I found something quite interesting and peculiar when reading japanese..

I was doing some reading and I came across the phrase “ミナ先生大丈夫デスカ”. I know the character is asking if sensei is ok but why is desuka written in katakana? Ive seen other sentences that are similar like this which use katakana instead of hiragana.

6 comments
  1. Was it a robot talking? Often robotic speech is depicted in katakana.

    “KIND OF LIKE CAPS IN ENGLISH SOMETIMES” the robot beeped.

  2. Marked (unusual) katakana usage can be a sign of a few things. Here are a few you might run into:

    1. Foreigners speaking Japanese with an accent.
    2. Robots speaking.
    3. Someone speaking in a “katakoto” style. Sometimes used when someone is nervous, or for humor, or sarcasm. The “booyomi” style of speech is also used for humor or sarcasm, but this one is more of a purposefully “flat” speech with all intonation taken out of the speech.

  3. Is the character a foreigner, a robot, emotionless or being super loud?

    Katakana is frequently used to emphasize character traits or to represent shouting or very loud or unnatural dialogue.

  4. Ok I think I got it now. The character saying it is a foreign student that speaks English so maybe he speaks Japanese with an accent and katakana suggests that right? Australian English

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