Ro (kana)

ro
hiragana
japanese hiragana ro
katakana
japanese katakana ro
transliterationro
hiragana origin
katakana origin
Man'yōgana路 漏 呂 侶
spelling kanaローマのロ Rōma no "ro"
unicodeU+308D, U+30ED
braille⠚
Note: These Man'yōgana originally represented morae with one of two different vowel sounds, which merged in later pronunciation

, in hiragana, or in katakana, (romanised as ro) is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. The hiragana is written in one stroke, katakana in three. Both represent [ɾo] and both originate from the Chinese character 呂. The Ainu language uses a small ㇿ to represent a final r sound after an o sound (オㇿ or). The combination of an R-column kana letter with handakuten ゜ – ろ゚ in hiragana and ロ゚ in katakana – was introduced to represent [lo] in the early 20th century.[according to whom?]

Form Rōmaji Hiragana Katakana
Normal r-
(ら行 ra-gyō)
ro
rou
roo
ろう, ろぅ
ろお, ろぉ
ろー
ロウ, ロゥ
ロオ, ロォ
ロー