Question
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Deleted user
13 Feb 2018
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Question about Japanese
Why do you have both Hiragana and Katakana?
Why do you have both Hiragana and Katakana?
I get that you write foreign things in Katakana - but what I'm trying to ask is why you couldn't just choose one or the other?
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- German
Hiragana and katakana (collectively referred to as kana) are syllabic writing, that is, each character represents a syllable such as "ta" or "o". They're purely phonetic so they don't have direct connotations like kanji do, and both have the same set of syllables. In modern writing:
Hiragana is generally used for Japanese words when they're not written in kanji, and for all the grammatical "glue" such as conjugations and particles.
Katakana is usually used for loanwords and onomatopoeia. There's no strict rule though, so you will see katakana used for other purposes as well, such as emphasis.
Deleted user
@Eternitysamidare Thank you. I just wanted to know why you couldn't (possibly) just choose either Hiragana or Katakana and get rid of the other one?
I'm just interested in why; not trying to offend anyone if I am.
- Japanese
I'm wondering too, perhaps so much as you do regarding Japanese, why on earth the English language has so many words that have basically almost the same meaning; this is mostly because of its peculiar history, as you know. And inspite of that, you guys wouldn't stop using, at least, a part of those synonyms for eloquence, right? Breads are not enough, life must be decorated with roses ;)
Deleted user
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