Revision of Katakana Analysis

I believe that Katakana was probably born with its certain purposes: exclusively for male Japanese, or for Japanese Constitution, etc. However, as time went by, the use of Katakana might have been evolved or added and subtracted with a couple of reasons.

First, Japan has historically accepted various foreign cultures. At the same time, Japanese people needed to describe whatever foreign things they accepted. As an illustration, if Captain Smith had come to Japan for the first time as a western person with blue eyes and blond hair, he would have probably said, "How do you do? My name is Smith. hu hu hu" Didn't Japanese people need to write "Smith" in Japanese? I think that's the most frequent explanation of Katakana usage. In the handout which Sato sensei gave us, there are four explanations on Japanese writing system. All of them are talking about "loanwords and foreign names" for Katakana. This is the starting point where each of explanation could develop toward different ways. For example, I love my Lumix GF1. In its Japanese manual, it indicates ヂジタルカメラ that means “digital camera” in English. There is no doubt on the fact that Japan is one of the best digital camera producers, but it was not originally from Japan. Japan accepted ヂジタルカメラ from foreign country with the word. That's why it was expressed in Katakana. In addition, two parts of the ヂジタル＋カメラ came into Japan at different times and combined together in Katakana.

Second reason why Katakana is I think for the emphasis. I can easily find this on the label of Asahi beer at Mitsuwa supermarket in Edgewater, New Jersey. アサヒビール　スーパードライ. It means "Asahi Beer Super dry". It contains not only loan words (Beer Super dry), but it also does the emphasis on 朝日 or あさひ. It looks in Kanji or hiragana is more proper, but the reason why Asahi in Katakana is probably that Asahi beer company would like to emphasize their brand name. Instead of kanji or hiragana, katakana is providing more vehement impression from two different places at this time-western and Chinese. I think this is similar with the function of CAPITAL of the alphabet.

Finally, as one of the handout explanations says, they would be onomatopoeic words. ボシューーッ in Dragon ball manga is a example. Because Japanese has a plethora of onomatopoeia, the expression of onomatopoeia would naturally have developed in emphatic way of Katakana. Kanji could not have express sound, and hiragana did not have the function of emphasis. Although it would not logical to say, I emotionally agreed with the use of Katakana. What do you think? ボシューーッ is the expression of sound, mimicking the surreal weapon is shooting a surreal beam toward an enemy. Katakana seems to be the best choice.

From the reasons described above, I understand why each textbook has different explanation on Katakana. I want to suggest that the main reason can be found in the history, the long time. The time Japanese people lived must have given birth to the various reasons. And how can this be defined in a mechanical way?

ジュ　ホミン。

ながいしゅうまつ

わたしはじゅうがつにじゅぅくにちソーホーへいきました。
そのひ、ユニクロとトップマンのみせをみたいでした。なにもかいませんでしたがおもしろいいふくがたくさんありました。ひとがおおいでした。
ヂーンアンドデルーカへもいきました。そして　コーヒーをいっぱいのみました。わたしはそこのアイスラテがだいすきです。ドーナツもみっつたばました。それからタイレストランにばんごはんおたべました。とてもおいしかったです。ちがてつでコロンビアへかえりました。としょかんににほんごのしゅくだいをしました。
じゅいちがつついたちうちのいちにちぜんぶねましたね。よかったです。

Literary work using Katakana: 3 haiku works

ボシューーッ
冬のスポーツ
がんばれジェッツ

Comment: NFL is the title of this haiku work. ボシューーッ is a onomatopoeia of Katakana use. On top of that, I use it to sound the flight of footballs or jumping of players. It also express the dynamic and excitement of the football games, which are held in winter.
Althoug I am little bit into Giants, Jets, ジェッツ goes well with the mora of the third row.


わたしたち
はるのメモリー
アレルギー

Comment: Titled Allergy. メモリー (memory)and アレルキー (allergy)are Katakana use as foreign words. I tried to express modernity with メモリー, driving readers to emotional subjects related with modern world, i.e. broken love. But I hoped アレルギー would turn over readers to not serious, or funny ending.

ぼくのゆめ
シルバースロープ
金メダル

Comment: The title of this piece is Snowboard, my favorite sports. That exaggerated goal, 金メダル (gold medal) is an interesting Katakana because it is combined with Kanji. Loan words from different sources! To express the seasonality of haiku, the second row says シルバースロープ (silver slope). If it works, it says not only season, the snow, but it also indicates ski or snowboard.

Composition 2: てがみ

やまださんへ。

はじめましで。　わたしは　ジュ　ホミンです。　ことし　ろくがつからはちがつまで　やまださんのうちへ　いきます。　そして　にほんこをならいます。　やまださんとごかぞくぜんぶに　おせわになります。　わたしは　かんこくじんですが、　ニューヨークのコロンビアだいがくで　ビズネスをべんきょうします。　いまも　ここで　さとうせんせいに　にほんごを　ならいます。　クラスは　むずかしいですが、おもしろいです。ろくがつふつかに　ＪＦＫからなりたまで　ＪＡＬのひこうきでいきます。よろしくおねがいします。

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　11月３日
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　ジュ　ホミン

Katakana Anaysis Draft

I believe that Katakana was probably born with its solitary or so purpose: exclusively for male Japanese, or for Japanese Constitution, etc. However, as time went by, the use of Kanatana might have been evolved or added and subtracted with a couple of reasons.

First, Japan has historically accepted various foreign culture. At the same time, Japanese people needed to describe whatever foreign things they accepted. As an illustration, if Captain Smith had come to Japan for the first time as a western person with blue eyes and blond hair, he would have probably said, "How do you do? my name is Smith. hu hu hu" Didn't Japanese people need to write "Smith" in Japanese? I think that's the most frequent explantion of Katakana usage. In the handout which Sato sensei gave us, there are four explanations on Japanese writing system. All of them are talking about "loanwords and foreign names" for Katakana. This is the starting point where each of explanation could develop toward different ways. For example,I love my Lumix GF1. In its Japanese manual, it indicates ヂジタルカメラ that means digital camera in English. There is no doubt on the fact that Japan is one of the best digital camera producers, but it was not originally from Japan. That's why they expressed ヂジタルカメラ in Katakana.

Second reason why Kanakana is I think the emphasis. I can easily find this on the label of Asahi beer at Mitsuwa supermaket in Edgewater, New Jersey. アサヒビール　スーパードライ. It means "Asahi Beer Superdry". It contains not only loan words (Beer Superdry), but it also does the emphasis on 朝日 or あさひ. It looks in Kanji or hirakana is more proper, but the reason why asahi in Katakana is probably that asahi company'd like to emphasize thier brand name. I think this is similar with the function of CAPITALs of the alphabet.

Finally, as one of the handout explanation says, they would be onomatopoeic words. When I saw ボシューーッ in Dragon ball manga, although I could not speak out the exact reason, I emotionally agreed with the use of Katakana. What do you think? ボシューーッ is the expression of sound, mimicing the surreal weapon is shooting a surreal beam toward an enemy. Kanji or hiragana?

From the reasons described above, I understand why each textbook has differnt explanation on Katakana. I want to suggest that the main reason is history. The time Japanese people lived must have given birth to the various reasons. And how can this be defined in a mechanical way?

ジュ　ホミン。