Ku (kana)
Character of the Japanese writing system / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
く, in hiragana or ク in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both represent [kɯ] and their shapes come from the kanji 久.
ku | |||
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transliteration | ku | ||
translit. with dakuten | gu | ||
translit. with handakuten | (ngu) | ||
hiragana origin | 久 | ||
katakana origin | 久 | ||
Man'yōgana | 久 九 口 丘 苦 鳩 来 | ||
Voiced Man'yōgana | 具 遇 隅 求 愚 虞 | ||
spelling kana | クラブのク (Kurabu no "ku") |
This kana may have a dakuten added, transforming it into ぐ in hiragana, グ in katakana and gu in Hepburn romanization. The dakuten's addition also changes the sound of the syllable represented, to [ɡɯ] in initial positions and varying between [ŋɯ] and [ɣɯ] in the middle of words.
A handakuten (゜) does not occur with ku in normal Japanese text, but it may be used by linguists to indicate a nasal pronunciation [ŋɯ].
In the Ainu language, the katakana ク can be written as small ㇰ, representing a final k sound as in アイヌイタㇰ Ainu itak (Ainu language).[1] This was developed along with other extended katakana to represent sounds in Ainu that are not found in standard Japanese katakana.