ドラえもん：Doraemon is a popular manga in Japan. It is interesting to analyze because the "Dora" part of "Doraemon" is written in katakana, whereas the "emon" is written in hiragana. The manga is about a robotic cat named Doraemon who is from the future and who befriends a boy named Nobita kun. It chronicles their adventures together. Doraemon's favorite food is Dorayaki; it's interesting to note that the ドラ in ドラえもん is similar to Dorayaki. However, Dorayaki can be written in hiragana, kanji, and katakana. "Dora" means "gong" in Japanese, so the "Dora" in Doraemon could be written in katakana because it's an onomatopoeia. Also, "emon" was a popular ending for male names in Japan, so that could be why it's written in hiragana.
コーヒー：This word is a loanword from the English word "coffee." It was also made into a kanji later on. Some foreign words, like this one, are made into kanji called "Ateji." Coffee could be written in ateji because it became a popular word.
おもしろいですね！
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ReplyDeleteThanks for your post ! Doraemon is a great manga, even outside Japan. The reason for using katakana for Dora is probably due to the difficulty of its kanji, while the katakana is much easier to remember. And you're right that Doraemon is named after Dora because he loves dorayaki so much.
ReplyDeleteNot only because of being popular, but also due to the fact that coffee was never defined in Japanese to make it necessary to denote this word by katakana. And sometimes there're some words getting defined by using Kanji (like kougaku(hiragana)/enjinia(katakana)/engineer(English)) after it was introduced into Japan, and both its katakata and hiragana form are used.
Your analysis of ドラえもんwas very interesting to read. However, I didn't know that ドラin ドラえもんcan be an onomatopoeia which drives from the word gong....
ReplyDeleteThe word コーヒーwas introduced to Japan from the Dutch word koffie. It is also written in Kanji which uses ateji, as you mentioned.珈琲 was made by a Japanese scholar Udagawa Yoan in the 18th century. Why do you think Japanese people use both カタカナ and Kanji? Are bothカタカナand kanji used particularly for something (ex.かんコーヒー and a name of a coffee shop; 珈琲館)?
Also, don't forget to summarize the different definitions or rules of カタカナ !
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