々
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Chinese
Alternative forms
- 〻 (in vertical writing)
Glyph origin
One theory holds that it is simplified from 仝, a variant of 同 (“same (used as iteration mark)”), written in cursive.[1]
Symbol
々
- (in horizontal writing, informal) An iteration mark denoting the repetition of the previous hanzi.
Usage notes
In Japanese, the symbol 々 is used in any kind of writing. In Chinese, it is sometimes used in casual horizontal writing (or calligraphy) to indicate a repeated character, but not in formal writing or in print. More often, 〻 is used (though still only casually), or sometimes the older 𖿣. Usually, however, the character is simply written twice, without the use of any of the above symbols.
Japanese
Alternative forms
- 〻 (in vertical writing, now rare)
Symbol
々
- (in horizontal writing) An iteration mark denoting the repetition of the previous kanji; the repeated character does not necessarily have the same pronunciation as the first due to rendaku.
- 黙々 (mokumoku, “silent, mute, tacit”)
- 早々 (hayabaya, “promptly”)
- 佐々木 (sasaki, “Sasaki (a Japanese surname)”)
- 昔々 (mukashimukashi, “once upon a time”)
- 時々 (tokidoki, “occasionally, sometimes”)
- 久々 (hisabisa, “long-absent”)
- 色々 (iroiro, “various”)
- 犬々 (inuinu, “dogs”)
- 日々 (hibi, “daily”)
- 島々 (shimajima, “islands”)
- 所々 (tokorodokoro, “here and there”)
- 人々 (hitobito, “people”)
Usage notes
In Japanese, this mark is formally called 漢字返し (kanji-gaeshi, “kanji repeater”) or 同の字点 (dō no jiten, “same-character mark”). More casually, it is called noma since it looks like a ligature of the katakana ノマ (noma), 繰り返し (kurikaeshi, “repeating”), 同じ (onaji, “same”, noun), or 同じく (onajiku, “same”, adverb).
々 is generally used within a word, and not between words. For example, 小学校校長 (shōgakkō kōchō, “president of elementary school”) will not change into *小学校々長 (shōgakkō kōchō). There are some exceptions:
- highly used words such ほげほげ町々会 (Hogehogechō chōkai, “Foobar Town town meeting”).
- Reduplication of the same kanji can imply that an unfortunate thing will happen again. For example, 結婚式式場 (kekkonshiki shikijō, “wedding ceremony ceremony site”) can imply that they could get a divorce and also remarry, so the second kanji will be replaced by "々" (i.e. 結婚式々場 (kekkonshiki shikijō)).