Space Cowboy wrote:

> Is katakana
> the Japanese attempt to keep the language pure similar to the French
> standard of eliminating foreign words and phrases?

Not exactly. Though foreign words could be written phonetically in
hiragana, this would lead to much confusion when reading. Because of
the countless number of synonyms in Japanese and the absence of spaces
between words in print, a secondary phonetic character set for foreign
words - mostly nouns - makes sense. Sometimes katakana is used for
native Japanese words, if the writer feels the original kanji form is
too abstruse. In fact, on official paperwork like government forms,
medical records, or applications, individuals are required to write
names and addresses in both kanji and katakana. This is simply to avoid
any reading errors.

The number of foreign words in Japanese is enormous and continues to
grow every year. Katakana is by no means a way to stem this tide.

--crymad