Katakana is one of three Japanese alphabets, containing 45 characters. Katakana represents syllables, unlike hiragana which represents letters. Learning katakana typically takes 1-2 weeks
Modern German alphabet consists of 26 letters from ISO basic Latin alphabet. Uses letter-diacritic combinations (Ä/ä, Ö/ö, Ü/ü) but not considered distinct letters. Umlaut diacritics indicate frontalization of back vowels
Japanese writing system consists of 46 Hiragana, 46 Katakana, and thousands of kanji. Katakana was created in early 9th century by Buddhist monks and doctors. Name "Katakana" means "fragmentary kana" derived from Kanji radicals
Katakana is the second alphabet in Japanese used for foreign words. Japanese keyboard is necessary for typing katakana. Smartphones typically don't include katakana keyboard option
Prefixes are added before words to indicate meaning (e.g. mono-, multi-). Suffixes are added after words to show their class (e.g. -ism, -er). Conversion changes words from one class to another (e.g. email to text). Compounding combines two or more bases to create new words (e.g. backache)
Katakana is a Japanese syllabary derived from kanji components. Each kana represents one mora, consisting of vowels, consonant-vowel combinations, or nasal sounds. Characterized by short, straight strokes and angular corners. Contains 48 characters total, including 39 consonant-vowel unions and 5 vowels