Katakana

Katakana (カタカナ) is a Japanese script for writing words borrowed from other languages. It is easier to read than kanji, the picture method that is based on Chinese characters. Once the 46 katakana symbols have been learned, a reader knows how to pronounce them.

Both katakana and hiragana are syllabaries. English uses the letters of the alphabet, and most words, each letter stands for a bit of sound (phoneme). In a syllabary, each symbol stands for a syllable. For example, English “Wagamama” has each of the eight letters stand for a sound: “W-a-g-a-m-a-m-a”. However, if the word “Wagamama” is divided into syllables, there are four syllables: Wa-ga-ma-ma. In katakana, it is written with four symbols: ワガママ.

Hiragana works in the same way, but most symbols. Katakana is perhaps a little easier to learn than hiragana because the symbols are simpler and more “squared off”.^[1] Together, Katakana and Hiragana are called “kana.”

1. ↑ This refers to modern angular katakana (カタカナ)