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I already know hiragana and I am teaching myself katakana now. Both are
essentially two different versions of each sound, but I am wondering if there
are actually any functional differences between the two. I know what each is
used for (mainly native vs. foreign words, plus others) and I obviously know
they (mostly) look different.

My question is if any individual katakana are used differently than hiragana,
for example differences in pronunciation, characters that aren't really used,
or ones that act differently in certain scenarios. A list of any such
differences would be useful to refer to as to learn them properly and avoid
making incorrect assumptions based on my knowledge of hiragana.

This question can work both ways, also asking for any differences in hiragana
from katakana.
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2014-04-01T16:10:25.913
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2016-12-11T06:43:41.913
2016-12-11T06:43:41.913
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question
katakana hiragana kana
Specific differences to consider between any individual katakana and hiragana?
There are no character-level differences. Hiragana and katakana are, for all
intents and purposes, the same, differing only in how they are used with
regard to the broader idea of choice of system. You say you know what each is
used for, so that's the key distinction you need to focus on.

I think one thing we _might_ be able to mention is elongated vowels. Where in
hiragana you would write ああ・いい・うう・えい・おう in katakana you would usually write
アー・イー・ウー・エー・オー respectively. Note though that for certain effects or spelling
sounds that aren't in _words_ , like a scream or a sigh or something, you may
very well see ー used with hiragana.

Another aspect that we _might_ be able to say fits the question's criteria is
that katakana is often used to represent foreign pronunciation or otherwise
weird ways of talking. There isn't a standard, though, and it's more the
choice of katakana in itself that acts as a kind of visual metaphor for
different pronunciation. The characters themselves would not indicate any
specific change in pronunciation, though, so I don't think we can say this is
an example of katakana being pronounced differently as much as it is the form
that _suggests_ it, if that makes sense. Maybe compare it to some angular
robot-looking font in English being used for robot speech. You wouldn't look
at `a word written for robots` and say it's pronounced differently.

Some characters in katakana simply aren't seen very much because of how
katakana is usually used. For example, grammatical bits are _usually_ written
in hiragana, so it's pretty rare to see ヲ in katakana (since を is nearly
always used as a particle). But still you do see it from time to time and it's
not worth writing it off either.

Similarly, small kana that's used to approximate foreign sounds that aren't in
Japanese _usually_ aren't written in hiragana, so you don't see that much
unless it's intentional. For example, ふぁ ふぃ ふぇ, etc. In most real applications
these sounds/kana combinations would be in katakana. As is the pattern,
though, you _will_ see both.

Katakana and hiragana are a one-to-one mapping. Like different fonts,
basically: they're the same, but they're used in different situations. Most
distinctions that you make will fall into the "usually but not always"
category anyway. Focus on the more meta idea of what the choice of _system_ in
itself means and not so much on specific character level differences.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2014-04-01T16:37:04.097
15186
2014-04-02T03:58:14.047
2014-04-02T03:58:14.047
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answer