Japanese language is a unique language in its way of writing. It is divided into three main sections: Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. The first one is used write words made in Japan or the reading of Kanjis. The second one is used to write specially loan words from other countries. Kanji, what this blog is dedicated on, is used to write most of the words in Japanese for nouns, parts of adjectives and verbs.
While hiragana and kanji words can be pretty easy to pronounce, Katakana may give you a hard time. In fact, it’s like learning a totally different language than Japanese. Katakana will be hard especially for people who don’t have a basic understanding of English words since most of the words are taken from that language.
However, even for an English speaker it may be challenging to catch some Katakana words. Sometimes they are English words and not at the same time. As a person who loves etymology, Katakana words is like a new ocean to explore for me. Since it exactly tells you what words are not originally Japanese, I’m always curious to see where they come from and its history behind them. So let’s sail on the etymology boat and learn about some strange katakana words that lies behind this ocean.
パソコン: personal computer. It is an abbreviation from the two words パーソナルコンピューター
アルバイト: part time job. From the german word Arbeit meaning “working”
カラオケ: karaoke. From the japanese Word から for “empty” and the beginning of the japanese Word for orquestra オーケストラ
ホチキス: stapler. From the company that introduced staplers to Japan called “Hotchkiss”
ピエロ: clown. From the French word “pierrot”
サイン: signature. Abbreviation of the same word.
ドライバー: screwdriver. The same word without the “screw”
パン: bread. From Portuguese “pao”
ウイルス: virus. From the latin word
アンケート: questionnaire. From the French word “enquête”
ノルマ: quota. From the Russian word “norma”
フロント: front desk. From the word “front”
レンジ: microwave. From the word “cooking range”
レントゲン: x-rays. From the person who created X-rays Wilhelm Conrad ‘Röntgen’
ジョッキ: beer-mug. From the English word “jug”
オーエル: office lady. From the abbreviation of the word “OL”
クレーム : claim. (when I saw it the first time, I thought it meant cream lol)
シール : sticker. From the English “seal”
マント : cloak. From the French word “manteau”
マンション: upper-market apartment. Nope, it’s not mansion.
パンク : flat tire. From “puncture”
This is just the tip of the iceberg. But I hope this helps to introduce you to the world of katakana and some of the strange words you may find.
http://www.tofugu.com/2009/06/25/strange-katakana-words/
http://gakuu.com/curious-katakana-words-1/
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