Zelda Tears of the kingdom, strange use of Katakana

9 comments

1. I saw it used weird ways in Final Fantasy IV, when the dark elf guy talks, they inverted the use of katakana and hiragana to give him a weird accent. It was so hard to read.

   Like try this: コノはんばーがー、イクラデスカ。

   They’re probably doing it for a weird accent, or to emphasize something, or to seem exotic or magical, etc

   The rules you probably read about when to use katakana aren’t exactly wrong but they aren’t rules either. You use it whenever you want.

   Like using caps in English. You use it WHENEVER YOU WANT.

2. Japanese can be written in katakana at times. You have to consider that different types of media may employ different styles of writing for different purposes. You should be able to read it regardless of how it’s written in the end.

3. The three character sets can be employed at will to fit a stylistic writing choice. It’s common and not strange at all to see katakana used to emphasize parts of a sentence, a word, or create a different tone or emphasis on words.

4. one way I’ve seen katakana described is like italics, and people just use it for reasons

   there are set things we typically use katakana for, but one of them is simply as a stylistic choice

5. As others have said, this is one of the most interesting but potentially frustrating aspects of written Japanese. There are general guidelines, but very few unbreakable rules when it comes to which writing system to use for which word.

   Katakana is generally used for foreign words, animals, onomatopoeia, but can be used for emphasis. It can make it clear that the author is using the word not in the usual sense. 行く is frequently written as イくwhen used in the sexual sense.

   Or it can be used to denote weird/alien speech. Or it can be used to break up a sentence and improve readability in an otherwise long hiragana sentence. Or it can be used because the author feels like it.

   Same problem with Kanji. Words usually written with Kanji can be written in kana for stylistic reasons, or vice versa, words usually written in kana can be written in Kanji. Furigana can be added to give Kanji a unique, unorthodox reading on-the-spot for stylistic, literary, or comedic effect. I’ve even seen a hiragana word be given a Kanji furigana! (Tiny Kanji on the side of the hiragana word) in manga for stylistic/comedic effect. There are endless ways that someone can “play around” with the Japanese language to give endless shades of nuance.

6. It’s mostly in the constructs’ dialogue right?

7. Haven’t played TotK yet, but it’s used often in fantasy or science fiction titles to represent inhuman or unnatural speech. You’ll see robot characters speak that way a lot.

8. One big one that I haven’t seen anyone mention (and I think is probably what you are referring to) is that the documents from ancient Hyrule (the etchings from the sky islands that you have translated in Kakariko etc.) are written in katakana where you would expect hiragana to give it an “older” feel. This is due to prior to WWII, katakana was predominantly used as you would hiragana today for particles, verb conjugations, and stuff like that.

9. There’s no rules, only guidelines.

   The “rules” are useful for beginners to have a rough picture of how things *typically* go. But the best thing about Japanese (imo) is how endlessly creative its writing is.

   The most important skill in Japanese, in my experience, is learning to *roll with it*.