Is “コショウ” (koshō/pepper) a borrowed word? If so, from where? I also saw that it can be written in kanji. Is it common for katakana words to have kanji? Thank you!
Either way this is a loanword from Middle Chinese, 胡椒 which was in turn loaned from Sanskrit
Generally words that were written in kanji but switched to kana are generally written in katakana. This is a very weak rule tho.
> Is it common for katakana words to have kanji?
There is essentially, no such thing as a katakana word, though there might be reasons why a word might be in written in katakana in certain contexts.
ヒト is the way to write 人 in taxonomic contexts.
In the case of Pepper, it it often written in Katakana because neither character is Joyo Kanji, and on a package, it is easier to read ingredients written in Katakana. But it is also written as 胡椒 pretty regularly.
I just checked the cupboards at it is pretty much 50/50.
It’s probably for taxonomical consistency. Names of fruits and vegetables will still fairly often be seen in kanji, but because of how taxonomical names are predominantly written in katakana for reasons of readability, it’s probably to keep in line with that.
Both of the kanji for that word are considered advanced, they’re on the study lists for the pre-1 and the level 1 kanji kentei respectively. So while it can be written in kanji it’s not something that you’d be expected to write in kanji.
Animal names often have kanji as well, but same thing applies where they’re often ‘high level’ and written in katakana instead.
Not all loan words are from English
There’s at least 2 different kinds of answers in this thread, but I’ll just post what I’ve heard about similar words from my teacher in college.
I’ve been told that some words that have kanji are written in katakana just because their kanji is too difficult. I’m not sure if they meant to write or to read or both.
I think dice : saikoro is a common one.
I’ve also been told that swingset : buranko is one, but I’ve heard that this is a loan word as well. I do have a memory of seeing the kanji for it before and thinking it was complex for a children’s toy, though.
So I believe some words just commonly use katakana instead of kanji because the populace has deemed the kanji to be too cumbersome or it’s not well known enough. Maybe pepper is one. It will come up again in other words but these are the only ones I know of.
Get the idea out of your head that Katakana is only used for lone words, it’s in my opinion a great simplification of the use of Katakana. Well technically 胡椒 is a loneword, but so are most words in Japanese because they are of chinese origin (漢語) and are often written in Kanji but when someone decides to not write it in Kanji, then most often they go with Katakana. This could either be due to the kanji being to obscure and thus not so well known, or because stilistic effect, or because for children that don’t know many kanji yet (俺 and many other basic words are often written in Katakan in Manga for example) etc. etc. Katakana is much more than a script for lone words, just accept that many different things tend to be written in Katakana and with time you will get a feel for it beyond just English lone words, in reallity Katakana is used for much more than that anyways.
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コショウ is also commonly written in Hiragana as こしょう
Either way this is a loanword from Middle Chinese, 胡椒 which was in turn loaned from Sanskrit
Generally words that were written in kanji but switched to kana are generally written in katakana. This is a very weak rule tho.
> Is it common for katakana words to have kanji?
There is essentially, no such thing as a katakana word, though there might be reasons why a word might be in written in katakana in certain contexts.
ヒト is the way to write 人 in taxonomic contexts.
In the case of Pepper, it it often written in Katakana because neither character is Joyo Kanji, and on a package, it is easier to read ingredients written in Katakana. But it is also written as 胡椒 pretty regularly.
I just checked the cupboards at it is pretty much 50/50.
It’s probably for taxonomical consistency. Names of fruits and vegetables will still fairly often be seen in kanji, but because of how taxonomical names are predominantly written in katakana for reasons of readability, it’s probably to keep in line with that.
Both of the kanji for that word are considered advanced, they’re on the study lists for the pre-1 and the level 1 kanji kentei respectively. So while it can be written in kanji it’s not something that you’d be expected to write in kanji.
Animal names often have kanji as well, but same thing applies where they’re often ‘high level’ and written in katakana instead.
Not all loan words are from English
There’s at least 2 different kinds of answers in this thread, but I’ll just post what I’ve heard about similar words from my teacher in college.
I’ve been told that some words that have kanji are written in katakana just because their kanji is too difficult. I’m not sure if they meant to write or to read or both.
I think dice : saikoro is a common one.
I’ve also been told that swingset : buranko is one, but I’ve heard that this is a loan word as well. I do have a memory of seeing the kanji for it before and thinking it was complex for a children’s toy, though.
So I believe some words just commonly use katakana instead of kanji because the populace has deemed the kanji to be too cumbersome or it’s not well known enough. Maybe pepper is one. It will come up again in other words but these are the only ones I know of.
Get the idea out of your head that Katakana is only used for lone words, it’s in my opinion a great simplification of the use of Katakana. Well technically 胡椒 is a loneword, but so are most words in Japanese because they are of chinese origin (漢語) and are often written in Kanji but when someone decides to not write it in Kanji, then most often they go with Katakana. This could either be due to the kanji being to obscure and thus not so well known, or because stilistic effect, or because for children that don’t know many kanji yet (俺 and many other basic words are often written in Katakan in Manga for example) etc. etc. Katakana is much more than a script for lone words, just accept that many different things tend to be written in Katakana and with time you will get a feel for it beyond just English lone words, in reallity Katakana is used for much more than that anyways.