katakanan.
/ˌkatəˈkɑːnə/, U.S. /ˌkɑdəˈkɑnə/ One of the two varieties of the Japanese syllabic writing, the characters of which are more angular than the hiragana, derived from abbreviated forms of Chinese ideographs of the corresponding sounds, and used chiefly in scientific and official documents and in spelling out foreign words adopted into the Japanese language. Cf. hiragana n.
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society > communication > writing > system of writing > [noun] > of specific languages > Japanese
kana1727
katakana1727
hiragana1822
manyogana1841
kanji1920
1727 J. G. Scheuchzer tr. E. Kæmpfer Hist. Japan II. v. xiv. 590 The other was a map of the whole world, of their own making, in an oval form, and mark'd with the Japanese Kattakanna characters.
1822 F. Shoberl tr. I. Titsingh Illustr. Japan 194 These works, published in the learned language, Gago, with the kata-kana, or women's letters, have been re-printed expressly for them.
1859 A. Steinmetz Japan & her People i. vii. 305 Katagana is very simple, each sound having one invariable representative.
1861 G. Smith Ten Weeks Japan xi. 173 A copy of St. Luke's gospel in the Katagana Japanese character published at Hong-kong.
1880 Encycl. Brit. XIII. 585/1 Each character may be written in either the katakana or the hiragana style.
1928 G. B. Sansom Hist. Gram. Japanese 45 At some period in the development of the script, probably about the time when the hiragana and katakana syllabaries were contrived.
1970 Jrnl. Gen. Psychol. 82 40 The transmission of the Katakana syllabary by electrical signals applied to the skin.
1973 Physics Bull. May 280/3 We have also extended the process by including in addition to the 881 Chinese characters, the 50 Japanese Kata-Kana and 50 Hira-Gana characters and 10 numerals.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1933; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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