A surfeit of katakana words: how do you say "woke" in Japanese?
Language Log 2025-04-02
Summary:
The Japanese writing system consists of three major components — kanji (sinographs), hiragana (cursive syllabary), and katakana (block syllabary). I would argue that rōmaji (roman letters) are a fourth component. We have rehearsed and rehashed their different lexical, morphological, and grammatical functions so often that I don't want to waste time going over them again now. Since we are focusing on katakana in […]