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SO… How are we supposed to know if a word is borrowed from another language or if it has Japanese origin? I’m trying to write some words in Japanese and cannot seem to come up with whether the word should be written in Hiragana and Katakana. I know some words such as sake, sushi and karate are of Japanese origin because I’ve known these words originated from Japan since I was young. Should the word “noun” for example (meishi) be in hiragana or katakana?
Reckon that’s something else you’ll get the hang of over time. Think you’ll tend to find most words are of Japanese origin. The practice of adopting foreign loanwords is comparatively recent (like, within the last four hundred years), and use of katakana for them even more so. The word “tempura”, for example, comes from the Latin “tempora” via Portuguese traders, but it’s written in Japanese as 天ぷら (i.e. a mix of kanji and hiragana).
Um… don’t let that confuse you, though. Think the short version is “when in doubt, hiragana”.
“Meishi” is usually written in kanji – 名詞. When a word has kanji but you don’t know the kanji, then you write it in hiragana.
Thanks once again :)
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