Sokuon

The Sokuon (Japanese促 音, literally " Eillaut ", also known as tsumaru oto (つまる 音), " Stopflaut " ) is an According to the Japanese language. It is expressed by a sign of the Japanese writing system, which corresponds to a smaller set tsu in hiragana or katakana. Colloquially, it is also called chiisai tsu, " small tsu " means. For comparison:

The "small tsu " is used for various purposes. It is usually for a Sokuon, a long consonant or a gemination. In the romaji romanization he is played usually by a double consonant letters.

Example:

• 待っ てmat to German "Wait ". 待is a kanji that represents the verb待つmatsu meaning " wait ", and matt is the past participle. By connecting theてte is the tsuつreduced by matsu on the Sokuon, thus creating a double consonant.
• Pocky, a Japanese snack is written in katakanaポッキー:ポpo,ッsokuon ,キkiーChoon. The inscription by Hepburn system would then Pokki.

The "small tsu " is also used to represent a voiceless glottal plosive at the end of a sentence, as it occurs in the spoken language in excitement or anger.

The Sokuon is similarly represented in the International Phonetic Alphabet by a doubled consonant or a small hook an apostrophe.

• Kite (来 て, "come" ) - [ k ʲ ite ]
• Mastics (切 手, " stamp " ) - [ k ʲ e ː it ] / [k ʲ itte ] / [k ʲ ITTE ]
• Asari (あさり, " clam " ) - [ asaɾ ʲ i]
• Assari (あっさり, " simple") - [as ː aɾ ʲ i] / [ assaɾ ʲ i]

The voiceless glottal plosive is similar, however, presented with a hook to the question mark: [ ʔ ].

In Japanese computer input systems (IME ) the " small tsu " is automatically inserted when a consonant is entered twice. matt thus gives待っ て. A single Sokuon can, depending on the IME to write with the help of xTU, ltu or ltsu.