No kana: Encyclopedia - No kana

No (kana)

の, in hiragana, or ノ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. In the gojūon system of ordering of Japanese syllables, it occupies the 25th position, between ね (ne) and は (ha). It occupies the 26th position in the iroha ordering. The hiragana resembles the number 6 on its side, while its katakana looks like a curved slash. In English, it is pronounced like the word "no," which is also its romanization.

No kana - Character

No kana - Alternative forms

In Japanese Braille, の, or ノ, or is represented as

The Morse code for の, or ノ, is ・・－－.

See also hentaigana and gyaru-moji for other variant kana forms of no.

No kana - History

Main article: hiragana, katakana

Like every other hiragana, the hiragana の developed from man'yōgana, kanji used for phonetic purposes, written in the highly cursive, flowing grass script style. In the picture on the right, the top shows the kanji 乃 written in the kaisho style, and the centre image is the same kanji written in the sōsho style. The bottom part is the kana for "no", a further abbreviation.

The highlighted segment of the man'yōgana in the picture on the right is the segment that was used to create the katakana ノ.

No kana - Usage

Main article: Japanese phonology, Japanese grammar

の is a dental nasal consonant, articulated on the upper teeth, combined with a close-mid back rounded vowel to form one mora.

In the Japanese language, as well as forming words, の may be a particle showing possession. For example, the phrase watashi no denwa means "my telephone."

People in Taiwan, especially young girls, like to use の instead of writing 的, which is the Chinese character that functions as the possessive. However, they still pronounce it the Chinese way when speaking, and this usage does not match Japanese grammar.

Category: Kana

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "No kana", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki