On Fri, 12 Dec 2003 13:45:14 +0000, Michael Everson <everson@...>
wrote:

> I don't think so. Hiragana is used in grammatical endings, Katakana
> is used for foreign words.

Katakana is, or was, also used for telegrams. Afaik, katakana is used in
legal documents, presumably because kanki is sometimes open to
interpretation.
Katakana also works well with low-resolution dot-matrix character cells.*
I'm fairly sure it can be rendered in a 7x9 cell, and perhaps even in a 5
x 7 cell. The commonly-used kanji (Tôyô (sp?) Kanji?) require a cell at
least 24 dots high, which is probably the reason tha 24-pin dot-matrix
printers were developed as soon as they were.

*A term applied to older computer monitors (such as 25 x 80 VGA text
mode), before text was displayed essentially in graphics mode as a bitmap
image, as it is now.)

Historically, katakana was used by men, and hiragana by women, so I
understand. I'm not sure I could find a suporting reference, but if
there's a demand, I could search.

Hiragana, being much more "cursive" can't be rendered properly in
low-resolution character cells.

> They are not interchangeable in the same way that Latin case forms are.

Definitely true.

> Latin capital letters are special shapes of small letters and/or vice
> versa.
> I don't think the same relationship applies to the Japanese syllabaries.

Correct; it does not.

I have studied Japanese writing as a rather-lazy dilettante now and then
for quite a few years, and feel decently sure of what I state.

Both kanas were developed by simplifying kanji that were used by Japanese
strictly for phonetic purposes. If you see the parent kanji and the kana
character that was derived from it, you can usually, if not always, see
the derivation. (It might well help to be able to write kanji, too.)

My regards to all,

--
Nicholas Bodley <#o#> Waltham, Mass.
<nbodley@...>
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