Ya (hiragana: ãÂÂ, katakana: ã¤) is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. The hiragana is written in three strokes, while the katakana is written in two. Both represent . Their shapes have origins in the character ä¹Â.
When small and preceded by an -i kana, this kana represents a palatalization of the preceding consonant sound with the vowel (see yà Âon).
ã can be used by itself as a grammatical particle to connect words in a nonexhaustive list (see Japanese particles#ya).
The yà Âon characters ã and 㣠are encoded in Japanese Braille by prefixing "-a" kana (e.g. Ka, Sa) with a yà Âon braille indicator, which can be combined with the "Dakuten" or "Handakuten" braille indicators for the appropriate consonant sounds.