What is katakana in japanese language?

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Katakana is one of three characters used in the Japanese language. Katakana is a phonetic alphabet - each letter represents the sound of a syllable (like English ABC). Letter itself has no meaning. Katakana and Hiragana represent exactly the same set of sounds. Katakana is used mostly for foreign loan words.

Katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script. The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived from components or fragments of more complex kanji.

Katakana and hiragana are both kana systems. With one or two minor exceptions, each syllable (strictly mora) in the Japanese language is represented by one character or kana in each system. Each kana represents either a vowel such as "a" (katakana ア); a consonant followed by a vowel such as "ka" (katakana カ); or "n" (katakana ン), a nasal sonorant which, depending on the context, sounds either like English m, n or ng ([ŋ]) or like the nasal vowels of Portuguese or Galician.

In contrast to the hiragana syllabary, which is used for Japanese words not covered by kanji and for grammatical inflections, the katakana syllabary usage is comparable to italics in English; specifically, it is used for transcription of foreign-language words into Japanese and the writing of loan words (collectively gairaigo); for emphasis; to represent onomatopoeia; for technical and scientific terms; and for names of plants, animals, minerals and often Japanese companies.

Katakana was originally created by Japanese Buddhist monks in order to better transliterate Indian texts and works of art transmitted directly from India (such as Bodhisena) or through Buddhism via China. It is strongly influenced by both Indian and Chinese linguistic customs.