One of the remnants of my childhood in Japan is my collection of まんが. My favorite series is called イマドキ！by ゆうわたせ of the しょうじょ genre. In it there are some unusual uses of katakana: 「ゴメンなさい ひと いるとおもわなくてー」and 「あなたもココのせいと？」and 「マズイよね」. These are all instances where words normally written in hiragana are for some reason in katakana.
In order to understand why they are written differently, I think it is important to consider the context of these words. The first sentence roughly translates into "I'm sorry, I didn't think there was a person here," and is said after a girl called やまざきたんぽぽ nearly crashes into a boy named くぎょうこうき while on her bike.
Then こうき asks "You're a pupil here?", which is the second sentence, when he finds out unexpectedly that たんぽぽ is a new student at his school.
Finally, the last phrase means "It's bad, isn't it" and たんぽぽ says it after she has had a terrible day.
In all of these cases, the katakana is used to emphasize the word, almost like using capital letters. For example, instead of "sorry" たんぽぽ says "SORRY" because she nearly hit こうき. Another similar interpretation is that katakana is used much like bold and italics, according to a book called "Mangajin's Basic Japanese through Comics." So the second sentence can be read as "You go to school here?" and the third sentence "It's bad, isn't it."
I think because katakana is more angular than hiragana it is better suited for emphasizing certain words, and whenever we look at a word that isn't written in the conventional way we pay extra attention to it. According to japanese.stackexchange.com, katakana is used both for semantic and visual emphasis. On the page, katakana simply stands out more than hiragana.
Most textbooks will explain katakana as the writing used to express loanwords, foreign names, and onomatopoeia. According to www.omniglot.com, katakana has been used since the 20th century for these purposes in telegrams. However, as we have discovered in this katakana analysis, the use and significance of katakana is complex and extends beyond what most textbooks include. Namely, in this manga we have katakana that is used for Japanese words, which proves that katakana is not solely restricted to foreign words.
Furthermore, I believe that the katakana in this manga also shows たんぽぽ's character as a girl who is lively and cute. Because it is difficult to convey the tone of a character's speech in manga, katakana helps the readers know where to "hear" the inflections in a sentence and also helps us establish how the characters speak. According to my Japanese friend Ayo, many まんがか will use katakana to make the dialogue more exciting and expressive. For example, we can easily imagine たんぽぽ saying ゴメンなさい in a loud and genuinely sorry voice. On the other hand, we can also gather that she is really truly upset when she says マズイよね. Therefore, using katakana is an effective way to subtly convey character in manga.
Interestingly, after talking with my parents and family friends who have lived in Japan for a number of years, I've discovered that katakana can be a sort of slang. Especially in manga, which is generally geared toward young people, writing regular words in katakana can be regarded as somewhat rebellious of conventions. By looking at popular culture, like manga, we can see that Japanese people have developed another use for katakana so that it places emphasis on certain words, helps reveal character in manga, and serves a form of slang for young people.
Sources:
Ayo Yoshida-Are (native Japanese speaker)
Lixin Shi (my father and previously a かいしゃいん in とうきょう) and his friends
Mangajin's Basic Japanese through Comics by Ashizawa Kazuko
http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1930/why-dame-is-written-as-katakana-ダメ-in-manga
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese_katakana.htm
In order to understand why they are written differently, I think it is important to consider the context of these words. The first sentence roughly translates into "I'm sorry, I didn't think there was a person here," and is said after a girl called やまざきたんぽぽ nearly crashes into a boy named くぎょうこうき while on her bike.
Then こうき asks "You're a pupil here?", which is the second sentence, when he finds out unexpectedly that たんぽぽ is a new student at his school.
Finally, the last phrase means "It's bad, isn't it" and たんぽぽ says it after she has had a terrible day.
In all of these cases, the katakana is used to emphasize the word, almost like using capital letters. For example, instead of "sorry" たんぽぽ says "SORRY" because she nearly hit こうき. Another similar interpretation is that katakana is used much like bold and italics, according to a book called "Mangajin's Basic Japanese through Comics." So the second sentence can be read as "You go to school here?" and the third sentence "It's bad, isn't it."
I think because katakana is more angular than hiragana it is better suited for emphasizing certain words, and whenever we look at a word that isn't written in the conventional way we pay extra attention to it. According to japanese.stackexchange.com, katakana is used both for semantic and visual emphasis. On the page, katakana simply stands out more than hiragana.
Most textbooks will explain katakana as the writing used to express loanwords, foreign names, and onomatopoeia. According to www.omniglot.com, katakana has been used since the 20th century for these purposes in telegrams. However, as we have discovered in this katakana analysis, the use and significance of katakana is complex and extends beyond what most textbooks include. Namely, in this manga we have katakana that is used for Japanese words, which proves that katakana is not solely restricted to foreign words.
Furthermore, I believe that the katakana in this manga also shows たんぽぽ's character as a girl who is lively and cute. Because it is difficult to convey the tone of a character's speech in manga, katakana helps the readers know where to "hear" the inflections in a sentence and also helps us establish how the characters speak. According to my Japanese friend Ayo, many まんがか will use katakana to make the dialogue more exciting and expressive. For example, we can easily imagine たんぽぽ saying ゴメンなさい in a loud and genuinely sorry voice. On the other hand, we can also gather that she is really truly upset when she says マズイよね. Therefore, using katakana is an effective way to subtly convey character in manga.
Interestingly, after talking with my parents and family friends who have lived in Japan for a number of years, I've discovered that katakana can be a sort of slang. Especially in manga, which is generally geared toward young people, writing regular words in katakana can be regarded as somewhat rebellious of conventions. By looking at popular culture, like manga, we can see that Japanese people have developed another use for katakana so that it places emphasis on certain words, helps reveal character in manga, and serves a form of slang for young people.
Sources:
Ayo Yoshida-Are (native Japanese speaker)
Lixin Shi (my father and previously a かいしゃいん in とうきょう) and his friends
Mangajin's Basic Japanese through Comics by Ashizawa Kazuko
http://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1930/why-dame-is-written-as-katakana-ダメ-in-manga
http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese_katakana.htm
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