Katakana

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Katakana (, ) is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the

Japanese writing system along with hiragana,[2] kanji, and in some cases the
Latin script (known as romaji). The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as
the katakana characters are derived from components of more complex kanji.
Katakana and hiragana are both kana systems. Each syllable (strictly mora) in the
Japanese language is represented by one character, or kana, in each system. Each
kana is either a vowel such as "a" (katakana ); a consonant followed by a
vowel such as "ka" (katakana ); or "n" (katakana ), a nasal sonorant which,
depending on the context, sounds either like English m, n, or ng ([]), or like the
nasal vowels of Portuguese or French.
In contrast to the hiragana syllabary, which is used for those Japanese language
words and grammatical inflections which kanji does not cover, the katakana
syllabary usage is quite similar to italics in English; specifically, it is used for
transcription of foreign language words into Japanese and the writing of loan
words (collectively gairaigo); for emphasis; to represent onomatopoeia; for
technical and scientific terms; and for names of plants, animals, minerals, and
often Japanese companies.
Katakana are characterized by short, straight strokes and sharp corners, and are
the simplest of the Japanese scripts.[3] There are two main systems of ordering
katakana: the old-fashioned iroha ordering, and the more prevalent gojon
ordering.

Katakana

Type

Syllabary

Languages Japanese, Okinawan, Ainu, Palauan[1]

Time
period

~800 AD to the present

Parent
systems

Oracle Bone Script

Sister
systems

Hiragana, Hentaigana

Seal Script
Clerical Script
Regular script (Kanji)
Man'ygana
Katakana

ISO 15924 Kana, 411

Contents
1 Writing system
1.1 Script
1.2 Japanese

Direction

Left-to-right

Unicode
alias

Katakana

Unicode
range

U+30A0U+30FF
(http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U30A0.pdf),
U+31F0U+31FF

1.2.1 Syllabary and orthography

1.2.2 Usage
1.3 Ainu
1.4 Taiwanese
1.5 Okinawan
2 Table of katakana

(http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U31F0.pdf),
U+3200U+32FF
(http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U3200.pdf),
U+FF00U+FFEF
(http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/UFF00.pdf),
U+1B000U+1B0FF
(http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1B000.pdf)

3 History
4 Stroke order
5 Computer encoding
5.1 Half-width kana
5.2 Unicode
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

Writing system
Script
The complete katakana script consists of 48 characters, not counting functional and diacritic marks:
5 nucleus vowels V
42 core or body (onset-nucleus) syllabograms CV, consisting of 9 consonants in combination with each of the 5 vowels, of which 3
possible combinations (yi, ye, wu) are not canonical
1 coda consonant C
These are conceived as a 510 grid (gojon, , lit. "Fifty Sounds") which inherits its vowel and consonant order from Sanskrit practice.
In vertical text contexts, which used to be the default case, the grid is usually presented as 10 columns by 5 rows, with vowels on the right
hand side and (a) on top. Unlike other syllabaries, katakana glyphs in the same row or column do not share common graphic characteristics.

Three of the syllabograms to be expected, yi, ye and wu, may have been used idiosyncratically with
varying glyphs, but never became conventional in any language and are not present at all in modern
Japanese.

Gojon Katakana characters

with nucleus
a
i
u
e
o

The 50-sound table is often amended with an extra character, the nasal stop (n). This can appear in
several positions, most often next to the N signs or, because it developed from one of many mu
hentaigana, below the u column. It may also be appended to the vowel row or the a column. Here, it is
shown in a table of its own.

The script includes two diacritic marks that change the initial sound of a syllabogram. Both appear
mutually exclusive at the upper right of the base character. A double dot, called dakuten, indicates a
primary alteration, most often it voices the consonant: kg, sz, td and hb. Secondary alteration,
where possible, is shown by a circular handakuten: hp. Diacritics are a comparatively new feature of
the script, only becoming mandatory in the Japanese writing system in the second half of the 20th
century. Their application is strictly limited in proper writing systems, but may be more extensive in
academic transcriptions.

Furthermore, some characters may have special semantics when used in smaller size after a normal one
(see below), but this does not make the script truly bicameral.
The layout of the gojon table promotes a systematic view of kana syllabograms as being always
pronounced with the same single consonant followed by a vowel. This is, however, not the case today
(synchronically) and also never has been (diachronically). Therefore existing schemes for the
romanization of Japanese either are based on the systematic nature of the script, e.g. nihon-siki ti, or
they apply some Western graphotactics, usually the English one, to the common Japanese pronunciation
of the kana signs, e.g. Hepburn-shiki chi. Both approaches conceal the fact, though, that many
consonant-based katakana signs, especially those canonically ending in u, can be used in coda position,
too, where the vowel is not pronounced, or only as a weak schwa.

Japanese
Syllabary and orthography
Of the 48 katakana syllabograms described above, only 46 are used in modern Japanese, and one of these is
preserved for only a single use:

Katakana coda character

n

Katakana diacritics
dakuten

handakuten

wi and we are pronounced as vowels in modern Japanese and are therefore obsolete, being supplanted by i
and e respectively.
wo is now used only as a particle, and is normally pronounced the same as vowel o. As a particle, it is
usually written in hiragana () and the katakana form, , is uncommon.
A small version of the katakana for ya, yu or yo (, or respectively) may be added to katakana ending in i.
This changes the i vowel sound to a glide (palatalization) to a, u or o, e.g. (ki + ya) /kja/. Addition of the small
y kana is called yon.
Small versions of the five vowel kana are sometimes used to represent trailing off sounds ( haa, nee), but
in katakana they are more often used in yon-like extended digraphs designed to represent phonemes not present in
Japanese; examples include (che) in chenji ("change"), and (wi) and (di) in
Wikipedia.
A character called a sokuon, which is visually identical to a small tsu , indicates that the following consonant is
geminated (doubled); this is represented in rmaji by doubling the consonant that follows the sokuon. For example,
compare Japanese saka "hill" with sakka "author". Geminated consonants are common in
transliterations of foreign loanwords; for example English "bed" is represented as (beddo). The sokuon also
sometimes appears at the end of utterances, where it denotes a glottal stop. However, it cannot be used to double
the na, ni, nu, ne, no syllables' consonants to double these, the singular n () is added in front of the syllable.
The sokuon may also be used to approximate a non-native sound; Bach is written (Bahha); Mach as
(Mahha).
Both katakana and hiragana usually spell native long vowels with the addition of a second vowel kana, but
katakana uses a vowel extender mark, called a chonpu ("long vowel mark"), in foreign loanwords. This is a short
line () following the direction of the text, horizontal for yokogaki (horizontal text), and vertical for tategaki
(vertical text). For example, mru is the gairaigo for e-mail taken from the English word "mail"; the
lengthens the e. There are some exceptions, such as (rsoku ( ? , "candle")) or (ktai ( ? ,
"mobile phone")), where Japanese words written in katakana use the elongation mark, too.
Standard and voiced iteration marks are written in katakana as and respectively.
Usage

Katakana used in
Japanese orthography
a i u e o

K
G
S
Z
T
D
N
H
B
P
M
Y

R
W
n

unused/obsolete

In modern Japanese, katakana is most often used for transcription of words from foreign languages (other than
words historically imported from Chinese), called gairaigo.[4] For example, "television" is written (terebi).
Similarly, katakana is usually used for country names, foreign places, and foreign personal names. For example,
the United States is usually referred to as Amerika, rather than in its ateji kanji spelling of
Amerika.
Katakana are also used for onomatopoeia,[4] words used to represent sounds for example, (pinpon), the
"ding-dong" sound of a doorbell.

Katakana
functional
characters
sokuon

chonpu

iteration mark

Technical and scientific terms, such as the names of animal and plant species and minerals, are also commonly written in katakana.[5] Homo
sapiens ( Homo sapiensu), as a species, is written (hito), rather than its kanji .
Katakana are also often, but not always, used for transcription of Japanese company names. For example Suzuki is written , and Toyota
is written . Katakana are also used for emphasis, especially on signs, advertisements, and hoardings (i.e., billboards). For example, it is
common to see koko ("here"), gomi ("trash"), or megane ("glasses"). Words the writer wishes to emphasize in a sentence are
also sometimes written in katakana, mirroring the European usage of italics.[4]
Pre-World War II official documents mix katakana and kanji in the same way that hiragana and kanji are mixed in modern Japanese texts, that
is, katakana were used for okurigana and particles such as wa or o.
Katakana were also used for telegrams in Japan before 1988, and for computer systems before the introduction of multibyte characters in
the 1980s. Most computers in that era used katakana instead of kanji or hiragana for output.
Although words borrowed from ancient Chinese are usually written in kanji, loanwords from modern Chinese dialects which are borrowed
directly use katakana rather than the Sino-Japanese on'yomi readings.
Japanese

Examples of Chinese loanwords in Japanese

Rmaji
Meaning
Chinese Romanization Source language

mjan

mahjong

roncha Oolong tea

wlngch

chhan fried rice

chofn

cha siu

chsh barbecued pork

shmai a form of dim sum

mjing

siu maai

Mandarin

Cantonese

The very common Chinese loanword rmen, written in katakana as in Japanese, is rarely written with its kanji ().

There are rare instances where the opposite has occurred, with kanji forms created from words originally written in katakana. An example of
this is kh, ("coffee"), which can be alternatively written as . This kanji usage is occasionally employed by coffee manufacturers
or coffee shops for novelty.
Katakana are used to indicate the on'yomi (Chinese-derived readings) of a kanji in a kanji dictionary. For instance, the kanji has a Japanese
pronunciation, written in hiragana as hito (person), as well as a Chinese derived pronunciation, written in katakana as jin (used to
denote groups of people). Katakana are sometimes used instead of hiragana as furigana to give the pronunciation of a word written in Roman
characters, or for a foreign word, which is written as kanji for the meaning, but intended to be pronounced as the original.
Katakana are also sometimes used to indicate words being spoken in a foreign or otherwise unusual accent. For example, in a manga, the
speech of a foreign character or a robot may be represented by konnichiwa ("hello") instead of the more typical hiragana
. Some Japanese personal names are written in katakana. This was more common in the past, hence elderly women often have katakana
names.
It is very common to write words with difficult-to-read kanji in katakana. This phenomenon is often seen with medical terminology. For
example, in the word hifuka ("dermatology"), the second kanji, , is considered difficult to read, and thus the word hifuka is
commonly written or , mixing kanji and katakana. Similarly, the difficult-to-read kanji such as gan ("cancer") are often
written in katakana or hiragana.
Katakana is also used for traditional musical notations, as in the Tozan-ry of shakuhachi, and in sankyoku ensembles with koto, shamisen and
shakuhachi.
Some instructors for Japanese as a foreign language "introduce katakana after the students have learned to read and write sentences in
hiragana without difficulty and know the rules."[6] Most students who have learned hiragana "do not have great difficulty in memorizing"
katakana as well.[7] Other instructors introduce the katakana first, because these are used with loanwords. This gives students a chance to
practice reading and writing kana with meaningful words. This was the approach taken by the influential American linguistics scholar Eleanor
Harz Jorden in Japanese: The Written Language (parallel to Japanese: The Spoken Language).[8]

Ainu
Katakana is commonly used to write the Ainu language by Japanese linguists. In Ainu language katakana usage, the consonant that comes at
the end of a syllable is represented by a small version of a katakana that corresponds to that final consonant and with an arbitrary vowel. For
instance "up" is represented by ( [u followed by small pu]). Ainu also uses three handakuten modified katakana, ([tse]), and
or ([tu
]). In Unicode, the Katakana Phonetic Extensions block (U+31F0U+31FF (http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U31F0.pdf))
exists for Ainu language support. These characters are used for the Ainu language only.

Taiwanese
Taiwanese kana ( ) is a katakana-based writing system once used to write Holo Taiwanese, when
Taiwan was under Japanese control. It functioned as a phonetic guide for Chinese characters, much like furigana in Japanese or Zhuyin fuhao
in Chinese. There were similar systems for other languages in Taiwan as well, including Hakka and Formosan languages.
Unlike Japanese or Ainu, Taiwanese kana are used similarly to the Zhyn fho characters, with kana serving as initials, vowel medials and
consonant finals, marked with tonal marks. A dot below the initial kana represented aspirated consonants, and , , , , , and with
a superpositional bar represented sounds found only in Taiwanese.

Okinawan
Katakana is used as a phonetic guide for the Okinawan language, unlike the various other systems to represent Okinawan, which use hiragana
with extensions. The system was devised by the Okinawa Center of Language Study (http://ryukyu-lang.lib.u-ryukyu.ac.jp/srnh/sign.html) of
the University of the Ryukyus. It uses many extensions and yon to show the many non-Japanese sounds of Okinawan.

Table of katakana
For modern digraph additions that are used mainly to transcribe other languages, see Transcription into Japanese.
This is a table of katakana together with their Hepburn romanization and rough IPA transcription for their use in Japanese. Katakana with
dakuten or handakuten follow the gojon kana without them.
Characters shi and tsu , and so and n(g) , look very similar in print except for the slant and stroke shape. These differences in slant
and shape are more prominent when written with an ink brush.
Grey background indicates obsolete characters.
Katakana syllabograms
Monographs (gojon)

a [a]

i [i]

u [u
]

e [e]

o [o]

Digraphs (yon)
ya

yu

yo

S
T
N
H
M
Y

ka [ka]

ki [ki]

ku [ku
]

ke [ke]

ko [ko]

kya [ka]

kyu [ku
]

kyo [ko]

sa [sa]

shi [i]

su [su
]

se [se]

so [so]

sha [a]

shu [u
]

sho [o]

chi [t
i]

tsu [t
su
]

ta [ta]

te [te]

to [to]

cha [t
a]

chu [t
u
]

cho [t
o]

na [na]

ni [ni]

nu [nu
]

ne [ne]

no [no]

nya [a]

nyu [u
]

nyo [o]

ha [ha]

hi [i]

fu [u
]

he [he]

ho [ho]

hya [a]

hyu [u
]

hyo [o]

ma [ma]

mi [mi]

mu [mu
]

me [me]

mo [mo]

mya [ma]

myu [mu
]

myo [mo]

[n 1]

[n 1]

ya [ja]
R
W

yu [ju
]

yo [jo]

ra [a]

ri [i]

ru [u
]

re [e]

ro [o]

rya [a]

ryu [u
]

ryo [o]

[n 1]

wa [wa]

wi

[i][n 2]

we

[e][n 2]

wo [o][n 2]

Final nasal monograph

Functional graphemes

n [n] [m] [] before stop consonants;

n[] [
][] elsewhere

(before geminate consonant)

(after long
vowel)

(reduplicates
and unvoices
syllable)

(reduplicates
and voices
syllable)

Monographs with diacritics: gojon with (han)dakuten

Digraphs with diacritics: yon with

(han)dakuten

ya

yu

yo

ga [a]

gi [i]

gu [u
]

ge [e]

go [o]

gya [a]

gyu [u
]

gyo [o]

za [za]

ji [d
i]

zu [zu
]

ze [ze]

zo [zo]

ja [d
a]

ju [d
u
]

jo [d
o]

da [da]

ji [d
i][n 3]

zu [zu
][n 3]

de [de]

do [do]

ja [d
a][n 3]

ju [d
u
][n 3]

jo [d
o][n 3]

ba [ba]

bi [bi]

bu [bu
]

be [be]

bo [bo]

bya [ba]

byu [bu
]

byo [bo]

pa [pa]

pi [pi]

pu [pu
]

pe [pe]

po [po]

pya [pa]

pyu [pu
]

pyo [po]

Notes
1. ^ a b c Theoretical combinations yi, ye and wu are unused .
2. ^ a b c The characters in positions wi and we are obsolete in modern Japanese, and have been replaced by (i) and (e). The character wo, in
practice normally pronounced o, is preserved in only one use: as a particle. This is normally written in hiragana (), so katakana sees only limited
use. See Gojon and the articles on each character for details.
3. ^ a b c d e The (di) and (du) kana (often romanised as ji and zu) are primarily used for etymologic spelling , when the unvoiced equivalents (ti)
and (tu) (often romanised as chi and tsu) undergo a sound change (rendaku) and become voiced when they occur in the middle of a compound word.
In other cases, the identically-pronounced (ji) and (zu) are used instead. (di) and (du) can never begin a word, and they are not common in
katakana, since the concept of rendaku does not apply to transcribed foreign words, one of the major uses of katakana.

History
Katakana was developed in the 9th century[9] (during the early Heian period) by Buddhist monks by taking parts of man'ygana characters as a
form of shorthand, hence this kana is so-called kata ( ? , partial, fragmented).
For example, ka () comes from the left side of ka ( ? , literally increase, but the original meaning is no longer applicable to kana). The
adjacent table shows the origins of each katakana: the red markings of the original Chinese character (used as man'ygana) eventually became
each corresponding symbol.[10]

Recent findings by Yoshinori Kobayashi, professor of Japanese at Tokushima Bunri

University, suggest the possibility that the katakana-like annotations used in reading guide
marks ( / okototen) may have originated in 8th-century Korea possibly
Silla and then introduced to Japan through Buddhist texts.[9][11]

Stroke order
The following table shows the method for writing each katakana character. It is arranged in
the traditional way, beginning top right and reading columns down. The numbers and arrows
indicate the stroke order and direction respectively.

Computer encoding
In addition to fonts intended for Japanese text and Unicode catch-all fonts (like Arial Unicode MS), many fonts intended for Chinese (such as
MS Song) and Korean (such as Batang) also include katakana.

Half-width kana
In addition to the usual full-width ( zenkaku) display forms of characters, katakana has a second form, half-width ( hankaku) (there
are no half-width hiragana or kanji). The half-width forms were originally associated with the JIS X 0201 encoding. Although their display
form is not specified in the standard, in practice they were designed to fit into the same rectangle of pixels as Roman letters to enable easy

implementation on the computer equipment of the day. This space is narrower than the square space traditionally occupied by Japanese
characters, hence the name "half-width". In this scheme, diacritics (dakuten and handakuten) are separate characters. When originally devised,
the half-width katakana were represented by a single byte each, as in JIS X 0201, again in line with the capabilities of contemporary computer
technology.
In the late 1970s, two-byte character sets such as JIS X 0208 were introduced to support the full range of Japanese characters, including
katakana, hiragana and kanji. Their display forms were designed to fit into an approximately square array of pixels, hence the name "fullwidth". For backwards compatibility, separate support for half-width katakana has continued to be available in modern multi-byte encoding
schemes such as Unicode, by having two separate blocks of characters one displayed as usual (full-width) katakana, the other displayed as
half-width katakana.
Although often said to be obsolete, in fact the half-width katakana are still used in many systems and encodings. For example, the titles of mini
discs can only be entered in ASCII or half-width katakana, and half-width katakana are commonly used in computerized cash register displays,
on shop receipts, and Japanese digital television and DVD subtitles. Several popular Japanese encodings such as EUC-JP, Unicode and Shift
JIS have half-width katakana code as well as full-width. By contrast, ISO-2022-JP has no half-width katakana, and is mainly used over SMTP
and NNTP.

Unicode
Katakana was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 1991 with the release of version 1.0.
The Unicode block for (full-width) katakana is U+30A0U+30FF.
Encoded in this block along with the katakana are the nakaguro word-separation middle dot, the chon vowel extender, the katakana iteration
marks, and a ligature of sometimes used in vertical writing.

Katakana[1]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U30A0.pdf) (PDF)
0

U+30Ax

U+30Bx

U+30Cx

U+30Dx

U+30Ex

U+30Fx

Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 7.0

Half-width equivalents to the usual full-width katakana also exist in Unicode. These are encoded within the Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms
block (U+FF00U+FFEF) (which also includes full-width forms of Latin characters, for instance), starting at U+FF65 and ending at U+FF9F
(characters U+FF61U+FF64 are half-width punctuation marks). This block also includes the half-width dakuten and handakuten. The fullwidth versions of these characters are found in the Hiragana block.

Katakana subset of Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms[1]

Official Unicode Consortium code chart (http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/UFF00.pdf) (PDF)
0

...

(U+FF00U+FF64 omitted)

U+FF6x

U+FF7x

U+FF8x

U+FF9x

...

(U+FFA0U+FFEF omitted)

Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 7.0

Circled katakana are code points U+32D0U+32FE in the Enclosed CJK Letters and Months block (U+3200U+32FF). A circled (n) is not
included.
Katakana subset of Enclosed CJK Letters and Months[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U3200.pdf) (PDF)
0

...

(U+3200U+32CF omitted)

U+32Dx

U+32Ex

U+32Fx

Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 7.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Extensions to Katakana for phonetic transcription of Ainu and other languages were added to the Unicode standard in March 2002 with the
release of version 3.2.

The Unicode block for Katakana Phonetic Extensions is U+31F0U+31FF:

Katakana Phonetic Extensions[1]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U31F0.pdf) (PDF)
U+31Fx

Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 7.0

Historic and variant forms of Japanese kana characters were added to the Unicode standard in October 2010 with the release of version 6.0.
The Unicode block for Kana Supplement is U+1B000U+1B0FF:
Kana Supplement[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1B000.pdf) (PDF)
0

U+1B00x
U+1B01x

...

(omitted; not used yet)

U+1B0Fx
Notes
1.^ As of Unicode version 7.0
2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Katakana in other Unicode blocks:

Dakuten and handakuten diacritics are located in the Hiragana block:
U+3099 COMBINING KATAKANA-HIRAGANA VOICED SOUND MARK (non-spacing dakuten):
U+309A COMBINING KATAKANA-HIRAGANA SEMI-VOICED SOUND MARK (non-spacing handakuten):
U+309B KATAKANA-HIRAGANA VOICED SOUND MARK (spacing dakuten):

U+309C KATAKANA-HIRAGANA SEMI-VOICED SOUND MARK (spacing handakuten):

Two katakana-based emoji are in the Enclosed Ideographic Supplement block:
U+1F201 SQUARED KATAKANA KOKO ('here' sign):
U+1F202 SQUARED KATAKANA SA ('service' sign):
A katakana-based Japanese TV symbol from the ARIB STD-B24 standard is in the Enclosed Ideographic Supplement block:
U+1F213 SQUARED KATAKANA DE ('data broadcasting service linked with a main program' symbol):

See also
Japanese phonology
Historical kana usage
Rmaji
Gugyeol
Tdaiji Fujumonk, oldest example of kanji text with katakana annotations

References
1. ^ Thomas E. McAuley, Language change in East Asia, 2001:90
2. ^ Roy Andrew Miller, A Japanese Reader: Graded Lessons in the Modern Language, Rutland, Vermont: Charles E. Tuttle Company, Tokyo, Japan
(1966), p. 28, Lesson 7 : Katakana : ano. "Side by side with hiragana, modern Japanese writing makes use of another complete set of similar symbols
called the katakana."
3. ^ Miller, p. 28. "The katana symbols, rather simpler, more angular and abrupt in their line than the hiragana..."
4. ^ a b c Yookoso! An Invitation to Contemporary Japanese 1st edition McGraw-Hill 1993, page 29 "The Japanese Writing System (2) Katakana"
5. ^ "Hiragana, Katakana & Kanji" (http://www.japanesewordswriting.com/). Japanese Word Characters. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
6. ^ Mutsuko Endo Simon, A Practical Guide for Teachers of Elementary Japanese, Center for Japanese Studies, the University of Michigan (1984) p. 36,
3.3 Katakana
7. ^ Simon, p. 36
8. ^ Reading Japanese, Lesson 1 (http://www.joyo96.org/96K/Lesson_1.html)
9. ^ a b Japan Times, "Katakana system may be Korean, professor says (http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2002/04/04/news/katakana-system-may-be-

korean-professor-says/)"
10. ^ Japanese katakana (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese_katakana.htm) (Omniglot.com)
11. ^ Yoshinori Kobayashi, (http://ir.lib.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/00029704) ("Relationship between tento in
Ancient Korean and the origin of Japan's okoto point)

External links
Katakana Unicode chart (http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U30A0.pdf)
Japanese, including "practice kana" links,
(http://www.dmoz.org//Computers/Software/Educational/Languages/Japanese) at DMOZ
Learn Katakana with Audio Slideshow (http://www.sayjack.com/learn/japanese/katakana/)
KanaTeacher - Practice and learn Katakana online. (http://www.unckel.de/kanateacher/index-

Wikimedia Commons has

media related to Katakana.
Look up katakana in
Wiktionary, the free
dictionary.

en.html)
Japanese dictionary with Katakana, Hiragana and Kanji on-screen keyboards (http://japanese-dict.com/)
Animated Katakana stroke orders with audio (http://drmoku.com/katakana-animated-stroke-orders-2/)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Katakana&oldid=628171627"
Categories: Japanese writing system Japanese writing system terms Kana Scripts encoded in Unicode 1.0
This page was last modified on 4 October 2014 at 05:34.
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