or is a style of obfuscated ( cant) Japanese writing popular amongst urban

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese youth. As the name suggests ( meaning "gal"), this writing system was created by and remains primarily employed by young women. Like the English phenomenon of SMS language, it is most often used for sending

cell phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This radio ...

text messages, but while text is used as a form of informal shorthand, a message typed in usually requires more characters and effort than the same message typed in plain Japanese. Since writing in requires extra effort, and due to the perception of

confidentiality Confidentiality involves a set of rules or a promise sometimes executed through confidentiality agreements that limits the access to or places restrictions on the distribution of certain types of information. Legal confidentiality By law, la ...

, sending messages to a peer is seen as a sign of informality or friendship. The origin of this style is unclear but it has been proposed that magazines targeted at teenage girls first made it popular, and the phenomenon started to gain wider attention in media around 2002. The style has been met with increasing criticism, as its use continues to expand. Reported instances of girls using the writing in school work, OLs ("office ladies") adopting the style in the workplace, and being used in karaoke subtitling, are examples of this. Anthropologist Laura Miller has analyzed as an example of gender resistance.Laura Miller. 2011. "Subversive script and novel graphs in Japanese girls' culture." ''Language & Communication'' Vol. 31, Issue 1: 16-26. Several online guides for exist, as well as one published book: (2004).

Formation

Like leet, replaces characters with visually similar characters or combinations of characters. The Japanese language consists of traditional characters of Chinese origin,

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

, and two native syllabic scripts called kana:

hiragana is a Japanese language, Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' means "common" or "plain" kana (originally also "easy", ...

and

katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

. These characters and scripts are altered to form hidden messages.

Hiragana is a Japanese language, Japanese syllabary, part of the Japanese writing system, along with ''katakana'' as well as ''kanji''. It is a phonetic lettering system. The word ''hiragana'' means "common" or "plain" kana (originally also "easy", ...

consisting of connected strokes are replaced by symbols or Greek letters: for example, may be rendered as the section symbol §. Hiragana consisting of detached elements are replaced by sequences of kana, Western letters, or symbols. For example, may be typed as , ま (

vertical bar The vertical bar, , is a glyph with various uses in mathematics, computing, and typography. It has many names, often related to particular meanings: Sheffer stroke (in logic), pipe, bar, or (literally, the word "or"), vbar, and others. Usage ...

and hiragana ) or (ま (open

parenthesis A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

and ), may be typed as レナ (katakana ), Iナ (capital i, ), or († (open parenthesis,

dagger A dagger is a fighting knife with a very sharp point and usually one or two sharp edges, typically designed or capable of being used as a cutting or stabbing, thrusting weapon.State v. Martin, 633 S.W.2d 80 (Mo. 1982): This is the dictionary or ...

), and may be typed as ナ= (katakana , equals sign) or †こ (dagger, hiragana ).

Katakana is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji and in some cases the Latin script (known as rōmaji). The word ''katakana'' means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana characters are derived fr ...

is frequently replaced by similar-looking

, such as for or for , in a reversal of the process that turned man'yōgana into kana. Kana and rōmaji may be mixed freely, even within a word, and Latin letters in rōmaji may be replaced with similar-looking

Cyrillic The Cyrillic script ( ) is a writing system used for various languages across Eurasia. It is the designated national script in various Slavic, Turkic, Mongolic, Uralic, Caucasian and Iranic-speaking countries in Southeastern Europe, Ea ...

letters, such as replacing N with И ( Cyrillic I). Compound

are decomposed into left and right elements, which are written as individual kanji or kana. For example, the kanji in , meaning "like, enjoy" may be split into (the kanji for woman and child, respectively). In addition to the basic obfuscation provided by character replacement, another technique used to disguise the content of the message is to use vocabulary and grammar that is uncharacteristic of standard usage. Combined with character substitution, this can make the meaning of the message almost unintelligible to those not "in the know". This is analogous to the use of leet's specialized grammar. However, the flexible nature of the

Japanese language is the principal language of the Japonic languages, Japonic language family spoken by the Japanese people. It has around 123 million speakers, primarily in Japan, the only country where it is the national language, and within the Japanese dia ...

means that although phrases sound peculiar to someone expecting formal or even commonly colloquial Japanese, they are often technically still grammatically correct. For example, the sentence is "Right now I am feeling very good." in standard normal-polite Japanese. By first rewording this as or – which roughly translates as "(I have a) Super good feeling!" – and then converting to to get or , the message could prove difficult for those not versed in the style to understand.

Conversion chart

The original Japanese

followed by

romaji The romanization of Japanese is the use of Latin script to write the Japanese language. This method of writing is sometimes referred to in Japanese as . Japanese is normally written in a combination of logogram, logographic characters borrowe ...

, and then various versions of the Japanese character in . The following chart is also available in image form. *あ a：ぁ・ァ・了 *い i：ぃ・ィ・ﾚヽ・ﾚ丶・レ）・ﾚ`・L丶・Lヽ *う u：ぅ・ゥ・宀・ヴ *え e：ぇ・ェ・之・工・ヱ *お o：ぉ・ォ・才・汚 *か ka：ｶゝ・ｶ丶・ｶヽ・ｶ`・ｶゞ【が】 *き ki： (ｷ・(≠・L≠・‡ *く ku：＜・〈・勹 *け ke：ヶ・(ﾅ・ﾚ†・ﾚﾅ・, ナ・l+・Iﾅ *こ ko：〓・=・]・⊃ *さ sa：廾・±・(十・L+ *し shi： ι・∪ *す su： £ *せ se：世・Ш *そ so： ξ・ζ・`ﾉ・丶/・ヽ丿 *た ta：ﾅ=・+=・†ﾆ・ﾅﾆ *ち chi：干・千・于・5 *つ tsu：っ・ッ・⊃ *て te： τ・〒 *と to： ┠・┝・┣・├ *な na：ﾅょ・十ょ・†ょ・ﾅg *に ni： (ﾆ・, =・丨ﾆ・L=・I=・ *ぬ nu： йu *ね ne： йё *の no： /・丿・ σ *は ha：ﾊ〃【バ】・ﾊo【パ】・'`・八・l£・(£・ﾉ, ・ﾉl・ﾚ£ *ひ hi：ﾋ〃【ビ】・ﾋo【ピ】・匕 *ふ fu：ﾌ〃【ブ】・ﾌo【プ】・ヴ *へ he：ﾍ〃【べ】・ﾍo【ペ】・～ *ほ ho：ﾎ〃【ボ】・ﾎo【ポ】・朮 *ま ma： ма・мα *み mi：彡 *む mu： £′・厶 *め me： ×・x・ χ・乂 *も mo： м○・мσ *や ya：ゃ・ャ *ゆ yu：ゅ・ュ・ф *よ yo：ょ・ョ・∋・чo *ら ra： яа *り ri： L, ・l)・ﾚ｣・ﾚ)・┗』・└丿 *る ru：ゐ・ゑ・儿・lﾚ・｣レ *れ re： яё *ろ ro： з・З・□・回 *わ wa：ゎ・ヮ・wα *を wo： щo *ん n： ω・冫・w・h * ー (

long vowel In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived or actual duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels. On one hand, many languages do not d ...

mark)： →・⇒

Compound kanji

Here are some examples of created from compound kanji. The

characters are followed by their reading and meaning, and the derived from them: * → * → * →

Examples

Cultural attitudes

As a youth culture element produced by women, is not well received by the older Japanese public. From a traditionalist perspective, rejects the elegant, painstaking brushstrokes of Japanese writing embraced by the art of

Japanese calligraphy , also called , is a form of calligraphy, or artistic writing, of the Japanese language. Japanese writing system, Written Japanese was originally based on Man'yōgana, Chinese characters only, but the advent of the hiragana and katakana Japane ...

. From a contemporary perspective, may be likened to other, comical recent scripts, such as the bubble-like from the 1980s. Since its widespread use in the early 2000s, television programs and public attention has taken note of . However, this innovative writing system subverts cultural norms and breaks linguistic barriers, characterizing with a rebellious nature.

References

External links

Japanese girls devise their own written language
{{Japanese social terms Japanese popular culture Japanese writing system Mobile phone culture Cant languages Gyaru Gender in language Japanese words and phrases