So, it seems that with regards to chemistry the normal trend is followed: true Japanese words are written in kanji or hiragana while foreign words that must be borrowed are written in katakana. This is clearly out of simply necessity. No one can blame the Japanese for not having a traditional word for elements or compounds not discovered until the 20th-century, and, anyway, coming up with their own words and kanji for all these chemical species would be impractical at best and impossible at worst.
In another example, in a book in the manga series クレヨンしんちゃん (aside from the obvious loanword usage in the title) I found an example of the onomatopoeia キキッキ, used for laughter. I actually find this to be an example of a case where the use of different writing systems in Japanese is actually able to draw a relevant distinction, because onomatopoeia are fundamentally different than other words in English, yet have no obvious distinction in the written or spoken language. While "normal" words represent an abstract concept while remaining distinct from it, onomatopoeia such as meow are an imitation of that exact concept. It is an interesting distinction that I am sure Japanese people are much more aware of than other Westerners because of the use of katakana for onomatopoeia.
In looking at the textbooks' explanations of katakana, I actually found remarkable consistency. Some left out the onomatopoeia aspect of the katakana, but that does not surprise me as that is relatively minor when it comes to overall usage. Especially when it comes to a foreigner attempting to learn Japanese, the use of katakana for loanwords is much more relevant to learning Japanese.
Quite Interesting! おもしろい！よくできました！
ReplyDeleteI think your examples are quite unique and you analyse them very well.
Actually, we use all 3 characters for onomatopoeia.
But I think Katakana is mostly used .
The impression which I received from the kanji,hiragana & katakana are different each other.
I feel that katakana has the image of metallic or sharpness or hardness.
On the contraly, Hiragana has the image of something round or soft or gentleness.
And Kanji has the image of seriousness or earnestness.
You gave an example "キキッキ" which was used for laughter.
I feel it very sly rather than when it is written in Hiragana: "ききっき".
That was such a great example to use, the periodic table! Of course it wouldn't make sense to make kanji for every new element invented, and some of the names are such that I don't think you can write them in hiragana since those sounds and pitch patterns don't exist in hiragana. Also, I think to maintain some sense of unity internationally, scientists need to have common names for elements which are recognized globally; hence the retention of english names. Also, how would you even translate stuff like rutherfordium and Unumquadium to Japanese? That would be challenging.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I've read a lot of manga that use katakana functioning as onomatopoeia. Even フフフ is sometimes used for laughter, though that usually gives the impression of low, evil laughter, whereas the one you mentioned gives me the impression it's more high-pitched and feminine, maybe even a cackle? I find it really interesting to study the katakana onomatopoeia though some of them make no sense to me personally. Like some sounds which don't have corresponding onomatopoeia or descriptions in english yet have katakana associated with them, which I think adds to the auditory quality and overall effect of a manga, making it seem more vivid. It's something unique to that style of art I think.
It's interesting that some of the words are abbreviated, like titanium = チタン where as a lot of the others still have the -um ending. That seems very inconvenient...
ReplyDeleteVery good!
Great work! Few people thought about exploring the use if Katakana in their own respective academic fields. I think this phenomenon more or less reflects the relationship between Kanji and Katakana and the progress in the discovery of periodic table. It is amusing to see that, on the one hand, elements, which were discovered the earliest, were expressed in the words from the traditional Kanji repertoire, like H, C, N, O, Ag, etc. On the other hand, those later elements are assigned with Western names expressed in Katakana.
ReplyDeleteChemical names are very interesting because this is supposed to be one area where the Japanese and Chinese terms have retained differences. In many other scientific fields, the Japanese and Chinese terms came to be the same around the early 20th century – these were Japanese neologisms that Chinese intellectuals adopted, for interesting reasons.
ReplyDeleteJapanese scientists recently managed to synthesize a new element at Riken, element 113 – though the priority is contested by Russian and US researchers. If the Japanese researchers get to name it, apparently they might call it “Japonium”, “Rikenium” or “Nishinanium”.
To clarify a bit further, in my comment I was referring to the kanji terms rather than the katakana actually. But in any case, I wonder if say "Japonium" came to be an element, would it be written in katakana, or would it also have a kanji version (日本素?).
DeleteSince scientific terms tend to be overrun with English terms, and most scientific publications tend to be written and read in English, it makes sense that most chemical names tend to be directly transliterated to Japanese rather than translated.
ReplyDelete発音(pronunciation)が同じ(same)なので色々な国の人が理解(understand)出来ますよね。