Katakana Analysis Draft

My first sample is from the manga Devil Survivor (デビルサバイバー). The text is written in katakana because it is not an actual word, but an onomatopoeia. The dots on the ア most likely indicate a growling or gurgled sound, instead of the clear sound saying ア would usually have. This character is not exactly in a textbook, but the ア itself would be explained by a textbook as an onomatopoeia. 「ア"」is not itself a character, so it is not in a textbook, but it is used by this author because he wanted to convey the way in which it was said also, and to give the text an implied feeling.

My second sample is a knife purchased from Muji. This label is most likely written in katakana instead of the kanji for knife to indicate that it is a Western style knife, instead of a more traditional Japanese knife. The use of knives to eat food in Japan is a more recent occurrence, and was not done traditionally. In textbooks, this use of katakana would likely fall under the category of foreign loan words or name of a tool. It is probably somewhere in between because 刀 is not an accurate description of this knife, so it is a tool that does not have kanji or hiragana that accurately describe it, and knife is a foreign word, making 「ナイフ」a translation of a foreign loan word.

My last sample is from a box of Matcha Cream Pocky. It includes both the use of グリコ and　ポッキー. Both the company and product names being written in katakana is probably due to personal choice of the company. I also found that Pocky is named after the Japanese onomatopoeia ポッキン, which is the sound Pocky makes when it is bitten. Also, Mami, who commented on my previous blog post said that it may be in katakana because of the extended syllable at the end with the 「－」, which you can only use in katakana, not in hiragana. The textbook would probably also describe this as personal choice by the company.