Etymology of ramen and katsu

Nancy Friedman just published "52 interesting things I learned this year" (Fritinancy, 12/30/2024). The whole thing is worth reading, but I especially liked (10), which resonates with (17), which references LLOG. 10.  Japanese ramen is a borrowing from Chinese lamian, the source of lo mein. They’re essentially the same word: “The l to r switch occurred because the Japanese r sound is an alveolar tap halfway between […]