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How do marks called nigori change the sounds of kana characters?
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Japanese language
Record of a haiku exchange on kaishi writing paper by Japanese poet Bashō and one of his pupils in the teacher's own handwriting, 17th century, from a hanging scroll (ink on paper).
In the Japanese language, nigori are diacritical marks—specifically two small strokes resembling quotation marks or a tiny circle—placed at the upper right-hand corner of a kana symbol to modify its sound.1
By applying these marks to 20 of the basic hiragana or katakana symbols, 25 additional sound symbols are produced. These marks generally serve to voice a consonant, changing unvoiced sounds into voiced ones. Examples of these transformations include:1
- ka becomes ga
- shi becomes ji
- te becomes de
- so becomes zo
- fu becomes bu or pu (when the small circle, or handakuten, is used)1