N (kana)

, 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.

n
hiragana
japanese hiragana n
katakana
japanese katakana n
transliterationn, (m),(ng)
hiragana origin
katakana origin
spelling kanaおしまいのン Oshimai no "n"
unicodeU+3093, U+30F3
braille⠴

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. However, like every other kana besides yōon, 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
んん
んー
ンン
ンー
Other additional forms
Form (nw-)
Rōmaji Hiragana Katakana
nwa んわ ンワ Nwankwo Kanu (ンワンクウォ・カヌ Nwankuwo Kanu)
nwi んうぃ ンウィ Nwisd (ンウィスド Nwisudo)
nwu んうぅ ンウゥ
nwe んうぇ ンウェ Nwenaing (ンウェナイング Nwenaingu)
nwo んうぉ ンウォ 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 communicative representations

  • Full Braille representation
ん / ン in Japanese Braille:
⠴ (braille pattern dots-356)
Character information
Preview𛅧
Unicode name HIRAGANA LETTER N KATAKANA LETTER N HALFWIDTH KATAKANA LETTER N KATAKANA LETTER SMALL N
Encodingsdecimalhexdechexdechexdechex
Unicode12435U+309312531U+30F365437U+FF9D110951U+1B167
UTF-8227 130 147E3 82 93227 131 179E3 83 B3239 190 157EF BE 9D240 155 133 167F0 9B 85 A7
UTF-161243530931253130F365437FF9D55340 56679D82C DD67
Numeric character referenceんんンンンン𛅧𛅧
Shift JIS[1]130 24182 F1131 14783 93221DD
EUC-JP[2]164 243A4 F3165 243A5 F3142 2218E DD
GB 18030[3]164 243A4 F3165 243A5 F3132 49 155 5584 31 9B 37147 54 134 5393 36 86 35
EUC-KR[4] / UHC[5]170 243AA F3171 243AB F3
Big5 (non-ETEN kana)[6]198 247C6 F7199 173C7 AD
Big5 (ETEN / HKSCS)[7]199 122C7 7A199 239C7 EF

N is the only Katakana without a circled form in Unicode.

References

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