| Symbol |
Unicode |
Names |
| Repetition marks
[odoriji (踊リ字), jōji (畳字)]
|
|
々 |
U+3005 | noma (ノマ)
kuma
kurikaeshi (繰リ返シ)
dō no jiten (同ノ字点) |
This symbol originates from a simplified form of the character 仝, a
variant of 同 written in the sōsho (草書) style.
It is called noma because it looks like katakana
no (ノ) and ma (マ)).
It's used to show the repetition of the previous kanji or
kana character.
|
|
ヽ |
U+30FD | katakanagaeshi (かたかながえし)
kurikaeshi (くりかえし) |
| Repeat the previous katakana. |
| ヾ |
U+30FE | katakanagaeshi (かたかながえし)
kurikaeshi (くりかえし) |
| Repeat the previous katakana with a nigori mark. |
|
ゝ |
U+309D | hiraganagaeshi (ひらがながえし)
kurikaeshi (くりかえし) |
| Repeat the previous hiragana. For example はは could be はゝ. |
| ゞ |
U+309E | hiraganagaeshi (ひらがながえし)
kurikaeshi |
| Repeat the previous hiragana with a nigori
added. For example はば could be written はゞ. |
|
〃 |
U+3003 | nonoten (ノノ点) |
| Ditto mark. It is called nonoten because it looks like
two katakana nos |
|
U+3033
U+3035 | kunojiten (くの字点) |
| This repetition mark is used in yokogaki (downwards) writing,
(see Can Japanese be written right to left?) and it means repeat the previous two or
more kana. Note that one symbol requires two Unicode characters.
|
|
U+3034
U+3035 | kunojiten (くの字点) |
| This is the kunojiten mark with dakuten. The dakuten applies
to the first character of the word. For example, tokorodokoro
could be written vertically as ところ plus this mark. Note that one
symbol requires two Unicode characters. |
|
〻 |
U+303B | yusuriten (揺すり点)
ninojiten (二の字点) |
| Repeat the previous kanji with a kun reading. Used mostly in vertical
writing. Now mostly replaced by 々. |
| Brackets and quotation marks
[kakko (括弧)]
|
|
「」 |
U+300C
U+300D | kagi (鉤)
kagikakko (鉤括弧) |
﹁
﹂ | U+FE41
U+FE42 |
|---|
| These are the usual Japanese quotation marks. |
| 『』 |
U+300E
U+300F | kagi (鉤)
nijūkagikakko (二重鉤括弧) |
﹃
﹄ | U+FE43
U+FE44 |
|---|
| Japanese version of double quotes. |
|
（） |
U+FF08
U+FF09 | paaren (パーレン)
kakko (括弧)
marugakko (丸括弧)
shōkakkō (しょう括弧) |
︵
︶ | U+FE35
U+FE36 |
|---|
| The word paaren is said to be an abbreviation of the German
word for parentheses, although modern German uses the word "Klammer"
for this symbol. |
| 〔〕 |
U+3014
U+3015 | kikkō (亀甲) |
︹
︺ | U+FE39
U+FE3A |
|---|
| Used to insert comments into quoted text. |
| ［］ |
U+FF3B
U+FF3D | kakko (括弧)
kagikakko (鉤括弧) |
﹇
﹈ | U+FE47
U+FE48 |
|---|
|
｛｝ |
U+FF5B
U+FF5D | bureesu (ブレース)
namikakko (波括弧)
nakakakko (中括弧) |
︷
︸ | U+FE37
U+FE38 |
|---|
|
〈〉 |
U+3008
U+3009 | kakko (括弧)
yamakakko (山括弧)
gyume (ギュメ)
yamagata (山がた) |
︿
﹀ | U+FE3F
U+FE40 |
|---|
| ギュメ is from French "guillemet". |
| 《》 |
U+300A
U+300B | kakko (括弧)
nijūyamakakko (二重山括弧)
nijūgyume (二重ギュメ)
nijūyamagata (二重山がた) |
︽
︾ | U+FE3D
U+FE3E |
|---|
|
【】 |
U+3010
U+3011 | kakko (括弧)
sumitsukikakko (隅付き括弧)
sumitsukipaaren (隅付きパーレン)
futokikkō (太亀甲)
kurokikkō (黒亀甲) |
︻
︼ | U+FE3B
U+FE3C |
|---|
| Used in headings, for example in dictionary definitions. |
| 〖〗 |
U+3016
U+3017 | sumitsukikakko (shiro) (すみ付き括弧(白)) |
︗
︘ | U+FE17
U+FE18 |
|---|
| Phonetic marks
[hatsuonkigō (発音記号)]
|
|
っ |
U+3063 | sokuon (促音) |
| See How can I input small kana like ぃ, っ and ょ, or づ on a computer? for how to produce a sokuon character on a
word processor. See What is that small tsu at the end of a sentence? for one usage of this character. |
| ー |
U+30FC | chōon (長音)
bōsen (棒線) |
| Indicates a lengthened vowel sound. Often used with katakana. The
direction of writing depends on the direction of text. See
Can Japanese be written right to left? |
|
゛ |
U+309B | dakuten (濁点)
nigori (濁り) |
| Used with hiragana or katakana to indicate a
"voiced" sound. For example, this mark changes ta to
da and shi to ji. |
|
゜ |
U+309C | handakuten (半濁点)
handaku (半濁) |
| Used with hiragana or katakana to indicate a
change from a hahihuheho sound to a papipupepo
sound. |
| Punctuation marks (kutōten 句読点)
|
|
。 |
U+3002 | kuten (句点)
maru (丸) |
| The Japanese equivalent of the period, "." or full stop. Marks the end
of a sentence. |
| 、 |
U+3001 | tōten (読点) |
| Japanese equivalent of a comma. |
|
・ |
U+30FB | nakaguro (中黒)
potsu (ぽつ)
nakaten (中点) |
| Used to separate items in lists and show the beginning and end of
strings of katakana words. See What is katakana used for? |
| Other special marks
|
|
〆 |
U+3006 | shime (しめ) |
| This character is used to write shime in
shimekiri (deadline) etc. |
|
〜 |
U+301C | nyoro (にょろ)
naishi (ないし)
nami (波)
kara (から) |
| Used in "to from" constructions in Japanese, such as 月〜金曜日
"from Monday to Friday". |
|
… |
U+2026 | tensen (点線) |
| A line of dots, or ellipsis. |
|
|
None | bōten (傍点)
wakiten (脇点) |
| Adding these dots to the sides of characters emphasizes the
character in question. It is the Japanese equivalent of the use of
italics for emphasis in English. |
|
※ |
U+203B | kome (米)
komejirushi (米印) |
| This symbol is used in notes (chū, 注). See also jeKai's page
about komejirushi (Archived copy at archive.org). |
|
＊ |
U+FF0A | hoshijirushi (星印)
asuterisuku (アステリスク) |
| This symbol is used in notes (chū, 注). See also jekai's page
about komejirushi (Archived copy at archive.org). |
| 〓 |
U+3013 | getakigō (下駄記号) |
| This symbol is used for undecipherable handwritten kanji, kanji which
have no typeface available, kanji which have no computer code point
available, and as a substitute for unpublishable words. |
|
゠ |
U+30A0 | daburu haifun (ダブルハイフン) |
| This is often used when writing hyphenated loan words in Japanese, to
avoid confusion with the chōon mark. |
|
U+303D | ioriten (庵点) |
| This mark is used to show the start of a singer's part of a
song. For more details, see jeKai's page
on the ioriten (Archived copy at archive.org). |
| Organization marks
|
| 〒 |
U+3012 | yūbin (郵便) |
| Used to indicate post offices on maps, and printed before
postcodes. See also How does the Japanese addressing system work? |
|
〄 |
U+3004 | jisuma-ku (ジスマーク)
nihon kōgyō kikaku (日本工業規格) |
| This mark on a product shows that it complies with a Japanese
Industrial Standard. The mark displayed is the older version. In 2005
this was replaced with a new version. |
|
㊙ |
U+3299 | maruhi (丸秘) |
| This means "secret". |
The repetition symbols described here are much less used nowadays than
they were in the past. Odoriji (踊り字) and jōji (畳字),
also known as hanpukukigou (反復記号) are general names for the
repetition marks like 々 and ゞ. On a word processor, they can be
obtained by typing dou (同), onaji (同じ) or onajiku
(同じく). See also How can I input small kana like ぃ, っ and ょ, or づ on a computer?
The list of symbols was collected from newsgroup discussions, R.
A. Miller's book 'A Japanese reader',
several Japanese dictionaries, and the information in 'skkdic.el' in
GNU Emacs. Thanks to Bart Mathias, Kouji Ueshiba,
Anthony J. Bryant, Jeff Schrepfer, and roxfan for more
corrections.
