単語リスト（アイヌ語・日本語）―カラフト―(Tango List Ainu-go Nihon-go - Karafuto River, “Word List (Ainu / Japanese) - Karafuto River”)[1] (in Japanese), Sapporo, Hokkaidō: 公益財団法人アイヌ文化振興・研究推進機構(Zaidan Hōjin Ainu Bunka Shinkō / Kenkyū Suishin Kikō, “Foundation for the Advancement, Research, and Promotion of Ainu Culture”), 2014(Sakhalin)
The katakana syllable ワ(wa). Its equivalent in hiragana is わ(wa). It is the forty-fourth syllable in the gojūon order; its position is ワ行ア段(wa-gyō a-dan, “row wa, section a”).
The katakana syllabary is used primarily for transcription of foreign language words into Japanese and the writing of gairaigo (loan words), as well as to represent onomatopoeias, technical and scientific terms, and the names of plants, animals, and minerals. It is also occasionally used in some words for emphasis, or to ease reading; katakana may be preferred for words becoming buried in the text if they are written under their canonical form in hiragana. Names of Japanese companies, as well as certain Japanese language words such as colloquial terms, are also sometimes written in katakana rather than the other systems. Formerly, female firstnames would often be written in katakana.
