Katakana

The chart follows the same gojūon order as hiragana. Several characters are visibly related to their kanji of origin: カ comes from 加, イ from 伊, ア from 阿 and ト from 止. ヲ is rare in modern use, and ン again marks the only stand-alone consonant.

Dakuten and handakuten work exactly as in hiragana: カ ka becomes ガ ga, ハ ha becomes バ ba and, with the small circle, パ pa. Contracted syllables are written with small ャ, ュ and ョ, as in キャ kya or ショ sho.

Because katakana is used to write foreign words, it has developed combinations for sounds that native Japanese does not have. A small vowel after a full character creates new syllables: ファ fa, ティ ti, ウィ wi, シェ she. The character ヴ with dakuten on ウ stands for v, although many speakers pronounce it as b, and many words have established spellings with the b row instead.

In katakana, long vowels are usually marked with a bar, ー, called chōonpu: コーヒー (kōhī, coffee), ビール (bīru, beer), スーパー (sūpā, supermarket). In vertical text the bar runs vertically. A small ッ doubles the next consonant, as in ベッド (beddo, bed) and ロボット (robotto, robot).

Loanwords are fitted into Japanese syllable structure, so consonant clusters gain vowels: English strike becomes ストライク (sutoraiku), and German Arbeit becomes アルバイト (arubaito). Recognising these patterns is the key to guessing unknown loanwords.

Beyond loanwords, katakana writes foreign personal and place names, the names of plants and animals in scientific contexts, many onomatopoeic words, company and product names, and words that the writer wants to stand out, much as italics do in European languages. Telegrams and some older official documents were once written in katakana, which is why it can still look formal or mechanical.