A (kana)

Infobox_kana
Hiragana

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Katakana

Transliteration = a
Hiragana Manyogana = 安
Katakana Manyogana = 阿
Unicode = U+3041, U+30A2
Footnotes =

あ in hiragana or ア in katakana (romanised "a") is one of the Japanese kana that each represent one mora. あ is based on the sōsho style of kanji 安, and ア is from the radical of kanji 阿. In the modern Japanese system of alphabetical order, it occupies the first position of the alphabet, before い. Additionally, it is the 36th letter in Iroha, after て, before さ. Its hiragana resembles the kana no combined with a cross. The Unicode for あ is U+3041, and the Unicode for ア is U+30A2.

The characters represent IPA IPA|/a/.

The Wabun code for あ or ア, is －－・－－.

In the Japanese phonetic alphabet, one would say "朝日のア" (Asahi no A.)