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Character  ヲ 
Unicode name KATAKANA LETTER WO
Codepoint U+30F2

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[edit] Japanese

Stroke order
ヲ-bw.png

[edit] Etymology

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

[edit] Pronunciation

  • (obsolete) IPA: [wo]
  • IPA: [o]

[edit] Syllable

(Hepburn romanizations wo, o)

  1. (obsolete) The katakana syllable  (wo), whose equivalent in hiragana is  (wo). It is the forty-seventh syllable of the gojūon order, and its position in gojūon tables is (WA-gyō, O-dan; “row WA, section O”).
  2. (used as a particle) The katakana syllable  (o), whose equivalent in hiragana is  (o). It is the forty-seventh syllable of the gojūon order, and its position in gojūon tables is (WA-gyō, O-dan; “row WA, section O”).

[edit] 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]

[edit] Usage notes

Because the hiragana equivalent, , is used almost exclusively as the direct object particle, and particles are usually written in hiragana, is seldom used.

[edit] Related terms

[edit] See also

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