N (kana)

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This article appears to contradict another article ([[Japanese_phonology#Moraic_nasal]]). Please see discussion on the talk page.

The hiragana ん.	The katakana ン.

	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

ん, in hiragana, or ン in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. It is the only kana sound ending with a consonant.

This kana is unique in several aspects; it can never begin a native Japanese word (but it can however begin a foreign loan word; for example, "Ngorongoro" is transcribed as "ンゴロンゴロ"). Also, the kana is followed by an apostrophe in some systems of transliteration whenever it precedes a vowel or a y- kana, so as to prevent confusion with other kana. But like every other kana, it represents an entire mora - and so its pronunciation is, in practice, as close to 'nn' as 'n'. The pronunciation can also change depending on what sounds surround it. These are a few of the ways it can change: