Sokuon
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| kana - gojūon | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | wa | ra | ya | ma | ha | na | ta | sa | ka | a | |
| tsu | wi | ri | mi | hi | ni | chi | shi | ki | i | ||
| ゛ | ru | yu | mu | fu | nu | tsu | su | ku | u | ||
| ー | we | re | me | he | ne | te | se | ke | e | ||
| wo | ro | yo | mo | ho | no | to | so | ko | o | ||
The sokuon (Japanese: 促音) is a Japanese symbol consisting of a small hiragana or katakana tsu. In less academic language it is called chiisai tsu "little tsu" (Japanese: 小さいつ). Compare to a full-sized tsu:
| Full-sized | Sokuon | |
|---|---|---|
| Hiragana | つ | っ |
| Katakana | ツ | ッ |
The sokuon is used for various purposes. One is for showing a geminate consonant, which is represented in rōmaji by the "doubling" of the following consonant.
Examples:
- Pocky, a Japanese snack food, is written in kana as ポッキー, which is ポ po, ッ sokuon, キ ki, ー chōon, in romanized Japanese, pokkii, with the sokuon representing the doubling of the k consonant.
- Matte, the te form of the verb matsu, is written as 待って, which is 待 (kanji), っ sokuon, て te, with the sokuon representing the doubling of the t consonant.
The sokuon is also used at the end of a sentence, to indicate a glottal stop (a sharp or cut-off articulation), which may indicate angry or surprised speech.
In order to enter the sokuon using a computer or word-processor, there are several methods, such as xtu, ltu, ltsu, etc.
In the International Phonetic Alphabet, the sokuon sound is marked either with a colon-like mark or a doubled consonant:
- kite (来て, come) - kʲite
- kitte (切手, postage stamp) - kʲitːe / kʲitte / kʲit̚te
- asari (あさり) - asaɾʲi
- assari (あっさり) - asːaɾʲi / assaɾʲi
[edit] See also
- Japanese phonology gives a detailed description of the sound system of Japanese.
