Ra (kana)

Ra (hiragana: ら; katakana: ラ) is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both versions are written with two strokes and have origins in the character 良; both characters represent the sound [ɾa] ^ⓘ. The Ainu language uses a small katakana ㇻ to represent a final r sound after an a sound (アㇻ ar). The combination of an R-column kana letter with handakuten ゜- ら゚ in hiragana, and ラ゚ in katakana was introduced to represent [la] in the early 20th century.