Re: [tlug] katakana

[Brett Robson <b-robson@example.com>]

> 
> Can anybody explain the need for 3 different katakana characters? What's
> the purpose of having two smaller sized letters (narrow and half-width) ?
> 
>  http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/UFF00.pdf
>  http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U30A0.pdf
> 
> Example:
>  [NORMAL] ワ, HEX: 30EF, isWide:1
>  [HALF] ヮ, HEX: 30EE, isWide:1
>  [NARROW] ワ, HEX: FF9C, isWide:0
> 


The small (half) katakana are used to make sounds (most often) combining
ya, yu, and yo to a sound xi, eg ki, gi, shi ... I can't think of
anything that would use your example WA

	eg キョ　KIyo=kyo

The half width characters (narrow) are an old system, they only needed 7
bits to represent each character. Still used on many cash registers,
billing and corporate systems. In normal katakana ギ(GI) is one
character, but in half width it is two キ゛ Because katakana are simple
they can be printed smaller.


Brett