A (kana)

a
hiragana katakana
transliteration	a
hiragana origin	安
katakana origin	阿
spelling kana	朝日のア (Asahi no "a")

あ in hiragana or ア in katakana (romanised a) is one of the Japanese kana that each represent one mora. あ is based on the sōsho style of kanji 安, and ア is from the radical of kanji 阿. In the modern Japanese system of alphabetical order, it occupies the first position of the alphabet, before い. Additionally, it is the 36th letter in Iroha, after て, before さ. Its hiragana resembles the kana no combined with a cross. The Unicode for あ is U+3042, and the Unicode for ア is U+30A2.

The characters represent [a].

Form	Rōmaji	Hiragana	Katakana
Normal a/i/u/e/o (あ行 a-gyō)	a	あ	ア
	aa, ah ā	ああ, あぁ あー	アア, アァ アー

Derivation

The katakana ア derives, via man'yōgana, from the left element of kanji 阿. The hiragana あ derives from cursive simplification of the kanji 安.

Variant forms

Scaled-down versions of the kana (ぁ, ァ) are used to express sounds foreign to the Japanese language, such as ファ (fa). In some Okinawan writing systems, a small ぁ is also combined with the kana く (ku) and ふ (fu or hu) to form the digraphs くぁ kwa and ふぁhwa, although others use a small ゎ instead.

Stroke order

Stroke order in writing あ

Stroke order in writing ア

The Hiragana あ is made with three strokes:^[1]

1. At the top, a horizontal stroke from left to right.
2. A downward vertical stroke starting above and in the center of the last stroke.
3. At the bottom, a loop like the Hiragana の.

The Katakana ア is made with two strokes:^[2]

1. At the top, a stroke consisting of a horizontal line and a short horizontal line proceeding downward and to the left.
2. Starting at the end of the last stroke, a curved line proceeding downward and to the left.

Other communicative representations

• Computer encodings

Character	あ		ア		ｱ
Unicode name	HIRAGANA LETTER A		KATAKANA LETTER A		HALFWIDTH KATAKANA LETTER A
Encodings	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex
Unicode	12354	U+3042	12450	U+30A2	65393	U+FF71
UTF-8	227 129 130	E3 81 82	227 130 162	E3 82 A2	239 189 177	EF BD B1
Numeric character reference	あ	あ	ア	ア	ｱ	ｱ
Shift JIS	130 160	82 A0	131 65	83 41	177	B1

Character	ぁ		ァ		ｧ
Unicode name	HIRAGANA LETTER SMALL A		KATAKANA LETTER SMALL A		HALFWIDTH KATAKANA LETTER SMALL A
Encodings	decimal	hex	decimal	hex	decimal	hex
Unicode	12353	U+3041	12449	U+30A1	65383	U+FF67
UTF-8	227 129 129	E3 81 81	227 130 161	E3 82 A1	239 189 167	EF BD A7
Numeric character reference	ぁ	ぁ	ァ	ァ	ｧ	ｧ
Shift JIS	130 159	82 9F	131 64	83 40	167	A7

• Braille

あ / ア in Japanese Braille
あ / ア a	ああ / アー ā

• Japanese semaphore

The Wabun code for あ or ア, is －－・－－.

In the Japanese phonetic alphabet, one would say "朝日のア" (Asahi no A.)

Footnotes

1. Gilhooly (2003) p. 62
2. Gilhooly (2003) p. 128

References

• Gilhooly, Helen (2003) [1999]. Beginner's Japanese Script. Teach Yourself. London: Hodder Headline. ISBN 0-340-86024-3. OCLC 56469680.