Katakana: The Japanese Angular Script

What katakana is

Katakana is the blockier cousin of hiragana. Same 46 syllables, entirely different shapes. Where hiragana flows, katakana stacks. Historically it was used by Buddhist monks as pronunciation shorthand in the margins of Chinese texts.

Today its main job is to write the thousands of foreign words Japanese has absorbed (コーヒー kōhī, coffee) and brand or company names.

Where you see it

Foreign words are almost always katakana. Product and brand names are katakana. Japanese scientific and technical terms borrowed from English are katakana. Personal names of foreigners are katakana. And occasionally, for emphasis (the Japanese equivalent of italics), a native word might be written in katakana.

You see a lot of katakana at airports, in tech catalogs, and on fashion or food packaging.

Loanword patterns

Katakana words are often warped English. 'Coffee' becomes コーヒー. 'Computer' becomes コンピューター. 'Bus' becomes バス. Learn a few transformation rules (L becomes R, vowels get attached to final consonants) and a huge amount of katakana becomes decodable.