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"anime" in hiragana or katakana?

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John Hieu Do

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Dec 30, 1994, 1:46:02 AM12/30/94
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Hi. Just wondering if someone can tell me FOR SURE whether the
Japanese spell "anime" using hiragana or katakana. My guess is
that they would use katakana, since "anime" is derived from the
English word "animation", but I don't know for sure. That's why
I'm asking.

Thanks!

D'oh!
.

Gene Fornario

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Dec 30, 1994, 2:18:36 AM12/30/94
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Well, I don't know how my sources square with others, but here goes:

I looked up the word "animation" in Jdic, Jim Breen's excellent
Japanese-English dictionary program. The only definition I got was
"a-ni-me" in katakana. There was no hiragana or kanji equivalent offered.
It's a safe bet that "anime" is a borrowed word from another language.

In the book "All About Katakana" by Anne Matsumoto Stewart [Kodansha],
one of the purposes of katakana is for words borrowed from other languages.

While there is no law saying what must be used, it's a safe bet the katakana
spelline "anime" is the common usage.

Hope that helps.

--
ge...@netcom.com

Stainless Steel Rat

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Dec 30, 1994, 10:31:45 AM12/30/94
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>>>>> "John" == John Hieu Do <jh...@netcom.com> writes:

John> Hi. Just wondering if someone can tell me FOR SURE whether the
John> Japanese spell "anime" using hiragana or katakana.

Katakana; it's not a Japanese word so you whouldn't use hiragana.

--
Rat <rat...@ccs.neu.edu> | If Happy Fun Ball begins to smoke, get
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/ratinox | away immediately. Seek shelter and cover
PGP Public Key: Ask for one today! | head.

wu george

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Dec 30, 1994, 11:09:45 PM12/30/94
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John Hieu Do (jh...@netcom.com) wrote:
: Hi. Just wondering if someone can tell me FOR SURE whether the

katakana. I think it's a loan word from from French for
animation.

--
*-----------------------------------------------------*
| | | George Wu |
| . - - - -. | University of Ill. |
| | | | Computer Eng. |
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Timon Marmex Trzepacz

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Dec 31, 1994, 7:23:08 AM12/31/94
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John Hieu Do (jh...@netcom.com) wrote:
: Hi. Just wondering if someone can tell me FOR SURE whether the

At all the Japanese bookstores I've been to, they label the tapes in
katakana. Long before I knew any Japanese I learned that all of those
tapes were labeled with what looked like ` P=X '...

-- Timon --

ITO Takayuki

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Dec 31, 1994, 10:54:53 AM12/31/94
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In article <RATINOX.94...@delphi.ccs.neu.edu>

rat...@ccs.neu.edu (Stainless Steel Rat) writes:

>John> Hi. Just wondering if someone can tell me FOR SURE whether the
>John> Japanese spell "anime" using hiragana or katakana.
>
>Katakana; it's not a Japanese word so you whouldn't use hiragana.

Yes. Loan words (except from Chinese) are written in katakana.
However, some loan words can be written in hiragana, or even kanji,
since they've been used for a long time and are considered as if
genuine Japanese words. e.g. tabako, kiseru, kabocha etc.

ITO Takayuki <yu...@is.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp>
tentative signature for rec.arts.anime/manga

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