Character  ル 
Unicode name KATAKANA LETTER RU
Codepoint U+30EB

Japanese

Stroke order
ル-bw.png

Etymology

Simplified in the Heian period from the man'yōgana kanji .

Pronunciation

Syllable

(Hepburn romanization ru)

  1. The katakana syllable  (ru), whose equivalent in hiragana is  (ru). It is the forty-first syllable of the gojūon order, and its position in gojūon tables is (RA-gyō, U-dan; “row RA, section U”).

Usage notes

Unlike the hiragana system, used for Japanese language words that kanji does not cover, the katakana syllabary is used primarily for transcription of foreign language words into Japanese and the writing of loan words (collectively gairaigo), as well as to represent onomatopoeia, technical and scientific terms, and the names of plants, animals, and minerals. Names of Japanese companies, as well as certain Japanese language words, are also written in katakana rather than the other systems.[edit]

Related terms

See also

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Last modified on 17 December 2012, at 18:05