| Hiragana Image: | Japanese_Hiragana_kyokashotai_YA.svg |
| Katakana Image: | Japanese_Katakana_kyokashotai_YA.svg |
| Transliteration: | ya |
| Hiragana Manyogana: | 也 |
| Katakana Manyogana: | 也 |
| Other Manyogana: | 也 移 夜 楊 耶 野 八 矢 屋 |
| Unicode: | U+3084, U+30E4 |
| Flag1: | 8 |
| Flag2: | 4 |
| Spelling: | 大和のヤ Yamato no "ya" |
Ya (hiragana: や, katakana: ヤ) is one of the Japanese kana, each of which represents one mora. The hiragana is written in three strokes, while the katakana is written in two. Both represent pronounced as /[ja]/. Their shapes have origins in the character 也.
When small and preceded by an -i kana, this kana represents a palatalization of the preceding consonant sound with the pronounced as /[a]/ vowel (see yōon).[1]
や can be used by itself as a grammatical particle to connect words in a nonexhaustive list (see Japanese particles#ya).
| Form | Rōmaji | Hiragana | Katakana |
|---|---|---|---|
| Normal y- (や行 ya-gyō) | ya | や | ヤ |
| yaa yā | やあ, やぁ やー | ヤア, ヤァ ヤー |