Compound words with 漢字 and カタカナ? (例えば：新メニュー）

Question

Today, a magazine about restaurants in my area arrived in my mailbox. It proudly proclaimed :

１０月の新メニュー！

I am quite curious as to the following points:

• How is this pronounced ? I would have gone with 新{しん} メニュー　but although it is recognized by mozc IME I haven't found a reference in my dictionary (Aedict).
• Why go with this instead of using 新しいメニュー？
• Is the compound thus generated a proper noun or is it more an "improper" use of 新 as an adjective that qualifies メニュー　?
• Are there any other examples of a kanji + katakana compound ?

Thanks a lot everyone !

ウルカン

Answer 1

「[新]{しん}メニュー」 is a very common phrase. We say 新ドラマ、新アニメ、新プラン、新ビール, etc. all the time and I do not think anyone finds it "improper". At least, I have never heard a native speaker complaining about it.

What is extremely uncommon is that they inserted the 「ウ」 in there. Or is that a typo on your part?

We do say 「[新]{あたら}しいメニュー」 as well, but the phrase lacks the impact both visually and phonetically if it were to be used in advertising. It is too long and flat for advertisement. The sharp Sino sounds シン gives that "right" impact.

Examples of words using both kanji and katakana:

リトマス紙{し} (Litmus paper)、ソーダ水{すい} (club soda)、段{だん}ボール (corrugated cardboard)、缶{かん}ビール (canned beer), etc. The list would be endless.

Answer 2

1. Your example is indeed pronounced 新{しん}メニュー.
2. Because 新メニュー is shorter, and thus more convenient.
3. It's just a common compound noun. If you look up 新{しん} in your dictionary, it should mention that it can be (and very commonly is) used as a noun prefix, unsurprisingly meaning "new".
4. Plenty, but a large share of them are long technical compound nouns such as 不揮発性半導体メモリ{ふきはつせいはんどうたい} (volatile semiconductor memory) and 仮想{かそう}アドレス空間{くうかん} (virtual address space), which I shamelessly borrowed from this question. EDIT: But, as 非回答者 just reminded me with his answer, there are also very common ones such as 段ボール (cardboard) and 缶ビール (canned beer).