Chōonpu

Common card · No. 392741

The chōonpu (Japanese: 長音符; lit. "long sound symbol"), also known as chōonkigō (長音記号), onbiki (音引き), bōbiki (棒引き), or Katakana-Hiragana Prolonged Sound Mark by the Unicode Consortium, is a Japanese symbol that indicates a chōon, or a long vowel of two morae in length. Its form is a horizontal or vertical line in the center of the text with the width of one kanji or kana character. It is written horizontally in horizontal text and vertically in vertical text (ー). The chōonpu is usually used to indicate a long vowel sound in katakana writing and rarely in hiragana writing. The chōonpu is a distinct mark from the dash, and in most Japanese typefaces it can easily be distinguished. In horizontal writing it is similar in appearance to, but should not be confused with, the kanji character 一 ("one"). The symbol is sometimes used with hiragana, for example in the signs of ramen restaurants, which are often written らーめん in hiragana, while the most standard orthography would be in katakana: ラーメン...

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