Katakana

Katakana
片仮名
カタカナ

Script type Syllabary

Time ~800 CE to the present
period
Direction vertical right-to-left, left-to-right 
Languages Japanese, Ryukyuan, Ainu[1]
Taiwanese Hokkien, Palauan (formerly)
Related scripts
Parent Oracle bone script
systems
Seal script

Clerical script

Regular script (kanji)

Man'yōgana

Katakana

Sister Hiragana
systems
ISO 15924
ISO 15924 Kana (411), ​Katakana
Unicode
Unicode Katakana
alias
Unicode Katakana:
range
U+30A0–U+30FF (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U30A0.pdf)
Katakana Phonetic Extensions:
U+31F0–U+31FF (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U31F0.pdf)
Enclosed CJK Letters and Months:
U+3200–U+32FF (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U3200.pdf)
Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms:
U+FF00–U+FFEF (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/UFF00.pdf)
Kana Extended-B:
U+1AFF0–U+1AFFF (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1AFF0.pdf)
Katakana ( 片仮名、カタカ
ナ
Kana Supplement:
, Japanese U+1B000–U+1B0FF (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1B000.pdf)
Kana Extended-A:
U+1B100–U+1B12F (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1B100.pdf)
Small Kana Extension:
U+1B130–U+1B16F (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1B130.pdf)

pronunciation:  [katakaꜜna][note 1]) 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 complex kanji. Katakana and hiragana are both kana systems. With one or two minor exceptions, each syllable
(strictly mora) in the Japanese language is represented by one character or kana in each system. Each kana represents
ア カ
either a vowel such as "a" (katakana ); a consonant followed by a vowel such as "ka" (katakana ); or "n" (katakana
ン ), a nasal sonorant which, depending on the context, sounds either like English m, n or ng ([ŋ]) or like the nasal
vowels of Portuguese or Galician.

In contrast to the hiragana syllabary, which is used for Japanese words not covered by kanji and for grammatical
inflections, the katakana syllabary usage is comparable to italics in English; specifically, it is used for transcription of
foreign-language words into Japanese and the writing of loan words (collectively gairaigo); for emphasis; to represent
onomatopoeia; for technical and scientific terms; and for names of plants, animals, minerals and often Japanese
companies.

Katakana evolved from Japanese Buddhist monks transliterating Chinese texts into Japanese.[3]

Writing system

Overview

The complete katakana script consists of 48 characters, not counting functional Gojūon – Katakana characters
and diacritic marks: with a nucleus

a i u e o
5 nucleus vowels
42 core or body (onset-nucleus) syllabograms, consisting of nine ∅ ア イ ウ エ オ
consonants in combination with each of the five vowels, of which
three possible combinations (yi, ye, wu) are not canonical k カ キ ク ケ コ
1 coda consonant
s サ シ ス セ ソ
These are conceived as a 5×10 grid (gojūon, 五十音 , literally "fifty sounds"), as
タ チ ツ テ ト
shown in the adjacent table, read ア (a), イ ウ エ
(i), (u), オ
(e), カ
(o), (ka),
t

キ (ki),ク ケ
(ku), (ke), コ (ko) and so on. The gojūon inherits its vowel and n ナ ニ ヌ ネ ノ
consonant order from Sanskrit practice. In vertical text contexts, which used to be
the default case, the grid is usually presented as 10 columns by 5 rows, with
vowels on the right hand side and ア (a) on top. Katakana glyphs in the same row
h ハ ヒ フ ヘ ホ
or column do not share common graphic characteristics. Three of the m マ ミ ム メ モ
syllabograms to be expected, yi, ye and wu, may have been used idiosyncratically
with varying glyphs, but never became conventional in any language and are not y ヤ [4]
ユ ヨ
[4]

present at all in modern Japanese.

r ラ リ ル レ ロ
The 50-sound table is often amended with an extra character, the nasal ン
(n).
This can appear in several positions, most often next to the N signs or, because it w ワ ヰ [4]
ヱ ヲ
developed from one of many mu hentaigana, below the u column. It may also be
appended to the vowel row or the a column. Here, it is shown in a table of its ン (n)
own.
The script includes two diacritic marks placed at the upper right of the base character that change the initial sound of a
syllabogram. A double dot, called dakuten, indicates a primary alteration; most often it voices the consonant: k→g, s→z,
t→d and h→b; for example, カ (ka) becomes ガ (ga). Secondary alteration, where possible, is shown by a circular
handakuten: h→p; For example; ハ (ha) becomes パ (pa). Diacritics, though used for over a thousand years, only
became mandatory in the Japanese writing system in the second half of the 20th century. Their application is strictly
limited in proper writing systems, but may be more extensive in academic transcriptions.

Furthermore, some characters may have special semantics when used in smaller sizes after a normal one (see below), but
this does not make the script truly bicameral.

The layout of the gojūon table promotes a systematic view of kana syllabograms as being always pronounced with the
same single consonant followed by a vowel, but this is not exactly the case (and never has been). Existing schemes for
the romanization of Japanese either are based on the systematic nature of the script, e.g. nihon-shiki チ
ti, or they apply
some Western graphotactics, usually the English one, to the common Japanese pronunciation of the kana signs, e.g.
Hepburn-shiki チ chi. Both approaches conceal the fact, though, that many consonant-based katakana signs, especially
those canonically ending in u, can be used in coda position, too, where the vowel is unvoiced and therefore barely
perceptible.

Japanese

Syllabary and orthography

Of the 48 katakana syllabograms described above, only 46 are used in modern Japanese, and one of these is preserved
for only a single use:

wi and we are pronounced as vowels in modern Japanese and are therefore obsolete, having been
supplanted by i and e, respectively.
wo is now used only as a particle, and is normally pronounced the same as vowel オ o. As a particle, it
を
is usually written in hiragana ( ) and the katakana form, ヲ, is almost obsolete.
ャュ ョ
A small version of the katakana for ya, yu or yo ( , or , respectively) may be added to katakana ending in i. This
キャ
changes the i vowel sound to a glide (palatalization) to a, u or o, e.g. (ki + ya) /kja/. Addition of the small y kana is
called yōon.

A character called a sokuon, which is visually identical to a small tsu ッ , indicates that the following consonant is
geminated (doubled). This is represented in rōmaji by doubling the consonant that follows the sokuon. In Japanese this is
an important distinction in pronunciation; for example, compare サカ saka "hill" with サッカ sakka "author".
Geminated consonants are common in transliterations of foreign loanwords; for example, English "bed" is represented
as ベッド (beddo). The sokuon also sometimes appears at the end of utterances, where it denotes a glottal stop.
ン
However, it cannot be used to double the na, ni, nu, ne, no syllables' consonants; to double these, the singular n ( ) is
added in front of the syllable. The sokuon may also be used to approximate a non-native sound: Bach is written バッハ
(Bahha); Mach as マッハ (Mahha).

Both katakana and hiragana usually spell native long vowels with the addition of a second vowel kana. However, in
foreign loanwords, katakana instead uses a vowel extender mark, called a chōonpu ("long vowel mark"). This is a short
ー
line ( ) following the direction of the text, horizontal for yokogaki (horizontal text), and vertical for tategaki (vertical
text). For example, メール mēru is the gairaigo for e-mail taken from the English word "mail"; the ー lengthens the e.
There are some exceptions, such as ローソク (rōsoku ( 蝋燭 , "candle")) or ケータイ (kētai (携帯 , "mobile phone")),
where Japanese words written in katakana use the elongation mark, too.

Standard and voiced iteration marks are written in katakana as ヽ and ヾ, respectively.
Extensions
Small versions of the five vowel kana are sometimes used to represent trailing off
sounds (ハァ haa,ネェ nee), but in katakana they are more often used in yōon- Katakana used in Japanese
orthography
like extended digraphs designed to represent phonemes not present in Japanese;
examples include チェ (che) inチェンジ chenji ("change"),ファ ファ
(fa) in
ミリー ウィ ディ ウィキペディア
a i u e o
famirī ("family") and
Wikipedia; see below for the full list.
(wi) and (di) in
∅ ア イ ウ エ オ
k カ キ ク ケ コ
Usage
g ガ ギ グ ゲ ゴ
In modern Japanese, katakana is most often used for transcription of words from
foreign languages or loanwords (other than words historically imported from s サ シ ス セ ソ
Chinese), called gairaigo.[5] For example, "television" is written テレビ (terebi).
z ザ ジ ズ ゼ ゾ
Similarly, katakana is usually used for country names, foreign places, and foreign
personal names. For example, the United States is usually referred to as アメリ タ チ ツ テ ト
カ 亜米利加
(Amerika), rather than in its ateji kanji spelling of (Amerika).
t

Katakana are also used for onomatopoeia,[5] words used to represent sounds –
d ダ ヂ ヅ デ ド
for example, ピンポン (pinpon), the "ding-dong" sound of a doorbell. n ナ ニ ヌ ネ ノ
Technical and scientific terms, such as the names of animal and plant species and
minerals, are also commonly written in katakana.[6] Homo sapiens, as a species,
h ハ ヒ フ ヘ ホ
is writtenヒト 人
(hito), rather than its kanji . b バ ビ ブ ベ ボ
Katakana are often (but not always) used for transcription of Japanese company
names. For example, Suzuki is written スズキ , and Toyota is written トヨタ . As
p パ ピ プ ペ ポ
these are common family names, Suzuki being the second most common in m マ ミ ム メ モ
Japan,[7] using katakana helps distinguish company names from surnames in
writing. Katakana are commonly used on signs, advertisements, and hoardings y ヤ ユ
[4]
ヨ
[4]

ココ
(i.e., billboards), for example, (koko, "here"), ゴミ (gomi, "trash"), or メガ ラ リ ル レ ロ
ネ (megane, "glasses"). Words the writer wishes to emphasize in a sentence are r

also sometimes written in katakana, mirroring the usage of italics in European

languages.[5]
w ワ ヰ [4]
ヱ ヲ
Pre–World War II official documents mix katakana and kanji in the same way
ン (n)
that hiragana and kanji are mixed in modern Japanese texts, that is, katakana Functional marks
were used for okurigana and particles such as wa or o. and diacritics

Katakana was also used for telegrams in Japan before 1988, and for computer ッ ヽ ゛ ゜
systems – before the introduction of multibyte characters – in the 1980s. Most
computers of that era used katakana instead of kanji or hiragana for output.   Unused, extinct, or obsolete

Although words borrowed from ancient Chinese are usually written in kanji,
loanwords from modern Chinese dialects that are borrowed directly use
katakana instead.

Examples of modern Chinese loanwords in Japanese

Source Collection of Poems by Priest Myōe,
Japanese Hepburn Meaning Chinese Pinyin/Yale
language 1248

マージャン mājan mahjong 麻將 májiàng

ウーロン茶 ūroncha Oolong tea 烏龍茶 wūlóngchá Mandarin

チャーハン chāhan fried rice 炒飯 chǎofàn

チャーシュ barbecued
叉燒
ー chāshū
pork
chā sīu
Cantonese
シューマイ shūmai shumai 燒賣 sīu máai
The very common Chinese loanword rāmen, written in katakana as ラーメン, is rarely written with its kanji (拉麺).
There are rare instances where the opposite has occurred, with kanji forms created from words originally written in
katakana. An example of this is コーヒー kōhī, ("coffee"), which can alternatively be written as 珈琲
. This kanji usage
is occasionally employed by coffee manufacturers or coffee shops for novelty.

Katakana is used to indicate the on'yomi (Chinese-derived readings) of a kanji in a kanji dictionary. For instance, the
kanji 人 has a Japanese pronunciation, written in hiragana as ひと hito (person), as well as a Chinese derived
pronunciation, written in katakana as ジン jin (used to denote groups of people). Katakana is sometimes used instead of
hiragana as furigana to give the pronunciation of a word written in Roman characters, or for a foreign word, which is
written as kanji for the meaning, but intended to be pronounced as the original.

Katakana are also sometimes used to indicate words being spoken in a foreign
or otherwise unusual accent. For example, in a manga, the speech of a foreign
character or a robot may be represented byコンニチワ konnichiwa ("hello")
instead of the more typical hiragana こんにちは . Some Japanese personal
names are written in katakana. This was more common in the past, hence elderly
women often have katakana names. This was particularly common among
women in the Meiji and Taishō periods, when many poor, illiterate parents were
unwilling to pay a scholar to give their daughters names in kanji.[8] Katakana is
also used to denote the fact that a character is speaking a foreign language, and
what is displayed in katakana is only the Japanese "translation" of their words. In this travel warning, the kanji for
霧
"fog" ( ) has been written in
Some frequently used words may also be written in katakana in dialogs to キリ
convey an informal, conversational tone. Some examples include マンガ katakana ( ) to make it more

("manga"), アイ ツ aitsu ("that guy or girl; he/him; she/her"), バカ

baka
immediately readable

("fool"), etc.

Words with difficult-to-read kanji are sometimes written in katakana (hiragana is also used for this purpose). This
phenomenon is often seen with medical terminology. For example, in the word 皮膚科 hifuka ("dermatology"), the
膚
second kanji, , is considered difficult to read, and thus the word hifuka is commonly written 皮フ科 ヒフ科
or ,
mixing kanji and katakana. Similarly, difficult-to-read kanji such as 癌
gan ("cancer") are often written in katakana or
hiragana.

Katakana is also used for traditional musical notations, as in the Tozan-ryū of shakuhachi, and in sankyoku ensembles
with koto, shamisen and shakuhachi.

Some instructors teaching Japanese as a foreign language "introduce katakana after the students have learned to read
and write sentences in hiragana without difficulty and know the rules." [9] Most students who have learned hiragana "do
not have great difficulty in memorizing" katakana as well.[10] Other instructors introduce katakana first, because these
are used with loanwords. This gives students a chance to practice reading and writing kana with meaningful words. This
was the approach taken by the influential American linguistics scholar Eleanor Harz Jorden in Japanese: The Written
Language (parallel to Japanese: The Spoken Language).[11]

Ainu

Katakana is commonly used by Japanese linguists to write the Ainu language. In Ainu katakana usage, the consonant
that comes at the end of a syllable is represented by a small version of a katakana that corresponds to that final consonant
followed by a vowel (for details of which vowel, please see the table at Ainu language § Special katakana for the Ainu
language). For instance, the Ainu word up is represented byウㇷ゚ ウプ ( [u followed by small pu]). Ainu also uses three
handakuten modified katakana: セ゚ ツ゚ ト゚
([tse]) and either or ([tu̜]). In Unicode, the Katakana Phonetic Extensions
block (U+31F0–U+31FF (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U31F0.pdf)) exists for Ainu language support. These
characters are used for the Ainu language only.

Taiwanese
 Taiwanese kana ( タイ ヲァヌ ギイ カア ビェン ) is
a katakana-based writing system once used to write Holo
Taiwanese, when Taiwan was under Japanese control. It functioned
as a phonetic guide for Chinese characters, much like furigana in
Japanese or Zhùyīn fúhào in Chinese. There were similar systems
for other languages in Taiwan as well, including Hakka and
Formosan languages.

Unlike Japanese or Ainu, Taiwanese kana are used similarly to the

zhùyīn fúhào characters, with kana serving as initials, vowel
medials and consonant finals, marked with tonal marks. A dot
チツ
below the initial kana represents aspirated consonants, and , ,
サセソウ
, , , and オ with a superpositional bar represent sounds
found only in Taiwanese.
A page of the Meiji Constitution written exclusively
with kyūjitai and katakana
Okinawan

Katakana is used as a phonetic guide for the Okinawan language, unlike the various other systems to represent
Okinawan, which use hiragana with extensions. The system was devised by the Okinawa Center of Language Study of
the University of the Ryukyus. It uses many extensions and yōon to show the many non-Japanese sounds of Okinawan.

Table of katakana
This is a table of katakana together with their Hepburn romanization and rough IPA transcription for their use in
Japanese. Katakana with dakuten or handakuten follow the gojūon kana without them.

Characters shi シ ツ
and tsu , and so ソ ン
and n(g) , look very similar in print except for the slant and stroke shape.
These differences in slant and shape are more prominent when written with an ink brush.
 Katakana syllabograms
Monographs (gojūon) Digraphs (yōon)

a i u e o ya yu yo

∅
ア イ ウ エ オ
a [a] i [i] u [ɯ] e [e][n 1] o [o]

K
カ キ ク ケ コ キャ キュ キョ
ka [ka] ki [ki] ku [kɯ] ke [ke] ko [ko] kya [kʲa] kyu [kʲɯ] kyo [kʲo]
S
サ シ ス セ ソ シャ シュ ショ
sa [sa] shi [ɕi] su [sɯ] se [se] so [so] sha [ɕa] shu [ɕɯ] sho [ɕo]

T
タ チ ツ テ ト チャ チュ チョ
ta [ta] chi [t͡ɕi] tsu [t͡sɯ] te [te] to [to] cha [t͡ɕa] chu [t͡ɕɯ] cho [t͡ɕo]

N
ナ ニ ヌ ネ ノ ニャ ニュ ニョ
na [na] ni [ɲi] nu [nɯ] ne [ne] no [no] nya [ɲa] nyu [ɲɯ] nyo [ɲo]
H
ハ ヒ フ ヘ ホ ヒャ ヒュ ヒョ
ha [ha] hi [çi] fu [ɸɯ] he [he] ho [ho] hya [ça] hyu [çɯ] hyo [ço]

M
マ ミ ム メ モ ミャ ミュ ミョ
ma [ma] mi [mi] mu [mɯ] me [me] mo [mo] mya [mʲa] myu [mʲɯ] myo [mʲo]

Y
ヤ [n 2]
ユ [[Ye (kana)|
エ [𛄡]]] ヨ
ya [ja] yu [jɯ] yo [jo]
ye
[je] / [e][n 3]

R
ラ リ ル レ ロ リャ リュ リョ
ra [ɾa] ri [ɾi] ru [ɾɯ] re [ɾe] ro [ɾo] rya [ɾʲa] ryu [ɾʲɯ] ryo [ɾʲo]
W
ワ ヰ [n 2]
ヱ ヲ
wa [ɰa] wi we wo
[ɰi] / [i][n 4] [ɰe] / [e][n 4] [ɰo] / [o][n 4]

Monographs with diacritics: gojūon with (han)dakuten Digraphs with diacritics: yōon with
(han)dakuten

a i u e o ya yu yo
G
ガ ギ グ ゲ ゴ ギャ ギュ ギョ
ga [ɡa] gi [ɡi] gu [ɡɯ] ge [ɡe] go [ɡo] gya [ɡʲa] gyu [ɡʲɯ] gyo [ɡʲo]

Z
ザ ジ ズ ゼ ゾ ジャ ジュ ジョ
za [za] ji [(d)ʑi] zu [(d)zɯ] ze [ze] zo [zo] ja [(d)ʑa] ju [(d)ʑɯ] jo [(d)ʑo]

D
ダ ヂ ヅ デ ド ヂャ ヂュ ヂョ
da [da] ji [(d)ʑi][n 5] zu [(d)zɯ][n 5] de [de] do [do] ja ju jo
[(d)ʑa][n 5] [(d)ʑɯ][n 5] [(d)ʑo][n 5]

B
バ ビ ブ ベ ボ ビャ ビュ ビョ
ba [ba] bi [bi] bu [bɯ] be [be] bo [bo] bya [bʲa] byu [bʲɯ] byo [bʲo]

P
パ ピ プ ペ ポ ピャ ピュ ピョ
pa [pa] pi [pi] pu [pɯ] pe [pe] po [po] pya [pʲa] pyu [pʲɯ] pyo [pʲo]

Final nasal Polysyllabic monographs

monograph

n iu koto shite toki tomo nari

*
ン iu [jɯː]
ヿ shite [ɕite]
/
toki [toki] tomo nari [naɾi]
n koto [koto]
 [ɴ m n ɲ ŋ ɰ̃ ] [tomo]

*
゙
domo
[domo]

Functional graphemes
odoriji odoriji
sokuonfu chōonpu
(monosyllable) (polysyllable)

*
ッ ー ヽ 〱
(indicates a (after long (reduplicates (reduplicates
geminate vowel) and and
consonant) unvoices unvoices
syllable) syllable)

*
ヾ 〱゙
(reduplicates (reduplicates
and and
voices syllable) voices
syllable)
*
ヽ゚ 〱゚
(reduplicates (reduplicates
and and
voices syllable) voices
syllable)

Notes

1. Prior to the e/ye merger in the mid-Heian period, a different character (𛀀) was used in position e.
2. Theoretical combinations yi and wu are  unused . Some katakana were invented for them by linguists in
the Edo and Meiji periods in order to fill out the table, but they were never actually used in normal
writing.
3. The combination ye existed prior to the mid-Heian period and was represented in very early katakana,
but has been  extinct  for over a thousand years, having merged with e in the 10th century. The ye
エ
katakana ( ) was adopted for e (displacing 𛀀, the character originally used for e); the alternate katakana
𛄡 was invented for ye in the Meiji period for use in representations of Old and Early Classical Japanese
so as to avoid confusion with the modern use of for e. エ
4. The characters in positions wi and we are  obsolete  in modern Japanese, and have been replaced by
イ(i) and エ
(e). The character wo, in practice normally pronounced o, is preserved in only one use: as a
を
particle. This is normally written in hiragana ( ), so katakana ヲ
sees only limited use. See Gojūon and
the articles on each character for details.
5. The ヂ
(di) and ヅ
(du) kana (often romanised as ji and zu) are primarily used for  etymologic spelling ,
when the unvoiced equivalents (ti) and チ ツ
(tu) (usually romanised as chi and tsu) undergo a sound
change (rendaku) and become voiced when they occur in the middle of a compound word. In other
cases, the identically-pronounced ジ
(ji) and ズ ヂ
(zu) are used instead. (di) and ヅ
(du) can never
begin a word, and they are not common in katakana, since the concept of rendaku does not apply to
transcribed foreign words, one of the major uses of katakana.

Extended katakana

Using small versions of the five vowel kana, many digraphs have been devised, mainly to represent the sounds in words
of other languages.

Digraphs with orange backgrounds are the general ones used for loanwords or foreign places or names, and those with
blue backgrounds are used for more accurate transliterations of foreign sounds, both suggested by the Cabinet of Japan's
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology.[12] Katakana combinations with beige backgrounds
are suggested by the American National Standards Institute[13] and the British Standards Institution as possible uses.[14]
Ones with purple backgrounds appear on the 1974 version of the Hyōjun-shiki formatting.[15]

Pronunciations are shown in Hepburn romanization.

イィ yi イェ ye
ウァ wa* ウィ wi ウゥ wu* ウェ we ウォ wo
ウュ wyu
ヴァ va ヴィ vi ヴ vu⁑ ヴェ ve ヴォ vo
ヴャ vya ヴュ vyu ヴィェ ヴョ vyo
vye
キェ kye
ギェ gye
クァ kwa クィ クェ kwe クォ kwo
kwi
クヮ kwa
グァ gwa グィ グェ gwe グォ gwo
gwi
グヮ gwa
シェ she
ジェ je
スィ si
ズィ zi
チェ che
ツァ tsa ツィ tsi ツェ tse ツォ tso
ツュ tsyu
ティ ti トゥ tu
テュ tyu
ディ di ドゥ du
デュ dyu
ニェ nye
ヒェ hye
ビェ bye
ピェ pye
ファ fa フィ fi フェ fe フォ fo
フャ fya フュ fyu フィェ fye フョ fyo
ホゥ hu
ミェ mye
リェ rye
ラ゜ la リ゜ li ル゜ lu レ゜ le ロ゜ lo
 リ゜ャ リ゜ュ リ゜ェ lye リ゜ョ
lya lyu lyo
ヷ va⁂ ヸ vi⁂ ヹ ve⁂ ヺ vo⁂
* — The use of ウ in these two cases to represent w is rare in modern Japanese except for Internet
slang and transcription of the Latin sound [w] into katakana. E.g.: ミネルウァ (Mineruwa "Minerva", from
Latin MINERVA [mɪˈnɛrwa]); ウゥルカーヌス (Wurukānusu "Vulcan", from Latin VVLCANVS, Vulcānus
[wʊlˈkaːnʊs]). The wa-type of foreign sounds (as in watt or white) is usually transcribed to ワ (wa), while
the wu-type (as in wood or woman) is usually to ウ (u) or ウー (ū).
⁑ — ヴ has a rarely-used hiragana form in ゔ that is also vu in Hepburn romanization systems.
⁂ — The characters in green are obsolete in modern Japanese and very rarely used.[16][17]

History
Katakana was developed in the 9th century (during the early Heian period) by
Buddhist monks in Nara in order to transliterate texts and works of arts from
India, by taking parts of man'yōgana characters as a form of shorthand, hence
片
this kana is so-called kata ( , "partial, fragmented"). For example, ka ( ) カ
加
comes from the left side of ka ( , lit. "increase", but the original meaning is no
longer applicable to kana). The adjacent table shows the origins of each
katakana: the red markings of the original Chinese character (used as
man'yōgana) eventually became each corresponding symbol.[18] Katakana is
also heavily influenced by Sanskrit due to the original creators having travelled
and worked with Indian Buddhists based in East Asia during the era.[19][20]

Official documents of the Empire of Japan were written exclusively with

kyūjitai and katakana.
Roots of katakana highlighted

Obsolete kana

Variant forms

Katakana have variant forms. For example, ネ

( ) and ヰ
( ).[21] However,
katakana's variant forms are fewer than hiragana's ones. Katakana's choices of
man'yōgana segments had stabilized early on and established – with few
exceptions – an unambiguous phonemic orthography (one symbol per sound)
long before the 1900 script regularization.[22]

Syougaku11
Polysyllabic kana

Yi, Ye and Wu

Stroke order
The following table shows the method for writing each katakana character. It is arranged in a traditional manner, where
characters are organized by the sounds that make them up. The numbers and arrows indicate the stroke order and
direction, respectively.
Computer encoding
In addition to fonts intended for Japanese text and Unicode catch-all fonts (like Arial Unicode MS), many fonts intended
for Chinese (such as MS Song) and Korean (such as Batang) also include katakana.

Hiragana and katakana

全角
In addition to the usual full-width ( , zenkaku) display forms of characters, katakana has a second form, half-width
(半角 , hankaku) (there are no kanji). The half-width forms were originally associated with the JIS X 0201 encoding.
Although their display form is not specified in the standard, in practice they were designed to fit into the same rectangle
of pixels as Roman letters to enable easy implementation on the computer equipment of the day. This space is narrower
than the square space traditionally occupied by Japanese characters, hence the name "half-width". In this scheme,
diacritics (dakuten and handakuten) are separate characters. When originally devised, the half-width katakana were
represented by a single byte each, as in JIS X 0201, again in line with the capabilities of contemporary computer
technology.

In the late 1970s, two-byte character sets such as JIS X 0208 were introduced to support the full range of Japanese
characters, including katakana, hiragana and kanji. Their display forms were designed to fit into an approximately
square array of pixels, hence the name "full-width". For backward compatibility, separate support for half-width
katakana has continued to be available in modern multi-byte encoding schemes such as Unicode, by having two
separate blocks of characters – one displayed as usual (full-width) katakana, the other displayed as half-width katakana.

Although often said to be obsolete, the half-width katakana are still used in many systems and encodings. For example,
the titles of mini discs can only be entered in ASCII or half-width katakana, and half-width katakana are commonly used
in computerized cash register displays, on shop receipts, and Japanese digital television and DVD subtitles. Several
popular Japanese encodings such as EUC-JP, Unicode and Shift JIS have half-width katakana code as well as full-
width. By contrast, ISO-2022-JP has no half-width katakana, and is mainly used over SMTP and NNTP.

Unicode

Katakana was added to the Unicode Standard in October, 1991 with the release of version 1.0.
The Unicode block for (full-width) katakana is U+30A0–U+30FF.

Encoded in this block along with the katakana are the nakaguro word-separation middle dot, the chōon vowel extender,
the katakana iteration marks, and a ligature of コト
sometimes used in vertical writing.

Katakana[1]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U30A0.pdf) (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

U+30Ax ゠ ァ ア ィ イ ゥ ウ ェ エ ォ オ カ ガ キ ギ ク
U+30Bx グ ケ ゲ コ ゴ サ ザ シ ジ ス ズ セ ゼ ソ ゾ タ
U+30Cx ダ チ ヂ ッ ツ ヅ テ デ ト ド ナ ニ ヌ ネ ノ ハ
U+30Dx バ パ ヒ ビ ピ フ ブ プ ヘ ベ ペ ホ ボ ポ マ ミ
U+30Ex ム メ モ ャ ヤ ュ ユ ョ ヨ ラ リ ル レ ロ ヮ ワ
U+30Fx ヰ ヱ ヲ ン ヴ ヵ ヶ ヷ ヸ ヹ ヺ ・ ー ヽ ヾ ヿ
Notes

1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0

Half-width equivalents to the usual full-width katakana also exist in Unicode. These are encoded within the Halfwidth
and Fullwidth Forms block (U+FF00–U+FFEF) (which also includes full-width forms of Latin characters, for instance),
starting at U+FF65 and ending at U+FF9F (characters U+FF61–U+FF64 are half-width punctuation marks). This block
also includes the half-width dakuten and handakuten. The full-width versions of these characters are found in the
Hiragana block.

Katakana subset of Halfwidth and Fullwidth Forms[1]

Official Unicode Consortium code chart (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/UFF00.pdf) (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

... (U+FF00–U+FF64 omitted)

U+FF6x ･ ｦ ｧ ｨ ｩ ｪ ｫ ｬ ｭ ｮ ｯ
U+FF7x ｰ ｱ ｲ ｳ ｴ ｵ ｶ ｷ ｸ ｹ ｺ ｻ ｼ ｽ ｾ ｿ
U+FF8x ﾀ ﾁ ﾂ ﾃ ﾄ ﾅ ﾆ ﾇ ﾈ ﾉ ﾊ ﾋ ﾌ ﾍ ﾎ ﾏ
U+FF9x ﾐ ﾑ ﾒ ﾓ ﾔ ﾕ ﾖ ﾗ ﾘ ﾙ ﾚ ﾛ ﾜ ﾝ ﾞ ﾟ
... (U+FFA0–U+FFEF omitted)

Notes

1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0

Circled katakana are code points U+32D0–U+32FE in the Enclosed CJK Letters and Months block (U+3200–
U+32FF). A circled ン
(n) is not included.
 Katakana subset of Enclosed CJK Letters and Months[1]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U3200.pdf) (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

... (U+3200–U+32CF omitted)

U+32Dx ㋐ ㋑ ㋒ ㋓ ㋔ ㋕ ㋖ ㋗ ㋘ ㋙ ㋚ ㋛ ㋜ ㋝ ㋞ ㋟
U+32Ex ㋠ ㋡ ㋢ ㋣ ㋤ ㋥ ㋦ ㋧ ㋨ ㋩ ㋪ ㋫ ㋬ ㋭ ㋮ ㋯
U+32Fx ㋰ ㋱ ㋲ ㋳ ㋴ ㋵ ㋶ ㋷ ㋸ ㋹ ㋺ ㋻ ㋼ ㋽ ㋾ ㋿
Notes

1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0

Extensions to Katakana for phonetic transcription of Ainu and other languages were added to the Unicode standard in
March 2002 with the release of version 3.2.

The Unicode block for Katakana Phonetic Extensions is U+31F0–U+31FF:

Katakana Phonetic Extensions[1]

Official Unicode Consortium code chart (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U31F0.pdf) (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

U+31Fx ㇰ ㇱ ㇲ ㇳ ㇴ ㇵ ㇶ ㇷ ㇸ ㇹ ㇺ ㇻ ㇼ ㇽ ㇾ ㇿ
Notes

1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0

Historic and variant forms of Japanese kana characters were added to the Unicode standard in October 2010 with the
release of version 6.0.

The Unicode block for Kana Supplement is U+1B000–U+1B0FF:

 Kana Supplement[1]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1B000.pdf) (PDF)

  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

U+1B00x 𛀀 𛀁 𛀂 𛀃 𛀄 𛀅 𛀆 𛀇 𛀈 𛀉 𛀊 𛀋 𛀌 𛀍 𛀎 𛀏
U+1B01x 𛀐 𛀑 𛀒 𛀓 𛀔 𛀕 𛀖 𛀗 𛀘 𛀙 𛀚 𛀛 𛀜 𛀝 𛀞 𛀟
U+1B02x 𛀠 𛀡 𛀢 𛀣 𛀤 𛀥 𛀦 𛀧 𛀨 𛀩 𛀪 𛀫 𛀬 𛀭 𛀮 𛀯
U+1B03x 𛀰 𛀱 𛀲 𛀳 𛀴 𛀵 𛀶 𛀷 𛀸 𛀹 𛀺 𛀻 𛀼 𛀽 𛀾 𛀿
U+1B04x 𛁀 𛁁 𛁂 𛁃 𛁄 𛁅 𛁆 𛁇 𛁈 𛁉 𛁊 𛁋 𛁌 𛁍 𛁎 𛁏
U+1B05x 𛁐 𛁑 𛁒 𛁓 𛁔 𛁕 𛁖 𛁗 𛁘 𛁙 𛁚 𛁛 𛁜 𛁝 𛁞 𛁟
U+1B06x 𛁠 𛁡 𛁢 𛁣 𛁤 𛁥 𛁦 𛁧 𛁨 𛁩 𛁪 𛁫 𛁬 𛁭 𛁮 𛁯
U+1B07x 𛁰 𛁱 𛁲 𛁳 𛁴 𛁵 𛁶 𛁷 𛁸 𛁹 𛁺 𛁻 𛁼 𛁽 𛁾 𛁿
U+1B08x 𛂀 𛂁 𛂂 𛂃 𛂄 𛂅 𛂆 𛂇 𛂈 𛂉 𛂊 𛂋 𛂌 𛂍 𛂎 𛂏
U+1B09x 𛂐 𛂑 𛂒 𛂓 𛂔 𛂕 𛂖 𛂗 𛂘 𛂙 𛂚 𛂛 𛂜 𛂝 𛂞 𛂟
U+1B0Ax 𛂠 𛂡 𛂢 𛂣 𛂤 𛂥 𛂦 𛂧 𛂨 𛂩 𛂪 𛂫 𛂬 𛂭 𛂮 𛂯
U+1B0Bx 𛂰 𛂱 𛂲 𛂳 𛂴 𛂵 𛂶 𛂷 𛂸 𛂹 𛂺 𛂻 𛂼 𛂽 𛂾 𛂿

U+1B0Cx 𛃀 𛃁 𛃂 𛃃 𛃄 𛃅 𛃆 𛃇 𛃈 𛃉 𛃊 𛃋 𛃌 𛃍 𛃎 𛃏
U+1B0Dx 𛃐 𛃑 𛃒 𛃓 𛃔 𛃕 𛃖 𛃗 𛃘 𛃙 𛃚 𛃛 𛃜 𛃝 𛃞 𛃟
U+1B0Ex 𛃠 𛃡 𛃢 𛃣 𛃤 𛃥 𛃦 𛃧 𛃨 𛃩 𛃪 𛃫 𛃬 𛃭 𛃮 𛃯
U+1B0Fx 𛃰 𛃱 𛃲 𛃳 𛃴 𛃵 𛃶 𛃷 𛃸 𛃹 𛃺 𛃻 𛃼 𛃽 𛃾 𛃿
Notes

1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0

The Unicode block for Small Kana Extension is U+1B130–U+1B16F:

Small Kana Extension[1][2]

Official Unicode Consortium code chart (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1B130.pdf) (PDF)

  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

U+1B13x 𛄲
U+1B14x

U+1B15x 𛅐 𛅑 𛅒 𛅕
U+1B16x 𛅤 𛅥 𛅦 𛅧
Notes

1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0

2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points
The Kana Extended-A Unicode block is U+1B100–1B12F. It contains hentaigana (non-standard hiragana) and historic
kana characters.

Kana Extended-A[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1B100.pdf) (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

U+1B10x 𛄀 𛄁 𛄂 𛄃 𛄄 𛄅 𛄆 𛄇 𛄈 𛄉 𛄊 𛄋 𛄌 𛄍 𛄎 𛄏
U+1B11x 𛄐 𛄑 𛄒 𛄓 𛄔 𛄕 𛄖 𛄗 𛄘 𛄙 𛄚 𛄛 𛄜 𛄝 𛄞 𛄟
U+1B12x 𛄠 𛄡 𛄢
Notes

1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0

2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

The Kana Extended-B Unicode block is U+1AFF0–1AFFF. It contains kana originally created by Japanese linguists to
write Taiwanese Hokkien known as Taiwanese kana.

Kana Extended-B[1][2]
Official Unicode Consortium code chart (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U1AFF0.pdf) (PDF)
  0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 A B C D E F

U+1AFFx 𚿰 𚿱 𚿲 𚿳 𚿵 𚿶 𚿷 𚿸 𚿹 𚿺 𚿻 𚿽 𚿾
Notes

1.^ As of Unicode version 15.0

2.^ Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points

Katakana in other Unicode blocks:

Dakuten and handakuten diacritics are located in the Hiragana block:

U+3099 COMBINING KATAKANA-HIRAGANA VOICED SOUND MARK (non-spacing dakuten): ゙
U+309A COMBINING KATAKANA-HIRAGANA SEMI-VOICED SOUND MARK (non-spacing
handakuten): ゚
U+309B KATAKANA-HIRAGANA VOICED SOUND MARK (spacing dakuten): ゛
U+309C KATAKANA-HIRAGANA SEMI-VOICED SOUND MARK (spacing handakuten): ゜
Two katakana-based emoji are in the Enclosed Ideographic Supplement block:
U+1F201 SQUARED KATAKANA KOKO ('here' sign): 🈁
U+1F202 SQUARED KATAKANA SA ('service' sign): 🈂
A katakana-based Japanese TV symbol from the ARIB STD-B24 standard is in the Enclosed
Ideographic Supplement block:
U+1F213 SQUARED KATAKANA DE ('data broadcasting service linked with a main program'
symbol): 🈓
Furthermore, as of Unicode 15.0, the following combinatory sequences have been explicitly named, despite having no
precomposed symbols in the katakana block. Font designers may want to optimize the display of these composed
glyphs. Some of them are mostly used for writing the Ainu language, the others are called bidakuon in Japanese. Other,
arbitrary combinations with U+309A handakuten are also possible.
 Katakana named sequences
Unicode Named Character Sequences Database (https://unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/NamedSequences.txt)

Sequence name Codepoints Glyph

KATAKANA LETTER BIDAKUON NGA U+30AB U+309A カ゚

KATAKANA LETTER BIDAKUON NGI U+30AD U+309A キ゚
KATAKANA LETTER BIDAKUON NGU U+30AF U+309A ク゚
KATAKANA LETTER BIDAKUON NGE U+30B1 U+309A ケ゚
KATAKANA LETTER BIDAKUON NGO U+30B3 U+309A コ゚
KATAKANA LETTER AINU CE U+30BB U+309A セ゚
KATAKANA LETTER AINU TU U+30C4 U+309A ツ゚
KATAKANA LETTER AINU TO U+30C8 U+309A ト゚
KATAKANA LETTER AINU P U+31F7 U+309A ㇷ゚
See also
Japanese phonology
Hiragana
Historical kana usage
Rōmaji
Gugyeol
Tōdaiji Fujumonkō, oldest example of kanji text with katakana annotations
File:Beschrijving van Japan - ABC (cropped).jpg for the kana as described by Engelbert Kaempfer in
1727

Notes
1. Also Japanese pronunciation: [kataꜜkana].

References
1. McAuley, Thomas E. (2001). Language change in East Asia. Routledge. p. 90. ISBN 0700713778.
2. Roy Andrew Miller (1966) A Japanese Reader: Graded Lessons in the Modern Language, Rutland,
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with hiragana, modern Japanese writing makes use of another complete set of similar symbols called
the katakana."
3. "How did katakana and hiragana originate?" (https://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/originofkana.html#:~:text=Th
e%20katakana%20are%20based%20on%20parts%20of%20kanji.,form%20of%20writing%20date%20t
o%20around%20951%20AD.).
4. See obsolete kana
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Japanese. McGraw-Hill, 1993, ISBN 0070722935
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21 33 (https://web.archi
ve.org/web/20011006222929/http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~lf4a-okjm/genkan21.htm) [Japanese Cabinet
Order No.33 in 1946 – Modern kana usage] (in Japanese). Archived from the original (http://www.asahi-
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61 1 (https://web.archive.org/we
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[Japanese Cabinet Order No.1 in 1986 – Modern kana usage] (in Japanese). Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology. Archived from the original (http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/hak
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18. Japanese katakana (http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese_katakana.htm). Omniglot.com
19. Aiyar, Pallavi (9 June 2018). "The oldest recorded Indian in Japan impacts the country's culture even
today" (https://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/the-indian-who-docked-at-osaka/article241
12221.ece). The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X (https://www.worldcat.org/issn/0971-751X). Retrieved
18 September 2022.
20. "The Influence of Sanskrit on the Japanese Sound System - संस्कृ ता वाक् " (https://sites.google.com/site/sa
nskrtavak/home/resources/sa-ja). sites.google.com. Retrieved 18 September 2022.
21. 『小学略則教授法』 (https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/810323/6) 「五十音図」
22. Tranter, Nicolas (2012). The Languages of Japan and Korea (https://books.google.com/books?id=I7PTX
Pq_nSAC&pg=PA218). Routledge. p. 218. ISBN 978-0-415-46287-7.

External links
Katakana Unicode chart (https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U30A0.pdf)
Japanese dictionary with Katakana, Hiragana and Kanji on-screen keyboards (https://web.archive.org/w
eb/20120119075907/http://japanese-dict.com/)

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