TenTen

Tenten is a term with several meanings in Japanese language and popular culture. In linguistic use, tenten refers informally to the diacritic marks added to kana to modify pronunciation. The most common are the dakuten, two small diagonal strokes placed at the top right of a kana to indicate voicing (for example, か becomes が, さ becomes ざ, た becomes だ). A separate diacritic, the handakuten, is a small circle used on the ha-gyō row to form pa, pi, pu, pe, po. While handakuten is not typically called tenten, both marks are part of the same system for altering kana sounds. In Unicode, these marks are represented as combining characters (U+3099 for combining dakuten and U+309A for the combining semi-voiced mark), and many kana with diacritics also exist as precomposed characters.

In popular culture, Tenten is the name of a fictional ninja in the Naruto manga and anime series. She is a member of Team Guy and is known for her weaponry and equipment skills. The character’s name is written テンテン in Japanese, and the romanized form “Tenten” is used in translations. Her role spans several story arcs, contributing to the ensemble dynamics of the team.

Other uses of the term include A potential given name or nickname in East Asia, reflecting Japanese or Chinese transliteration. Outside linguistic or media contexts, tenten does not denote a single universally recognized concept, but it may appear in product names, character names, or titles.