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Katakana (片仮名, literally: "fragmentary kana") are a Japanese syllabary, one of four Japanese writing systems (the others are hiragana, kanji and romaji).Katakana are characterized by squarish lines and are the simplest of the Japanese scripts.
Katakana are used for:
- Emphasis, like italics in English.
- Onomatopoeia, for example hii ヒー means "sigh".
- Names of animal and plant species.
- Transliteration of words from foreign languages (called gairaigo). For example, "television" is written terebi テレビ. Foreign phrases are usually transliterated with a middle dot separating the words.
If you have a font including Japanese characters, you can view the following charts of katakana together with their Hepburn romanization (otherwise visit the page for hiragana).
| The first chart sets out the standard katakana (characters in red are obsolete):
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| ア a
| イ i
| ウ u
| エ e
| オ o
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| カ ka
| キ ki
| ク ku
| ケ ke
| コ ko
| キャ kya
| キュ kyu
| キョ kyo
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| サ sa
| シ shi
| ス su
| セ se
| ソ so
| シャ sha
| シュ shu
| ショ sho
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| タ ta
| チ chi
| ツ tsu
| テ te
| ト to
| チャ cha
| チュ chu
| チョ cho
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| ナ na
| ニ ni
| ヌ nu
| ネ ne
| ノ no
| ニャ nya
| ニュ nyu
| ニョ nyo
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| ハ ha
| ヒ hi
| フ fu
| ヘ he
| ホ ho
| ヒャ hya
| ヒュ hyu
| ヒョ hyo
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| マ ma
| ミ mi
| ム mu
| メ me
| モ mo
| ミャ mya
| ミュ myu
| ミョ myo
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| ヤ ya
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| ユ yu
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| ヨ yo
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| ラ ra
| リ ri
| ル ru
| レ re
| ロ ro
| リャ rya
| リュ ryu
| リョ ryo
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| ワ wa
| ヰ wi
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| ヱ we
| ヲ wo
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| ン n
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| ガ ga
| ギ gi
| グ gu
| ゲ ge
| ゴ go
| ギャ gya
| ギュ gyu
| ギョ gyo
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| ザ za
| ジ ji
| ズ zu
| ゼ ze
| ゾ zo
| ジャ ja
| ジュ ju
| ジョ jo
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| ダ da
| ヂ ji
| ヅ zu
| デ de
| ド do
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| バ ba
| ビ bi
| ブ bu
| ベ be
| ボ bo
| ビャ bya
| ビュ byu
| ビョ byo
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| パ pa
| ピ pi
| プ pu
| ペ pe
| ポ po
| ピャ pya
| ピュ pyu
| ピョ pyo
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The second chart sets out modern additions to the katakana. These are used mainly to represent the sounds in words in other languages.
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| イェ ye
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| ウィ wi
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| ウェ we
| ウォ wo
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| ヴァ va
| ヴィ vi
| ヴ vu
| ヴェ ve
| ヴォ vo
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| シェ she
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| ジェ je
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| チェ che
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| ティ ti
| トゥ tu
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| テュ tyu
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| ディ di
| ドゥ du
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| デュ dyu
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| ツァ tsa
| ツィ tsi
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| ツェ tse
| ツォ tso
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| ファ fa
| フィ fi
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| フェ fe
| フォ fo
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| フュ fyu
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Katakana are also sometimes used to write the Ainu languageFor the language spoken in Central Asia, see Aini language The Ainu language Aynu Itak Japanese: ) is spoken by the Ainu ethnic group on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido. It was once spoken in the Kurile Islands, the northern part of Honshu, and t; there, consonants without a following vowel are indicated by writing the symbol for consonant+u (in the case of sh, consonant+i) small. Thus, for instance, a small プ represents p.
