Editing Katakana (section)

==History==
[[File:Katakana origin new.svg|thumb|Roots of katakana highlighted]]
[[File:Syougaku11.jpg|thumb|Japanese katakana in a 1873 textbook]]
Katakana was developed in the 9th century (during the early [[Heian period]]) by [[Nara period|Buddhist monks in Nara]] in order to transliterate texts and works of arts from India, by taking parts of ''[[man'yōgana]]'' characters as a form of shorthand, hence this kana is so-called {{Nihongo||片|kata|"partial, fragmented"}}. For example, {{Nihongo||カ|ka}} comes from the left side of {{Nihongo||加|ka|lit. "increase", but the original meaning is no longer applicable to kana}}. The adjacent table shows the origins of each katakana: the red markings of the original [[Chinese character]] (used as ''man'yōgana'') eventually became each corresponding symbol.<ref>[http://www.omniglot.com/writing/japanese_katakana.htm Japanese katakana]. Omniglot.com</ref> Katakana is also heavily influenced by Sanskrit due to the original creators having travelled and worked with Indian Buddhists based in East Asia during the era.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Aiyar |first=Pallavi |date=2018-06-09 |title=The oldest recorded Indian in Japan impacts the country's culture even today |language=en-IN |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/society/history-and-culture/the-indian-who-docked-at-osaka/article24112221.ece |access-date=2022-09-18 |issn=0971-751X}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Influence of Sanskrit on the Japanese Sound System – संस्कृता वाक् |url=https://sites.google.com/site/sanskrtavak/home/resources/sa-ja |access-date=2022-09-18 |website=sites.google.com |archive-date=20 September 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140920153028/https://sites.google.com/site/sanskrtavak/home/resources/sa-ja |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Official documents of the [[Empire of Japan]] were written exclusively with [[kyūjitai]] and katakana.