Compound Kana

is followed by kya きゃ.

A compound kana represents a diphthong (syllable with two vowels), and in Japanese it's called youon 拗音, "distorted sound."

Normally, a compound kana starts with a normal-sized kana ending in i, such as ki, ni, chi, shi きにちし, followed by a small ya, yu or yo ゃゅょ. Such compound kana are found in native Japanese words.



Besides these, there are also compound kana made by with any small kana, like kyi きぃ. Or with the first syllable ending in u instead, like fa ファ (fu + a). There are others such as dhe デェ, too. There are even compound kana followed by not one, but two small kana: tyie ティェ. All of these are normally found in loan words, not in native Japanese words.

Mora

The most important thing about compound kana is that they take one mora to pronounce. A mora is an unit of time used in pronunciation, and generally speaking, each kana takes exactly one mora to pronounce. So a word has four kana / mora, it takes twice as long to pronounce as a word with two kana / mora. The compound kana break this rule.

With compound kana, you have a syllable that takes only one single mora to pronounce but is written with more than a single kana. This means, for example, that kyakya きゃきゃ takes as much time to pronounce as kiya きや, even though it's written longer. This is because kya きゃ is one mora, ki き is one mora, and ya や is one mora. So both take two mora, the same amount of time.

Compound kana is a term that refers to when a normal-sizedis followed by small kana in writing, creating a syllable of one single mora that's represented by multiple kana. For exampleきゃ.A compound kana represents a diphthong (syllable with two vowels), and in Japanese it's called拗音, "distorted sound."Normally, a compound kana starts with a normal-sized kana ending in, such asきにちし, followed by a smallorゃゅょ. Such compound kana are found in native Japanese words.Besides these, there are also compound kana made by with any small kana, likeきぃ. Or with the first syllable ending ininstead, likeファ (). There are others such asデェ, too. There are even compound kana followed by not one, but two small kana:ティェ. All of these are normally found in loan words, not in native Japanese words.The most important thing about compound kana is that they take one mora to pronounce. A mora is an unit of time used in pronunciation, and generally speaking, each kana takes exactly one mora to pronounce. So a word has four kana / mora, it takes twice as long to pronounce as a word with two kana / mora. The compound kana break this rule.With compound kana, you have a syllable that takes only one single mora to pronounce but is written with more than a single kana. This means, for example, thatきゃきゃ takes as much time to pronounce asきや, even though it's written longer. This is becauseきゃ is one mora,き is one mora, andや is one mora. So both take two mora, the same amount of time.