Open source dmd on Reddit!

[Christopher Wright]

Nick Sabalausky wrote:
> "Walter Bright" <newshound1 at digitalmars.com> wrote in message 
> news:gpc2ik$2t80$1 at digitalmars.com...
>> Nick Sabalausky wrote:
>>> That's one thing that's kind of nice about Japanese. Native words and 
>>> loanwords are written in different alphabets (sort of like uppercase vs 
>>> lowercase), so unlike English, you generally know if a word is a 
>>> properly-pronounced native word or a potentially-differently-pronounced 
>>> loanword. (Not that this is necessarily the original reason for the 
>>> separate native/foreign alphabets, but it's at least a nice benefit.)
>> I don't see having 3 alphabets as having some sort of compelling advantage 
>> that remotely compares with the cost of learning 3 alphabets and 3 
>> spellings for everything.
> 
> Native Japanese words never use the Katakana alphabet, and loanwords never 
> use the Hiragana alphabet (those are the two phonetic alphabets).

There are situations in Japanese where you use katakana natively. 
Onomatopoeia, for instance, and company names.

I know that, when introducing someone's name in writing, an author will 
sometimes follow the kanji version of the name with a phonological 
representation of the name. Does this typically use hiragana, or would 
you use katakana for that as well?