しつもんをする

Asking Questions

話すいぬ、

好きな数字は？

ワンと言う。

数字＝すうじ＝number

Oh great talking dog,

What number do you most love?

One*, the dog replies.

*T/N: In Japanese, the sound a dog makes is “ワンワン” rather than “bow wow” or “woof.”

 

 うたうカモ。

な前は何だ？

レディーガガ。

There's a singing duck.

What do you think its name is?

It's Lady Gaga*.

*T/N: Japanese ducks go "ガーガー."  Unfortunately I had to cut short the vowels for it to fit within the syllable restrictions.

クリスマス。

フクロウわらう？

ホーホーだ。

It is a Christmas.

The owl laughs with Santa?

There is a ho ho*.

*T/N: Owls say "ホーホー."  That is all.

I had to take liberties with the translations so that they could still fit the pattern.  I was surprised by how much I had to add.  It seems like an English syllable counts for a lot more than a Japanese letter.

こおり（ice)とほのお（fire）のうた

HBOのセリズのウィターフェル

氷と炎のうたは本七さつです。今ジョージ•R•R•マーティンはそれの中に本を五さつ書きました。私は大好きです。この本は人についてです。そして、キングとドワーフについてです。ファンタジーの本ですが、とてもおもしろくて、りっぱですよ。

一番目の本の中で、キングのロベルト•バラティオン王（おう：king）は友だちのエダード•スタークさまにしつもんをしにしろ（castle）のウィンターフェルに来ます。バレティオン王はスタークさまをウェストロスの京（きょう：capital）にとりたがっています。王の手（王のアシスタント）がいませんから、エダードさまは王の手になります。でも、だれか王の手がいか人をころす(kill)かもしれませんでした。この本をよむのがたのしくて、にぎやかです。そして、HBOはテレビのセリズにしました。なまえはぎょくざのゲーム（Game of Thrones)です。ぼくはあまり見ませんが、好きです。

カタカナ リタレリ ウォーク

しつもんをする

話すいぬ、

好きな数字は？

ワンと言う。

数字＝すうじ＝number

He Asks a Question

Oh great talking dog,

What number do you most love?

One*, the dog replies.

*T/N: In Japanese, the sound a dog makes is “wan wan” rather than “bow wow” or “woof.”

Katakana Analysis バージョン ツ

Most Japanese textbooks seem to describe katakana very simply.  They claim that katakana is used for emphasis, loan words, and onomatopoeia, maybe mentioning that there are a few other uses.  Nevertheless, it seems that this is a oversimplification.  Based on the great complexity of when katakana is used, this simplification was probably intended to cover the primary places a first year Japanese student would see or use katakana without confusing them with all the rarer examples.

My group found lots of interesting katakana examples.  Most of them fell into the category of foreign loan words, such as キャバレ for cabaret in a Japanese novel called Where the Bowling Pins Stand, or ファミレス in a newspaper article in 毎日新聞のニュース, referring to a family restaurant.  There were also some clear examples of onomatopoeia.  For example, ガーン, representing shock, showed up over a character's head in the anime Axis Powers: Hetalia, and a pakino machine in a manga called 大東京ビンボー生活マニュアル(Greater Tokyo Poverty Living Manual) uses the katakana パピコン to represent its electronic dings.

However, some of the other examples are harder to classify.  On the back of a Japanese Red Sox souvenir jersey is written マツザカ even though Matsuzaka is a Japanese name which would normally be written using hiragana or kanji.  At first I thought the katakana were used because the Red Sox are an American team and it would seem out of place for only one name to be written in kanji or hiragana when all the others are written in katakana.  To help figure this out, I looked at the Japanese league's jerseys.  They use Romanji to spell the names!  Why would the makers of this jersey specifically alter it so that it doesn't match normal jerseys either here or in Japan?  As it would seem silly to emphasize the only word on the back of the shirt I must conclude that this is a new use of katakana.  One idea comes from a branching off from the "loan word" use of katakana: the use of katakana might represent an idea of foreignness, even if the word itself is Japanese.  In this case, Matsuzaka's name is written in katakana to reflect that he now lives in a foreign country and plays on an American team.  Another possibility is that katakana is used to demonstrate that the name is not a normal word, so no one will  misread it as 松座だか, "is it a pine seat?" for example.  This would be a differentiation, but neither a true emphasis or loan word, as it does not place more importance on the name than anything else, but it does show that its different.  This idea does have problems however, as most Japanese would be able to easily tell from the context that the word on the Jersey was an name.
 
On the other hand, this idea is reinforced by the title of the manga mentioned earlier.  In 大 東京ビンボー生活マニュアル, ビンボー (poverty) is a native Japanese word and even has its own kanji, (貧乏) but it is written in katakana in the manga's title.  According to Wikipedia, this is partially to emphasize the word, but also partially to show that it is being used in a sense different from the normal meaning, in this case as a life of voluntary withdrawal from material life rather than a forced impoverishment.

From this I conclude that katakana are used to say something is different.  Either simply emphasizing or demonstrating some type of difference difference, such as a different language of origin or an unusual usage, katakana shows that a word is somehow different from the norm.

I'd like to thank all the commentators on my draft.  Your comments all provided an alternative perspective and useful information that really made writing this revision much easier.