The sokuon (Japanese: 促音) is a Japanese symbol 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) - /

See also

• Japanese phonology gives a detailed description of the sound system of Japanese.

External links

Kana | Japanese phonology | Japanese terms

Sokuon | Sokuon | 促音