Katakana
/ˌkætəˈkɑːnə/noun
A Japanese syllabic script used mainly for foreign words, emphasis, scientific names, and certain sound effects.
Did you know?Buddhist monks developed katakana as shorthand annotations for reading Chinese Buddhist texts aloud in Japanese, turning fragments of characters into a complete syllabary.
Etymological Timeline
Before the 8th Century
Japanese
kari-na
“Borrowed names; an early designation associated with using Chinese characters phonetically”
8th Century
Japanese
man'yōgana
“Chinese characters used to represent Japanese sounds, regardless of their original meanings”
9th Century
Japanese
kata-kana
“Partial kana; abbreviated portions of Chinese characters used as reading annotations”
10th–12th Centuries
Japanese
カタカナ
“A more standardized angular syllabary used especially in scholarly, religious, and grammatical writing”
20th Century
English
katakana
“The Japanese syllabic script now used chiefly for foreign names, loanwords, emphasis, and technical notation”
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