Katakana Analysis (Final)

Nicholas Frankel

10/30/12

Katakana Analysis (Final)

For my katakana analysis project I chose the onomonopiac word “ピンポン”, translated to “ping pong”, which is the word that Japanese people use to describe the sound of a door bell. In the United States, the sound we typically equate to a doorbell is “Ding Dong”. It’s not dissimilar to the Japanese equivalent; I find it interesting that we pick up on different emphasis. Obviously the purpose behind this word being written in katakana as oppose to hiragana or kanji is that it is a word for sound, which is one of the primary uses for katakana along with assimilating loan words. Also, just like in English, onomatopoeic words receive special regard. In much the same way Japanese writers use katakana, in English, italics or quotations are used to mark onomatopoeia.

            

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I’m a pretty big fan of Japanese cinema, and especially of anime. I used to subscribe to anime magazines such as Otaku, and read the stories about upcoming anime television and movie events. Often times, katakana would be employed on the magazine cover and within the magazine for what I imagine was pop emphasis. As stated in ようこそ, Japanese people, especially young urbanites, believe foreign loanwords have a certain element of sophistication and modernity to them. Often they would substitute native Japanese words for use of these loan words. For instance, consider the words for “ticket”, チケット vs きっぷ. There is no need choose the katakana form over hiragana, its simply becoming trendy to do so. It seems loans words are becoming more and more prevalent in modern Japanese colloquialisms.

To give another example, in magna I've encountered the word "だめ" written as "ダメ".Why would they do this? There are several reasons why the writer might use katakana instead of hiragana. Firstly, to use visual or only slight semantic emphasis, almost like using bold or italics in english. Second, to describe onomonopea. And lastly, its possible that the word is normally written in kanji and the writer was trying to save time by using katakana. Most likely, the first reason is the correct one. Katakana was developed out of necessity and convenience. Subsequently, it is very prevalent in japanese media and pop culture not only for its convenience but also for its aesthetic appeal to young audiences.