HIRAGANA · SMALL KANA
small tsu
っ · paired with ッ
Sound and use
Marks a following consonant held for one mora.
See ッ, the katakana counterpart →
Kana represent sounds and spelling functions. They do not have lexical meanings of their own.
How the shape formed
This is a reduced form of つ; it changes how the surrounding kana are read rather than naming a separate word.
History and change
Japanese writers used Chinese characters for their sounds. The source character 川 belonged to that wider practice; the kanji meaning was not inherited by っ.
Hiragana and katakana developed as Japanese syllabaries in the early Heian period (794–1185). This is the script-level period, not a first attested date for っ.
Marks a following consonant held for one mora.
What is documented?
The sources above support the script’s broad period and the conventional parent-character account for っ. A first surviving appearance of this exact modern shape has not been established for this entry.
For a look at earlier hiragana variants, use the NINJAL hentaigana index ↗.