Thursday, August 21, 2008

Katakana

KATAKANA

Katakana is used when writing down foreign names, places, and words of foreign origin (If you are not from Japan,your name can be written in katakana). Without knowing katakana, one might find it almost impossible to order fast food in Japan, or read billboards on the street. This is because Japan uses so many words borrowed from other languages.

The structure of katakana is similar to hiragana(if you know one the other is easy to learn). The main difference between the two is katakana is composed of straight lines, where hiragana uses curved lines.

This week I will show you some countries as large as Japan with their katakana spellings.

Japan's land area is approximately 378,000 km². It is often said that Japan is a small country. However, the archipelago stretches some 3,500 km from the northernmost end to the southernmost end, which means that climate and scenery vary gre

atly from region to region. A fact that is not very well known is that Japan is smaller than California in the United States, which has a land area of about 411,000 km².


Doitsu (Germany)
ドイツ
357,000 km²
Furansu (France)
フランス
547,000 km²
Igirisu (United Kingdom)
イギリス
244,000 km²
Itaria (Italy)
イタリア
301,000 km²
Nyuujiirando (New Zealand)
ニュージーランド
269,000 km²
Betonamu (Viet Nam)
ベトナム
330,000 km²

They didn't exist until relatively recently. Nowadays the Japanese use many borrowed words from English and other foreign languages (please refer the previous article "Borrowed Words" and "Borrowed English"). Since it is hard to express all sounds by the basic 46 characters or their regular combinations, the Japanese have developed new combinations that are formed by adding a small "a, i, u, e, o" for several foreign syllables.

sample words ::

amerika
アメリカ
America
igirisu
イギリス
United Kingdom
ukuraina
ウクライナ
Ukraine
ejiputo
エジプト
Egypt
oranda
オランダ
Holland
kanada
カナダ
Canada
kyanpu
キャンプ
camp
kuizu
クイズ
quiz
kenia
ケニア
Kenya
koohii
コーヒー
coffee
sakkaa
サッカー
soccer
shawaa
シャワー
shower
suisu
スイス
Switzerland
seetaa
セーター
sweater
sofaa
ソファー
sofa
takushii
タクシー
taxi
chesu
チェス
chess
tsuaa
ツアー
tour
tenisu
テニス
tennis
tomato
トマト
tomato
naifu
ナイフ
knife
nyuusu
ニュース
news
nugaa
ヌガー
nougat
nekutai
ネクタイ
tie
noruuee
ノルウェー
Norway
haapu
ハープ
harp
hinto
ヒント
hint
furansu
フランス
France
heburai
ヘブライ
Hebrew
hoteru
ホテル
hotel
mareeshia
マレーシア
Malaysia
myuujikaru
ミュージカル
musical
muudo
ムード
mood
mekishiko
メキシコ
Mexico
monako
モナコ
Monaco
yankii
ヤンキー
Yankee
yudaya
ユダヤ
Judea
yooroppa
ヨーロッパ
Europe
rajio
ラジオ
radio
riigu
リーグ
league
rubii
ルビー
ruby
rebanon
レバノン
Lebanon
roketto
ロケット
rocket
wain
ワイン
wine
rondon
ロンドン
London

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