Ko (kana)

Ko (hiragana: こ, katakana: コ) is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both represent IPA: [ko]. The shape of these kana comes from the kanji 己.

Transliterationko

Translit. with dakutengo

Translit. with handakuten(ngo)

Hiragana origin己

Quick facts Transliteration, Translit. with dakuten ...

ko
Hiragana Katakana
Transliteration	ko
Translit. with dakuten	go
Translit. with handakuten	(ngo)
Hiragana origin	己
Katakana origin	己
Man'yōgana	古 姑 枯 故 侯 孤 児 粉 己 巨 去 居 忌 許 虚 興 木
Voiced man'yōgana	吾 呉 胡 娯 後 籠 児 悟 誤 其 期 碁 語 御 馭 凝
Spelling kana	子供のコ (Kodomo no "ko")
Note: These Man'yōgana originally represented morae with one of two different vowel sounds, which merged in later pronunciation.

Close

This character may be supplemented by a dakuten; it becomes ご in hiragana, ゴ in katakana and go in Hepburn romanization. Also, the pronunciation is affected, transforming into [ɡo] in initial positions and varying between [ŋo] and [ɣo] in the middle of words.

A handakuten (゜) does not occur with ko in normal Japanese text, but it may be used by linguists to indicate a nasal pronunciation [ŋo].