Japanese for Hengband : Lesson 1 - Japanese support & katakana.

From: Paul Blay (ranma_at_saotome.demon.co.uk)
Date: 06/28/04 

Date: Mon, 28 Jun 2004 08:21:23 +0100

Japanese for Hengband* : Lesson 1 - Japanese support & katakana.

You will need
1. A Japanese capable computer
  (Details for Windows may be in the following page
  found http://www.declan-software.com/japanese_ime/ )
2. Knowledge of the Japanese writing system
  (An overview with hiragana / katakana chart may be found
  http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~jwb/jwriting.html )
3. The Japanese version of Hengband
  (See http://hengband.sourceforge.jp/download.html )

Katakana.

Katakana is used, amongst other things, for writing words from other languages
in Japanese. As might be expected katakana is heavily used in the context of
computers and of foreign fantasy genres.

More on katakana can be found in many places on the web including
http://www.japanese-online.com/language/lessons/katakana.htm

If you install and start up Hengband you'll see (if your computer is supporting
Japanese properly) the following menus.

$B%U%!%$%k(B
$B!\?75,(B
$B!\3+$/(B
$B!\J]B8(B
$B!\%9%3%"(B
$B!\=*N;(B

$B%&%#%s%I%&(B
$B!\I=<((B
$B!\%U%)%s%H(B
$B!\A02h$K8GDj(B
$B!\%?%$%k$NI}$r9-$2$k(B
$B!\%?%$%k$NI}$r=L$a$k(B
$B!\%?%$%k$N9b$5$r9-$2$k(B
$B!\%?%$%k$N9b$5$r=L$a$k(B

$B%*%W%7%g%s(B
$B!\%0%i%U%#%C%/%9(B
$B!\8z2L2;(B
$B!\JI;f$r;H$&(B
$B!\JI;f$rA*Br(B
$B!\2hLL$r(BHTML$B$GJ]B8(B

Ignore the kanji and sub-menus for now and see if you can work out what all
the katakana words mean.

* An exercise to demonstrate there are worse ways of learning Japanese
than manga. ;-) Seriously I almost certainly won't be continuing with
lessons 2 and on.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Iroha in Kanji?
    ... actually show you what the font will look like. ... Japanese, Hiragana, Katakana, Korean, Bopomofo, Hanyu Pinyin, etc. ... Katakana is not a language, ...
    (sci.lang.japan)
  • Re: Hawaiian written in Japanese script? - picture
    ... Japanese katakana script below the English is gibberish. ... I think the author may have changed the keyboard settings believing the resulting katakana signs to be the japanese counterpart of the keyboard letters -- maybe believing that this actually changed the language. ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: Iroha in Kanji?
    ... I don't know if you use Japanese Windows or English Windows, ... actually show you what the font will look like. ... Japanese, Hiragana, Katakana, Korean, Bopomofo, Hanyu Pinyin, etc. ... Then the module will display a list of fonts ...
    (sci.lang.japan)
  • Re: Hawaiian written in Japanese script? - picture
    ... >> author says he took this pic in Hawaii, and that that Japanese ... >> katakana script below the English is gibberish. ... Paul> John, a slightly closer look at the picture would have given ... Paul> number of "words" and characters as the English, ...
    (sci.lang)
  • Re: katakana for animal and plant names
    ... >>>and every single name is written in katakana. ... >or "creative" so kanji are used more frequently. ... >bonsai is sending my father a Japanese bonsai calendar at Christmas. ... >woodworking books, and books about birdwatching with all the vegetable, tree ...
    (sci.lang.japan)