Learn → Beginner
In the previous lesson, we learned the first syllabary called Hiragana. We know that there are two syllabaries. The second syllabary, which you'll now be learning, is called Katakana.
When the Japanese were still using Kanji phonetically, scholars were looking for a way to write more efficiently since they were writing very long documents on a daily basis. They took out parts of the Kanji they used (which were more or less the same used for Hiragana) and after a few adjustments Katakana came about.
However, the use of Katakana is a bit different than that of Hiragana. Katakana is most frequently (about 90% of the time) in foreign loan words converted to Japanese. For exaple, "smile" would be written as スマイル (すまいる). Sometimes Katakana is used for female given names, scientific names, onomatopoeia (words that represent sound, like "bang"), and sometimes in advertisements or elsewhere to place emphasis on a word.
Outside the differences in usage, Hiragana and Katakana have the exact same sets of sounds. ... Well, kind of. Katakana has some funky combinations for foreign words, even though they are typically pronounced in a Japanese fashion. For example, "violin" can be written as ヴァイオリン (va-i-o-rin) though it's pronounced バイオリン (ばいおりん).
Sections
- Vowels (ア行)
- K Sounds (カ行)
- S Sounds (サ行)
- T Sounds (タ行)
- N Sounds (ナ行)
- H Sounds (ハ行)
- M Sounds (マ行)
- Y Sounds (ヤ行)
- R Sounds (ラ行)
- W Sounds (ワ行)
- Voiced and Voiceless Sounds
- Contractions, Double Consonants, Long Vowels
- Additional Sounds
Note that in this guide, I'm no longer using romanisation. So if you have not learned Hiragana, please go back to the next section and do so!
Lessons
The Writing Systems
- Understanding the Japanese Writing Systems
- Hiragana
- Katakana
- Romaji & Why It Sucks
- Introduction to Kanji