The Japanese language has 3 kinds of script: Hiragana, Katakana and Kanji. Kanji, which is adopted from Chinese characters, is used for content words. Hiragana represents the basic sound system of the language and is used for various purposes such as particle, ogurikana and words which do not have corresponding kanjis or that the corresponding kanjis are too obscured or too formal for the given circumstance. Katakana represent exact one-to-one correspondence to hiragana but, however, are used for totally different purposes, some of which are indirect and subtle. Katakana is going to be the purpose of the current analysis.
The popular way many textbooks adopt to explain the uses of katakana is that it has 3 main functions. The first use of katakana is to represent loan words from foreign languages. The second use is for Onomatopoeia which is to represent sounds, movements or feelings. The last common use for katakana is to emphasize some specific words. However there are many subtle uses of katakana that might not fall into these categories. These will be illustrated by the following two examples.
The first strange case of katakana is the word トナカイ which
means "Reindeer". This word seems to be
commonly written in katakana and not hiragana, even though it has kanji
counterpart (馴鹿) with the same pronunciation and meaning. This word was mentioned in the anime "Usagi Drop" in special episode 2. The episode is about Christmas and Santa Clause and the Reindeer was mentioned in that context.
My initial guess is that this word is a loan word from foreign language which is not English. There are many other words in this class such as チャーハン or アルバイト which are borrowed from Chinese and German respectively. However, the search for the foreign origin of this word did not yield any convincing result. Also some readers pointed out that the words for other animals (ねこ, いぬ, etc.) are fairly commonly written in katakana as well. So far, no satisfactory explanation of this case have been found.
The second use of katakana that is found to be peculiar is that sometimes people's first names are written in katakana, while the last name is in kanji, even though the name is perfectly Japanese name. An example of this is 宇多田ヒカル (Utada Hikaru) but this practice is very common especially with singers' and celebrities' names.
One reader speculates that this practice is to emphasize the name of the celebrity herself. Since the use of katakana is sometimes considered fashionable, this might help promoting the celebrity's image or brand. This explains why this practice is less common in normal Japanese people. Another possible explanation is that this might help avoiding confusion in distinguishing the first name and the last name. This is unlikely though, since people with good knowledge of Japanese should be able to read common Japanese names with no problem even if everything is written purely in hiragana or kanji.
These examples have illustrated that katakana has wider and subtler used than can be summed up in 3 narrow categories. Many times the decision to use katakana is totally up to the author depending on the meaning he/she is trying to convey. On one hand this subtlety adds to the complications that Japanese language learners have to overcome. But on the other hand, this increases the flexibility and freedom of the language to add subtler nuances or interpretations to the ideas.
Hi, Pete! I'm a Japanese-language student at Columbia University who completed a similar katakana analysis assignment last semester. It's a pleasure to read your blog!
ReplyDeleteWhile most Japanese animal names are indeed written in katakana, you were right to assume that トナカイ is foreign in origin: it's derived from the Ainu word "tunakkay." (Ainu, coincidentally, is written in a modified form of katakana.) While I don't have any concrete information, my best guess as to the origin of the word is that the Japanese learned of reindeer through the Ainu at least three hundred years ago. (The kanji phrase has been in use for long enough to have its own obsolete Chinese reading, じゅんろく.) Reindeer would have been present in the northernmost Ainu-populated regions.
I sought out explanations for why animal names -- even those of native Japanese species -- don't normally use kanji or hiragana in my own analysis. You can read it here: http://kokuyakuki.blogspot.com/2012/10/katakana-analysis-final-draft_30.html
Best of luck with the rest of your semester!
It's not always clear when to use which script, is it? As you mentioned, sometimes native Japanese names are written in katakana. This is actually very common for Japanese emigrants. Still, that doesn't explain the mixed katakana-kanji names. Perhaps such singers are trying to be cool - sort of how American band names often have misspelled words.
ReplyDelete