Example: シナモン
Meaning: Cinnamon
Source: Incense packaging
There are two other words for cinnamon in Japanese: けいひ and にっけい (http://www.online-dictionary.biz/english/japanese/meaning/cinnamon). So why use a loan word in katakana? I have several hypotheses. Cinnamon is a plant and plant names are often written in katakan, but that leaves us with the question: why a loan word? This could just be for effect (to sound modern, sophisticated as one of the textbooks explain, or it could be to avoid confusion, since かいひ and にっけい can be written with different kanji to mean other things. For ex. けいひ can also mean expenses or cost outlay apparently (http://www.online-dictionary.biz/japanese/english/meaning/%E3%81%91%E3%81%84%E3%81%B2).
Example: 皮フ科 (hifuka)
Meaning: Dermatologist
Source: Dermatologist's website (www.m-nomura.com/der)
I actually found about this usage by reading about katakana in the first weeks of this course. This website (http://www.sljfaq.org/afaq/katakana-uses.html) has a very good explanation of many of the more obscure uses of katakana. According to it, the フ is a stand-in for an obscure kanji, 膚. I just found a dermatologist's website to verify that this was true.
Example: 〒
Meaning: This is the sign for post office in Japan. It is short for teishin (逓信 meaning communications)
Source: I saw this while looking at pictures of Japanese streets, then did some research: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_postal_mark, http://www.quirkyjapan.or.tv/saq.html.
This stylized テ came into use in the Meiji era, when literacy was less common. So, the symbol is used as a stand-in for an obscure kanji and to add emphasis, since they used the mark to make the postal mark more recognizable.
Matt! I enjoyed reading about these examples. As for the case of "cinnamon," I wonder if it doesn't fall under the rule about katakana being the language of science, administration, banking -- and later, even computing. Any institutional system of categorization and classification seems to rely on katakana as the language of choice. (I don't know if it's because I have my modernity-goggles on, but I keep thinking Foucault would've had a field day in Japan...)
ReplyDeleteIn my experience I have seen katakana on food and packaging items more often than not. The choice to use katakana could have been a purely visual decision so that people could easily identify the incense type amongst the other characters on the packaging. Katakana being used instead of obscure kanji over the years makes me wonder if this will continue in other forms today. Or perhaps the phasing-out of obscure kanji has already taken place and no other instances will occur?
ReplyDeleteThere are certainly many layers or levels of semiotics going on here, especially in the post office symbol example. I wonder how possible it is to map out an evolution from Chinese characters to kanji to katagana to hiragana to symbols!
ReplyDeleteThese are some great examples, and you've clearly done your research. For シナモン, it is most common to write it in Katakana nowadays, perhaps because cinnamon is brought in from the outside Japan. As to why the other words are not used, 肉桂（にっけい） is short for 肉桂皮（にくけいひ）, which is emphasizing the flesh (にく）of the cinnamon plant (けいひ）. So, your average person cooking would probably just use シナモン, while these other terms might be for more academic purposes.
ReplyDeleteThe postal mark is a very interesting example! Whether or not it can still be considered a katakana script is debatable, as it has become a graphic sign rather than a linguistic one. We can also see the visual emphasis of its contemporary usage in the other picture where 〒 represents the hat of a postal worker. However, as an analysis of katakana usage, the history of the postal テ is a great example!
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