No (kana)

の, in hiragana, and ノ, in katakana, are Japanese kana, both representing one mora. In the gojūon system of ordering of Japanese morae, it occupies the 25th position, between ね (ne) and は (ha). It occupies the 26th position in the iroha ordering. Both represent the sound [no]. The katakana form is written similar to the Kangxi radical 丿, radical 4.

no
hiragana katakana
transliteration	no
hiragana origin	乃
katakana origin	乃
Man'yōgana	努 怒 野 乃 能 笑 荷
spelling kana	野原のノ (Nohara no no)
unicode	U+306E, U+30CE
braille
Note: These Man'yōgana originally represented morae with one of two different vowel sounds, which merged in later pronunciation

Form	Rōmaji	Hiragana	Katakana
Normal n- (な行 na-gyō)	no	の	ノ
	nou noo nō	のう, のぅ のお, のぉ のー	ノウ, ノゥ ノオ, ノォ ノー

Stroke order

Stroke order in writing の

Stroke order in writing ノ

To write の, begin slightly above the center, stroke downward diagonally, then round upward and continue curve around, leaving a small gap at the bottom. To write ノ, simply do a swooping curve from top-right to bottom left.

Other communicative representations

Japanese radiotelephony alphabet	Wabun code
野原のノ Nohara no "No"	▄ ▄ ▄▄▄ ▄▄▄ ⓘ

Japanese Navy Signal Flag	Japanese semaphore	Japanese manual syllabary (fingerspelling)	Braille dots-234 Japanese Braille

• Full Braille representation

の / ノ in Japanese Braille
の / ノ no	のう / ノー nō/nou	Other kana based on Braille の
		にょ / ニョ nyo	にょう / ニョー nyō/nyou

• Computer encodings

Character information

Preview	の		ノ		ﾉ		㋨
Unicode name	HIRAGANA LETTER NO		KATAKANA LETTER NO		HALFWIDTH KATAKANA LETTER NO		CIRCLED KATAKANA NO
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	12398	U+306E	12494	U+30CE	65417	U+FF89	13032	U+32E8
UTF-8	227 129 174	E3 81 AE	227 131 142	E3 83 8E	239 190 137	EF BE 89	227 139 168	E3 8B A8
Numeric character reference	の	の	ノ	ノ	ﾉ	ﾉ	㋨	㋨
Shift JIS	130 204	82 CC	131 109	83 6D	201	C9
EUC-JP	164 206	A4 CE	165 206	A5 CE	142 201	8E C9
GB 18030	164 206	A4 CE	165 206	A5 CE	132 49 153 55	84 31 99 37
EUC-KR / UHC	170 206	AA CE	171 206	AB CE
Big5 (non-ETEN kana)	198 210	C6 D2	199 102	C7 66
Big5 (ETEN / HKSCS)	199 85	C7 55	199 202	C7 CA

History

Main articles: Hiragana and Katakana

Like every other hiragana, the hiragana の developed from man'yōgana, kanji used for phonetic purposes, written in the highly cursive, flowing grass script style. In the picture on the left, the top shows the kanji 乃 written in the kaisho style, and the centre image is the same kanji written in the sōsho style. The bottom part is the kana for "no", a further abbreviation.

Hentaigana and gyaru-moji variant kana forms of no can also be found.

Usage

Main articles: Japanese phonology and Japanese grammar

の is a dental nasal consonant, articulated on the upper teeth, combined with a close-mid back rounded vowel to form one mora.

In the Japanese language, as well as forming words, の may be a particle showing possession. For example, the phrase "わたしのでんわ” watashi no denwa means "my telephone."

In Chinese

Usage of の in place of 的 (and 犬 in place of 狗) in Taipei

の has also proliferated on signs and labels in the Chinese-speaking world. It is used in place of the Modern Chinese possessive marker 的 de or Classical Chinese possessive marker 之 zhī, and の is pronounced in the same way as the Chinese character it replaces. This is usually done to "stand out" or to give an "exotic/Japanese feel", e.g. in commercial brand names, such as the fruit juice brand 鲜の每日C, where the の can be read as both 之 zhī, the possessive marker, and as 汁 zhī, meaning "juice". In Hong Kong, the Companies Registry has extended official recognition to this practice, and permits の to be used in Chinese names of registered businesses; it is thus the only non-Chinese symbol to be granted this treatment (aside from punctuation marks with no pronunciation value).

External links

• Information on kana-no from Nuthatch Graphics