Ko (kana)

ko
hiragana katakana
transliteration	ko
translit. with dakuten	go
translit. with handakuten	(ngo)
hiragana origin	己
katakana origin	己
Man'yōgana	古 姑 枯 故 侯 孤 児 粉 己 巨 去 居 忌 許 虚 興 木
Voiced Man'yōgana	吾 呉 胡 娯 後 籠 児 悟 誤 其 期 碁 語 御 馭 凝
spelling kana	子供のコ (Kodomo no "ko")
Note: These Man'yōgana originally represented morae with one of two different vowel sounds, which merged in later pronunciation.

こ, in hiragana or コ in katakana, is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. Both represent IPA: [ko]. The shape of these kana comes from the kanji 己.

This character may be supplemented by a dakuten; it becomes ご in hiragana, ゴ in katakana and go in Hepburn romanization. Also, the pronunciation is affected, transforming into [ɡo] in initial positions and varying between [ŋo] and [ɣo] in the middle of words.

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