Writing system.languages: Japanese, Ryukyuan, Hachijō, AinuTaiwanese Hokkien, Hakka, Palauan (formerly)
Writing system.time: present
Writing system.fam1: Oracle bone script
Writing system.fam2: Seal script
Writing system.fam3: Clerical script
Writing system.fam4: Regular script (kanji)
Writing system.fam5: Man'yōgana
Writing system.sisters: Hiragana
Writing system.sample: Japanese Katakana kyokashotai KA.svg
Writing system.imagesize: 100px
Writing system.iso15924: Kana

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Image: Stop the Permanent wave.JPG

Show 7 more facts

Commons gallery: Katakana
Commons category: Katakana
Unicode range: U+30A1-30FA,U+30FD-30FF,U+31F0-31FF,U+32D0-32FE,U+3300-3357,U+FF66-FF6F,U+FF71-FF9D,U+1AFF0-1AFF3,U+1AFF5-1AFFB,U+1AFFD-1AFFE,U+1B000,U+1B120-1B122,U+1B155,U+1B164-1B167
name: katakana
native label: 片仮名
inception: 0800-00-00
Stack Exchange tag: japanese.stackexchange.com/tags/katakana

Sources (7)

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~33 min read

Article

23 sections

Contents

Writing system
Overview
Japanese
Syllabary and orthography
Extensions
Usage
Ainu
Taiwanese
Okinawan
Table of katakana
Extended katakana
History
Obsolete kana
Variant forms
Polysyllabic kana
Yi, Ye and Wu
Stroke order
Computer encoding
Hiragana and katakana
Unicode
See also
References
External links

is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji).

The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived from components or fragments of more complex kanji. Katakana and hiragana are both kana systems. With one or two minor exceptions, each syllable (strictly mora) in the Japanese language is represented by one character or kana in each system. Each kana represents either a vowel such as "a" (katakana ア); a consonant followed by a vowel such as "ka" (katakana カ); or "n" (katakana ン), a nasal sonorant which, depending on the context, sounds like English m, n or ng () or like the nasal vowels of Portuguese or Galician.