ラ

Character	ラ
Unicode name	KATAKANA LETTER RA
Codepoint	U+30E9

Japanese

Stroke order

Etymology

Simplified in the Heian period from the man'yōgana kanji 良.

Pronunciation

• IPA: [ɺa]

Syllable

ラ (Hepburn romanization ra)

1. The katakana syllable ラ (ra), whose equivalent in hiragana is ら (ra). It is the thirty-ninth syllable of the gojūon order, and its position in gojūon tables is ラ行ア段 (RA-gyō, A-dan; “row RA, section A”).

Usage notes

Unlike the hiragana system which is used for Japanese language words for which kanji does not cover, the katakana syllabary is primarily used for transcription of foreign language words into Japanese and the writing of loan words (collectively gairaigo), as well as to represent onomatopoeia, technical and scientific terms, and the names of plants, animals, and minerals. Names of Japanese companies as well as certain Japanese language words are also written in katakana rather than the other systems.^[edit]

Related terms

• For a list of words starting with ラ (ra) see: Special:Allpages/ラ

See also

• (Katakana) 片仮名; アァ, イィ, ウゥヴ, エェ, オォ, カヵガ, キギ, クグ, ケヶゲ, コゴ, サザ, シジ, スズ, セゼ, ソゾ, タダ, チヂ, ツッヅ, テデ, トド, ナ, ニ, ヌ, ネ, ノ, ハバパ, ヒビピ, フブプ, ヘベペ, ホボポ, マ, ミ, ム, メ, モ, ヤャ, ユュ, ヨョ, ラ, リ, ル, レ, ロ, ワヮ, ヰ, ヱ, ヲ, ン, ー, ヽ, ヾ ^[edit]