Ko (kana)
| ko | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| 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. | |||
| kana gojūon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Kana modifiers and marks | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Multi-moraic kana | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.
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].
| Form | Rōmaji | Hiragana | Katakana |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal k- (か行 ka-gyō) |
ko | こ | コ |
| kou koo kō |
こう, こぅ こお, こぉ こー |
コウ, コゥ コオ, コォ コー | |
| Addition dakuten g- (が行 ga-gyō) |
go | ご | ゴ |
| gou goo gō |
ごう, ごぅ ごお, ごぉ ごー |
ゴウ, ゴゥ ゴオ, ゴォ ゴー |