Ka (kana)

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ka
hiragana katakana
transliteration	ka
translit. with dakuten	ga
translit. with handakuten	(nga)
hiragana origin	加
katakana origin	加
Man'yōgana	可 何 加 架 香 蚊 迦
Voiced Man'yōgana	我 何 賀
spelling kana	為替のカ (Kawase no "ka")

Ka (hiragana: か, katakana: カ) is one of the Japanese kana, which each represent one mora. Both represent [ka]. The shapes of these kana both originate from 加.

The character can be combined with a dakuten, to form が in hiragana, ガ in katakana and ga in Hepburn romanization. The phonetic value of the modified character is [ɡa] in initial positions and varying between [ŋa] and [ɣa] in the middle of words.

A handakuten (゜) does not occur with ka in normal Japanese text, but it may be used by linguists to indicate a nasal pronunciation [ŋa].

か is the most commonly used interrogatory particle. It is also sometimes used to delimit choices.

が is a Japanese case marker, as well as a conjunctive particle. It is used to denote the focus of attention in a sentence, especially to the grammatical subject.