Kana ligature

In the Japanese writing system kana ligatures (Japanese: 合略仮名, Hepburn: gōryaku-gana) are ligatures in the kana writing system, both hiragana and katakana. Kana such as koto (ヿ, from 事) and shite (𬼀, from 為) are not kana ligatures, but polysyllabic kana.

Hardly any kana ligatures or polysyllabic kana are represented in standard character encodings.

History

*Nobori* banners in sumo, using the *yori* ligature ゟ

These characters were widely used until a spelling reform of 1900 decreed that each sound (mora) would be represented by one (kana) character. They were not represented in computer character encodings until JIS X 0213:2000 (JIS2000) added yori and koto.

List

Hiragana ligature

historical/Hepburn	image	character	Unicode	origin
かしこ/kashiko		-	-	𛀚しこ
こと/koto		-	-	こと^[1]^[2]
ごと/goto	゙	-	-	ごと^[1]^[2]
さま/sama		-	-	さ𛃅^[3]^[4]
さま/sama		-	-	さ𛃅^[3]^[4]
まゐらせさうらふ/mairasesōrō		-	-	参らせ候ふ
まゐらせさうらふ/mairasesōrō		-	-	参らせ候ふ
より/yori		ゟ	U+309F	より^[3]^[4]^[2]

Polysyllabic hiragana

historical/Hepburn	image	character	Unicode	origin
なり/nari		𬼂	U+2CF02	也^[3]^[2]^[5]^[6]

Katakana ligature

historical/Hepburn	character	Unicode	origin
トイフ/toyū	-	-	ト云^[3]^[7]^[8]^[9]
トキ/toki	-	-	トキ^[3]^[7]^[8]^[1]^[2]^[9]
トテ/tote	-	-	トテ^[3]
トモ/tomo	𪜈	U+2A708	トモ^[3]^[7]^[8]^[1]^[2]
ドモ/domo	-	-	ドモ
ヨリ/yori	-	-	ヨリ^[7]^[8]^[9]

Polysyllabic katakana

historical/Hepburn	character	Unicode	origin
イフ/yū	-	-	云
コト/koto	ヿ	U+30FF	事^[3]^[7]^[8]
シテ/shite	𬼀	U+2CF00	為^[7]^[8]
トキ/toki	-	-	時^[7]^[8]^[9]
ナリ/nari	𬻿	U+2CEFF	也^[7]^[8]^[9]

In Unicode

Character information
Preview
Unicode name	HIRAGANA DIGRAPH YORI		KATAKANA DIGRAPH KOTO		CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-2A708		CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-2CEFF		CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-2CF00		CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-2CF02
Encodings	decimal	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex	dec	hex
Unicode	12447	U+309F	12543	U+30FF	173832	U+2A708	184063	U+2CEFF	184064	U+2CF00	184066	U+2CF02
UTF-8	227 130 159	E3 82 9F	227 131 191	E3 83 BF	240 170 156 136	F0 AA 9C 88	240 172 187 191	F0 AC BB BF	240 172 188 128	F0 AC BC 80	240 172 188 130	F0 AC BC 82
UTF-16	12447	309F	12543	30FF	55401 57096	D869 DF08	55411 57087	D873 DEFF	55411 57088	D873 DF00	55411 57090	D873 DF02
Numeric character reference	ゟ	ゟ	ヿ	ヿ	𪜈	𪜈	𬻿	𬻿	𬼀	𬼀	𬼂	𬼂

References

^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d 普通日本文典落合直文ほか 1893年
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f 和漢の文典 : 雅俗対照
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h 日本大文典. 第1編 P.42-45 落合直文 1894年
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ことばの泉 : 日本大辞典 (21版) P.3 落合直文 1904年
^ 児玉幸多『くずし字解読辞典〔普及版〕』東京堂出版 1993年ほか
^ 田島毓堂「法華経為字和訓考—資料編（三）—」名古屋大学文学部研究論集 1990年
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h 國語學大系第七巻文字(一) P.302-303 福井久蔵 1939年
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h 仮字本末伴信友 1850年
^ Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e 操觚便覧藤井乙男編 1899年

[hutsu-1] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d 普通日本文典落合直文ほか 1893年

[wakan-2] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f 和漢の文典 : 雅俗対照

[daijiten-p42-p45-3] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h 日本大文典. 第1編 P.42-45 落合直文 1894年

[kotoba-no-izumi-4] Jump up to: ^a ^b ことばの泉 : 日本大辞典 (21版) P.3 落合直文 1904年

[5] 児玉幸多『くずし字解読辞典〔普及版〕』東京堂出版 1993年ほか

[6] 田島毓堂「法華経為字和訓考—資料編（三）—」名古屋大学文学部研究論集 1990年

[taikei-7] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h 國語學大系第七巻文字(一) P.302-303 福井久蔵 1939年

[motosue-8] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h 仮字本末伴信友 1850年

[soko-9] Jump up to: ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e 操觚便覧藤井乙男編 1899年

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