Information About

Sokuon






The sokuon ( consisting of a small Hiragana or Katakana ''tsu''. In less academic language it is called ''chiisai tsu'' "little ''tsu''" (Japanese: 小さいつ). Compare to a full-sized ''tsu'':

The sokuon is used for various purposes. One is for showing a Geminate consonant, which is represented in Rōmaji by the "doubling" of the following consonant.

Examples:
  • '' Pocky '', a Japanese snack food, is written in kana as ポッキー, which is ポ ''po'', ッ ''sokuon'', キ ''ki'', ー Chōon , in romanized Japanese, ''pokkii'', with the ''sokuon'' representing the doubling of the ''k'' consonant.

  • Matte, the Te Form of the verb ''matsu'', is written as 待って, which is 待 ( Kanji ), っ ''sokuon'', て ''te'', with the ''sokuon'' representing the doubling of the ''t'' consonant.


The sokuon is also used at the end of a sentence, to indicate a Glottal Stop (a sharp or cut-off articulation), which may indicate angry or surprised speech.

In order to Enter The Sokuon Using A Computer Or Word-processor , there are several methods, such as xtu, ltu, ltsu, etc.

In the International Phonetic Alphabet , the sokuon sound is marked either with a colon-like mark or a doubled consonant:

  • ''kite'' (来て, come) -

  • ''kitte'' (切手, postage stamp) - / /

  • ''asari'' (あさり) -

  • ''assari'' (あっさり) - /



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