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      Character  や 
      Unicode name HIRAGANA LETTER YA
      Codepoint U+3084

      Japanese

      Stroke order
      や-bw.png

      Etymology 1

      Derived in the Heian period from writing the man'yōgana kanji in the cursive sōsho style.

      Pronunciation

      Syllable

      (Hepburn romanization ya)

      1. The hiragana syllable  (ya), whose equivalent in katakana is  (ya). It is the thirty-sixth syllable of the gojūon order, and its position in gojūon tables is (YA-gyō, A-dan; “row YA, section A”).
      Related terms
      See also

      Etymology 2

      Particle

      (romaji ya)

      1. and
        Used to conjoin nouns, や (ya) implies that the list is not limited to the nouns named. Contrast with (to), the other particle typically used to conjoin nouns, which implies that the list is limited to the stated nouns.

      Etymology 3

      Particle

      (romaji ya)

      1. (Kansai) is, are
        Variation on the Japanese copula だ (da), associated with Kansai dialect, particularly Ōsaka. The use of や (ya) is common in fictional dialogue attributed to characters from Ōsaka.
        • まあぼちぼちなあ
          Maa, bochibochi ya naa.
          Well, things are slow. (A stereotypical Ōsaka expression)

      Etymology 4

      Noun

      (romaji ya)

      1. : arrow

      Etymology 5

      Noun

      (romaji ya)

      1. : shop, store

      Suffix

      (romaji ya)

      1. : shop, person who does or sells that thing
      2. : house
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      Last modified on 16 June 2013, at 16:06