Katakana Analysis Draft

As a chemistry major, I immediately thought of all the incredibly long, complicated names of organic compounds in chemistry and wondered about their translation. Because English is in many ways the official language of science, I figured that some names such as nitrosomethylurethane (which is actually fairly benign when it comes to chemical nomenclature) likely would never have to be written in any place other than a highly specialized journal that is published in English in the first place. However, I was curious about compounds like say octane, a component in gasoline, or elements such as oxygen or germanium. Turning to Wikipedia (also as a true chemistry major-- multiple professors have told me that they feel that the best treatment of all but the most specialized and rigorous topics in chemistry can be found on Wikipedia), I found that オクタン and ゲルマニウム were written in katakana, while oxygen had its own kanji: 酸素（さんそ）.  Looking further, I found a Japanese language periodic table (http://www.ptable.com/?lang=ja) and found that while most elements are written with katakana versions of their English names (with frequent abbreviations), many of the elements you would think would have Japanese words, such as gold and iron, do.



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.

食べもの

私は　日本りょうりが　大好きです。にくの方が　さかなより　好きなので、日本りょうりの中で　すきやきが　一番　好きです。そして、テーブルの上に　すきやきを　作るのは　おもしろいです。

すきやき

さかなの中で、うなぎが　一番　好きです。きはだが　好きじゃありません。おすしの方が　さしみより　好きです。

うなぎ

日本りょうりのなかで　なっとうが　一番　きらいです。私のちちは　なっとうが　大好きなけど、　私は　食べません。

なっとう

PE4

Goals:

• To continue to improve my ability to first recognize, and second accurately imitate/reproduce the pitch patterns of spoken Japanese
• To continue to improve my ability to speak at a more rapid pace
• To improve my ability to both listen to and comprehend longer phrases and sentences, and be able to reproduce them without becoming sloppy with regards to pitch or pronunciation

Activities:

• Try to listen to some spoken Japanese as often as possible, hopefully everyday, and pay particular attention to noticing pitch patterns
• Have a free conversation with a native Japanese speaker hopefully once a week
• When practicing shadowing pick out materials with relatively long and complex sentences that are spoken at a decently fast pace