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Katakana (片仮名、カタカナ, IPA: [katakaꜜna, kataꜜkana]) 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 rōmaji). The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived from components or fragments of more ...
The modern Japanese writing system uses a combination of logographic kanji, which are adopted Chinese characters, and syllabic kana.Kana itself consists of a pair of syllabaries: hiragana, used primarily for native or naturalized Japanese words and grammatical elements; and katakana, used primarily for foreign words and names, loanwords, onomatopoeia, scientific names, and sometimes for emphasis.
Like other vowels, scaled-down versions of the kana (ぃ, ィ) are used to express sounds foreign to the Japanese language, such as フィ (fi).In some Okinawan writing systems, a small ぃ is also combined with the kana く (ku) and ふ to form the digraphs くぃ kwi and ふぃ hwi respectively, although the Ryukyu University system uses the kana ゐ/ヰ instead.
The katakana form has become increasingly popular as an emoticon in the Western world due to its resemblance to a smiling face. This character may be combined with a dakuten, forming じ in hiragana, ジ in katakana, and ji in Hepburn romanization; the pronunciation becomes /zi/ (phonetically [d͡ʑi] or [ʑi] in the middle of words).
ん, in hiragana or ン in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora.ん is the only kana that does not end in a vowel sound (although in certain cases the vowel ending of kana, such as す, is unpronounced).
ひ, in hiragana, or ヒ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora.Both can be written in two strokes, sometimes one for hiragana, and both are phonemically /hi/ although for phonological reasons, the actual pronunciation is ⓘ.
The small ke is a Japanese character, typographically a small form of the katakana character ケ ke. [1] While identical in shape to a small ケ, ヶ is actually an abbreviation for the kanji 箇, specifically by writing half of the bamboo radical 竹 . 箇, alternatively written as 個 (or 个), is a common Japanese counter word.
ち, in hiragana, or チ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora.Both are phonemically /ti/, reflected in the Nihon-shiki and Kunrei-shiki romanization ti, although, for phonological reasons, the actual pronunciation is ⓘ, which is reflected in the Hepburn romanization chi.