Katakana

: Why Japanese People Love Abbreviations: The Culture of Shortened Words

Japan is full of shortened words — and once you notice them, you’ll hear them everywhere. From remote control becoming Remo-con to smartphone becoming Sma-pho, abbreviations are a fun and natural part of everyday Japanese communication. 1. Why Japanese People Shorten Words Japanese culture values efficiency and simplicity, but there’s more to it than that. The Japanese language has a natural rhythm made of short syllables, so shortening words makes them easier to say and gives them a catchy, rhythmic sound. That’s why even foreign brand names and people’s names get shortened based on sound, not spelling: Starbucks → ...

: The first step in Japanese: Hiragana and Katakana can express almost any kind of sound.

Japanese shares Chinese letters (Kanji) in writing. But unlike Chinese, we use them mixing with two sets of our own alphabet. One is called ‘Hiragana’ the other is called ‘Katakana’. Each set has 48 letters out of which two are obsolete. Both of them are phonetic letters. So they can express almost any kind of sound, which is especially convenient to describe foreign words. However, the context of usage makes a distinction between those two. Hiragana is basically used for writing words and expressions of Japanese origin, while Katakana is used for expressing those of foreign origins. Since words and ...