U+30E3 "ャ" Katakana Letter Small Ya Unicode Character
Unicode Version 17.0
ャ
U+30E3 "ャ" Katakana Letter Small Ya is a component of the Japanese katakana syllabary, used primarily to create compound sounds known as yōon, where it follows a full-sized katakana character ending in the "i" vowel sound to produce a palatalized pronunciation, such as in "キャ" (kya). Unlike its full-size counterpart "ヤ" (Ya), this smaller version indicates that the preceding consonant is softened and combined with the "ya" sound, rather than standing alone as an independent syllable. It is essential in transcribing foreign loanwords and native Japanese words that require these blended sounds, ensuring accurate representation of pronunciation in written form.
General Properties
| Code Point | U+30E3 |
| Version Added | 1.1 |
| Name | Katakana Letter Small Ya |
| Block | Katakana |
| General Category | Other Letter |
| Canonical Combining Class | Not Reordered |
| Bidirectional Class | Left To Right |
Encodings
| HTML Decimal Encoding | ャ |
| HTML Hex Encoding | ャ |
| UTF-8 Encoding | 0xE3 0x83 0xA3 |
| UTF-16 Encoding | 0x30E3 |
| UTF-32 Encoding | 0x000030E3 |
| C/C++/Java Escape | \u30e3 |