Dakuten

Dakuten is a diacritic used in the Japanese writing systems Hiragana and Katakana to indicate that a consonant is voiced. The term dakuten (濁点) means “voicing marks.” The marks consist of two small strokes placed at the top-right corner of a kana character. A separate diacritic called handakuten (半濁点), a small circle, marks the corresponding “p” sounds.

Function and examples: When added to a kana, the unvoiced consonant becomes voiced. Examples: か (ka) → が (ga); さ (sa) → ざ (za); た (ta) → だ (da); は (ha) → ば (ba). Handakuten marks the p-sounds: は → ぱ, ひ → ぴ, ふ → ぷ, へ → ぺ, ほ → ぽ. Other syllables: し → じ, す → ず, ち → ぢ or じ, つ → づ, く → ぐ, て → で, と → ど. The vowels remain unchanged.

Usage and notes: Dakuten appear on both kana scripts and are essential for correct pronunciation and meaning. In modern orthography, some historical dakuon forms such as ぢ and づ are rare, with じ and ず used in most spellings. Dakuten also extend to foreign-word spellings in katakana, for example ヴ (vu), which can combine with vowels as ヴァ, ヴィ, ヴェ, ヴォ to represent various “v” sounds.