Hiragana |
Katakana |
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Transliteration: | a | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hiragana Man'yōgana: | 安 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Katakana Man'yōgana: | 阿 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Unicode: | U+3041, U+30A2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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あ in hiragana or ア in katakana (romanised a) is one of the Japanese kana that each represent one mora. あ is based on the sōsho style of kanji 安, and ア is from the radical of kanji 阿. In the modern Japanese system of alphabetical order, it occupies the first position of the alphabet, before い. Additionally, it is the 36th letter in Iroha, after て, before さ. Its hiragana resembles the kana no combined with a cross. The Unicode for あ is U+3041, and the Unicode for ア is U+30A2.
The characters represent [a].
Form | Rōmaji | Hiragana | Katakana |
---|---|---|---|
Normal a/i/u/e/o (あ行 a-gyō) |
a | あ | ア |
aa, ah ā |
ああ, あぁ あー |
アア, アァ アー |
Contents |
The katakana ア derives, via man'yōgana, from the left element of kanji 阿. The hiragana あ derives from cursive simplification of the kanji 安.
Scaled-down versions of the kana (ぁ, ァ) are used to express sounds foreign to the Japanese language, such as ファ (fa). In some Okinawan writing systems, a small ぁ is also combined with the kana く (ku) and ふ (fu or hu) to form the digraphs くぁ kwa and ふぁhwa, although others use a small ゎ instead.
The Hiragana あ is made with three strokes:[1]
The Katakana ア is made with two strokes:[2]
In Japanese Braille, あ or ア is represented as:
● | - |
- | - |
- | - |
The Wabun code for あ or ア, is --・--.
In the Japanese phonetic alphabet, one would say "朝日のア" (Asahi no A.)