ま

In Japanese writing, the syllabic (or, more properly, moraic) characters ま (hiragana) and マ (katakana) occupy 31.er place in modern gojūon (五十音) alphabetical ordering, between ほ and み; and the 30th in the iroha poem, between や and け. In the table on the right, which follows the gojūon order (by columns, and from right to left), it is found in the seventh column (to which it gives its name: ま行, "MA column") and the first row (あ段, "row A").

Both ま and マ come from the kanji 末.

Romanization

Under the Hepburn, Kunrei-shiki, and Nihon-shiki romanization systems, ま, マ are romanized as "ma".

Writing

Scripture of α.

Writing of dispute.

The character ま is written with three strokes:

1. Horizontal stroke.
2. Horizontal stroke under the first.
3. I try to start being vertical from top to bottom and end up turning left and forming a loop.

The character マ is written with two strokes:

1. Horizontal stroke that twists down to the left.
2. Short diagonal stroke down to the right.

Other representations

• Braille System:

  ●- -● ●●

• Phenotic alphabet: expounding away Ma of matchi"where matchi means matches
• Morse Code: -・