Reading loanwords in katakana

Japan’s 1991 rules for loanwords list two sets of extra kana combinations, from ティ (ti) to ヴォ (vo).

Japanese has absorbed thousands of words from other languages, most of them from English, and they are written in katakana. Learners who know English have a head start, but only if they can hear the English word inside the Japanese one. コンピューター (konpyūtā) is computer, and テキスト (tekisuto) is a textbook or text. This unit explains the regular changes a word goes through on its way into Japanese, and the extra katakana combinations that exist mainly for these words.

How an English word becomes Japanese

Japanese beats end in a vowel or in ん, so English consonant clusters get vowels added. After most consonants the added vowel is u: text becomes tekisuto, with u after k and s and o after t. After t and d the added vowel is usually o, because tu and du would turn into tsu and zu: bed is beddo. Stressed English vowels often become long, marked with ー: cake is kēki. English r and l both become the ra row: rice and lice are both raisu. And the th, v and f sounds have to be borrowed from the nearest Japanese kana.

Word endings follow habits too. The official rules say English -er, -or and -ar endings are written as a long a with the bar, as in エレベーター (erebētā, elevator) and コンピューター. The bar may be dropped where that is the custom, so コンピュータ also appears, especially in technical writing. Japanese also shortens long borrowings freely: テレビ (terebi) is television, and パソコン (pasokon) is a personal computer. Those clipped forms can be the hardest to guess.

The extra combinations

Some foreign sounds have no kana, so Japanese builds them from a normal kana plus a small vowel. The 1991 Cabinet Notice on loanword spelling sorts them into two tables. Table 1 holds combinations in general use: シェ (she), チェ (che), ティ (ti), ディ (di), ファ (fa), フィ (fi), フェ (fe), フォ (fo), デュ (dyu) and a few more. That gives ティーパーティー (tī pātī, tea party), ディズニー (Dizunī, Disney) and ファイル (fairu, file). Table 2 holds combinations used to stay closer to the original sound: ウィ, ウェ, ウォ, ヴァ, ヴィ, ヴ, ヴェ, ヴォ, トゥ and others.

The rules say Table 2 is optional. A word can always be written with plain kana instead, and many are. バイオリン (baiorin) and ヴァイオリン (vaiorin) are both violin; ウイスキー and ウィスキー are both whisky. Some old borrowings settled before the new combinations spread, so their spelling stays plain: ラジオ (rajio, radio), not ラディオ, and スタジオ (sutajio, studio). When a word has two spellings, both are correct. The rules deliberately do not pick one.

A method for unknown words

When you meet a new katakana word, read it aloud slowly, beat by beat. Then say it faster while removing the added vowels in your head: ho-te-ru becomes hotel, ku-ri-su-ma-su becomes Christmas. Swap r for l if the result sounds wrong. Remember that not every loanword is English. パン (pan, bread) came from Portuguese, and アルバイト (arubaito, part-time job) from the German Arbeit, work. If the word still will not come, check a dictionary: the guess you made first will help you remember it.