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N (kana)

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n
hiragana
japanese hiragana n
katakana
japanese katakana n
transliterationn, (m)
hiragana origin
katakana origin
unicodeU+3093, U+30F3
braille⠴

, in hiragana, or in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. ん is the only kana that does not end in a vowel sound (although in certain cases the vowel ending of kana, such as , is unpronounced). The kana for mu, む/ム, was originally used for the n sound as well, while ん was originally a hentaigana used for both n and mu. In the 1900 Japanese script reforms, hentaigana were officially declared obsolete, and ん was officially declared a kana to represent the n sound.

In addition to being the only kana not ending with a vowel sound, it is also the only kana that does not begin any words in standard Japanese (other than foreign loan words such as "Ngorongoro", which is transcribed as ンゴロンゴロ) (see Shiritori). Some regional dialects of Japanese feature words beginning with ん, as do the Ryukyuan languages (which are usually written in the Japanese writing system), in which words starting with ン are common, such as the Okinawan word for miso, nnsu (transcribed as ンース). In the Ainu language, ン is interchangeable with the small katakana ㇴ as a final n.

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, 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:

  • [n] (before n, t, d, r, ts, z, ch and j )
  • [m] (before m, p and b )
  • [ŋ] (before k and g)
  • [ɴ] (at the end of utterances)
  • [ũ͍] (before vowels, palatal approximants (y), consonants h, f, s, sh and w)
  • [ĩ] (after the vowel i if another vowel, palatal approximant or consonant f, s, sh, h or w follows.)
Form Rōmaji Hiragana Katakana
Normal n (ん) n
nn
nh
んん
んー
ンン
ンー
Other additional forms
Form (Nw-)
Rōmaji Hiragana Katakana
Nwa んわ ンワ Nwankwo Kano (ンワンクウォ・カヌ Nwankuwo Kanu)
Nwi んうぃ/んゐ ンウィ/ンヰ Nwisd (ンウィスド Nwisudo)
Nwe んうぇ/んゑ ンウェ/ンヱ Nwenaing (ンウェナイング Nwenaingu)
Nwo んうぉ/んを ンウォ/ンヲ Nwoya District (ンウォヤ・ディストリクト Nwoya Disutorikuto)

Stroke order

Stroke order in writing ん
Stroke order in writing ん
Stroke order in writing ン
Stroke order in writing ン
Stroke order in writing ん
Stroke order in writing ン

Other representations

Character information
Preview
Unicode name HIRAGANA LETTER N KATAKANA LETTER N HALFWIDTH KATAKANA LETTER N
Encodings decimal hex dec hex dec hex
Unicode 12435 U+3093 12531 U+30F3 65437 U+FF9D
UTF-8 227 130 147 E3 82 93 227 131 179 E3 83 B3 239 190 157 EF BE 9D
Numeric character reference ん ん ン ン ン ン
Shift JIS 130 241 82 F1 131 147 83 93 221 DD
  • Braille
ん / ン in Japanese Braille:
⠴ (braille pattern dots-356)

References

  • Oguri, Saori; László, Tony (2005). Darling no atamannaka. Tokyo: Media Factory. ISBN 4-8401-1226-6.