Hiragana: Consonant + y + Vowel; Syllabic /n/

Consonant + y + Vowel

The Japanese consonant sounds are combined with the /ya/, /yu/ and /yo/ syllables to form a single contracted syllable. For example, /ki/ and /ya/ combine to form the single syllable /kya/, represented in Hiragana as きゃ. See the following chart for the complete list of these contracted syllables.

Consonant/i/ + /ya/     Consonant/i/ + /yu/     Consonant/i/ + /yo/  
		                                               
きゃ kya			きゅ kyu			きょ kyo             
しゃ sya (sha)		しゅ syu (shu)		しょ syo (sho)       
ちゃ tya (cha)		ちゅ tyu (chu)		ちょ tyo (cho)       
にゃ nya			にゅ nyu			にょ nyo             
ひゃ hya			ひゅ hyu			ひょ hyo             
みゃ mya			みゅ myu			みょ myo             
りゃ rya			りゅ ryu			りょ ryo             

Note that these contracted syllables are always considered to be one syllable, not two. Compare the two (totally different!) following sounds:

 
kya (one syllable)      kiya (two syllables) 
		                            
きゃ			きや                 

Syllabic Consonant /n/

When /n/ is followed by another consonant, or if a word ends with /n/, then that /n/ is a syllable in itself, and is written with the symbol ん. In JSL this syllable /n/ is represented as /n/.


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