in hiragana, such as たばこ (tabako, "tobacco"), which comes from Portuguese. See also Transcription into Japanese. commonly used names of animals and plants, such as (tokage, "lizard"), (neko, "cat") and (bara, "rose"), and certain other technical and scientific terms, such as mineral names occasionally, the names of miscellaneous other objects whose kanji are rare, such as (rōsoku, "candle") onomatopoeia, such as (wan-wan, "woof-woof"), and other sound symbolism emphasis, much like italicisation in European languages. Katakana can also be used to impart the idea that words are spoken in a foreign or otherwise unusual accent; for example, the speech of a robot. Rōmaji The first contact of the Japanese with the Latin alphabet occurred in the 16th century, during the Muromachi period, when they had contact with Portuguese navigators, the first European people to visit the Japanese islands. The earliest Japanese romanization system was based on Portuguese orthography. It was developed around 1548 by a Japanese Catholic named Anjirō. The Latin alphabet is used to write the following: Latin-alphabet acronyms and initialisms, such as NATO or UFO Japanese personal names, corporate brands, and other words intended for international use (for example, on business cards, in passports, etc.) foreign names, words, and phrases, often in scholarly contexts foreign words deliberately rendered to impart a foreign flavour, for instance, in commercial contexts other Japanized words derived or originated from foreign languages, such as (jei rīgu, "J. League"), (tī shatsu, "T-shirt") or (bī-kyū gurume, "B-rank gourmet [cheap and local cuisines]") Arabic numerals Arabic numerals (as opposed to traditional kanji numerals) are often used to write numbers in horizontal text, especially when numbering things rather than indicating a quantity, such as telephone numbers, serial numbers and addresses. Arabic numerals were introduced in Japan probably at the same time as the Latin alphabet, in the 16th century during the Muromachi period, the first contact being via Portuguese navigators. These numerals did not originate in Europe, as the Portuguese inherited them during the Arab occupation of the Iberian peninsula. See also Japanese numerals. Hentaigana , a set of archaic kana made obsolete by the Meiji reformation, are sometimes used to impart an archaic flavor, like in items of food (esp. soba). Additional mechanisms Jukujikun refers to instances in which words are written using kanji that reflect the meaning of the word though the pronunciation of the word is entirely unrelated to the usual pronunciations of the constituent