Ko (kana)
Character of the Japanese writing system / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"コ" redirects here. For the bopomofo, see ㄈ.
こ, in hiragana or コ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both represent IPA: [ko]. The shape of these kana comes from the kanji 己.
Quick Facts transliteration, translit. with dakuten ...
ko | |||
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transliteration | ko | ||
translit. with dakuten | go | ||
translit. with handakuten | (ngo) | ||
hiragana origin | 己 | ||
katakana origin | 己 | ||
Man'yōgana | 古 姑 枯 故 侯 孤 児 粉 己 巨 去 居 忌 許 虚 興 木 | ||
Voiced Man'yōgana | 吾 呉 胡 娯 後 籠 児 悟 誤 其 期 碁 語 御 馭 凝 | ||
spelling kana | 子供のコ (Kodomo no "ko") | ||
Note: These Man'yōgana originally represented morae with one of two different vowel sounds, which merged in later pronunciation. |
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This character may be supplemented by a dakuten; it becomes ご in hiragana, ゴ in katakana and go in Hepburn romanization. Also, the pronunciation is affected, transforming into [ɡo] in initial positions and varying between [ŋo] and [ɣo] in the middle of words.
A handakuten (゜) does not occur with ko in normal Japanese text, but it may be used by linguists to indicate a nasal pronunciation [ŋo].